American flagfish. Jordanella floridae

[Alspond]

Anyone know an easy way to trap or catch flagfish?

I have a breeding population of flagfish in my lily pond (2-300 )
I want catch them to stock other ponds.

I use a minnow trap with inconsistent results. One day I managed to catch 6 in 4 pulls of the trap.
I had baited the trap with goldfish pellets and shrimp pellets. Mostly I catch none.
Typically I'll catch a couple hundred sail fin mollies and no flagfish.

The flag fish have eliminated string algae and provided lots of entertainment as the males defend their territories.

Thanks
Al

 

[Alspond]

Does anyone keep American Flagfish in their ponds?

Jordanella floridae

They have eliminated string algae and are entertaining to watch.
Every lily pot has a resident male guarding a nest all summer.

I was wondering if anyone had a successful method of trapping them maybe a bait suggestion.

Thanks

 

[jetajockey]

Everyone I've spoken to about catching them basically use a dipnet through vegetation. You might want to look around on nanfa.org to see if anyone uses any other methods, I've yet to catch any since they are out of range here, but plan to go east to find some eventually.

 

[Alspond]

I have a drop net and there is one spot I can put it in the pond without disturbing the water lilies too much.
I will give it a try. I will be able to see when flagfish are over the net. Whether I can pul it fast enough??
When I was looking of flagfish I found a 3 in an aquarium store and then caught 4 in a local lake using a dip net Ito the vegetation.
These now number several hundred.

These little guys seem to be smarter than the average fish.
Thanks,
Al