Getting dansel out of reef

[kjboer7]

Ow in the heck do I get my damsels out of my reef without moving my rocks?

 

[kjboer7]

Because the bottle trap isn't working they have no interest

 

[BallinCrew10]

I tried the bottle trap, I thought it was useless. A trap I improvised that worked well once I ironed out the kinks is as follows...

Take a piece of PVC tubing, cover one end in Saran wrap and hold it in place with an elastic band. Put a little trail of food inside with most at the closed off end. When the damsel goes in for the food simply stand the tube so the open end is facing up (don't panic, fish don't know they can swim up to freedom, they think they're stuck)..VERY IMPORTANT..hold the closed end when you lift it out or else the water pressure will blow it open and you start all over again. Worked for me, it's cheap and easy and you don't have to chase the fish around the tank or break down your rocks. Good luck.

 

[Mrc8858]

I had to get a yellow tail and 5 chromis out of my tank and was having the same issue took me 3 weeks to get them all but things became much easier when I upgraded to a 14" net haha

 

[kjboer7]

Well the yellow tang would be very easy to catch hes just chilling by the opening waiting for the food to drift out lol and the damsels are just swimming around it errrrrrr

 

[Animal-Chin]

I had to remove all rock/coral to get mine out, they are way too fast and as soon as they figure out you're afterthem they hide. I got a huge net and cleaned my tank out, it sucked...

 

[Gti_Leo]

catch it at night, abotu an hour after lights out flip the lights back on and snatch that sucker when hes dazed

 

[melosu58]

Get Out of My Tank! Fish Removal Tips & Tricks by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Maybe this will help.

 

[don_chuwish]

We just removed a few rocks from one end, ones that would be easy to put back after. Then prepped a divider, just cross-stitch mesh my wife had, cut to span the tank. Chased the little bugger to that end of the tank and dropped the divider in behind. Trapped in a small empty area he was easy to net.

- D

 

[kay-bee19]

I had to remove all rock/coral to get mine out...

I had to do this the first time when I didn't have much coral in the tank, plus remove nearly all of the water from the tank. The damsel had sought refuge deep in one of the crevices of the last remaining pieces of live rock in the tank (it literally 'disappeared' the moment it saw me approaching the tank with net in hand).

 

[joy13]

I usually get my fish to eat from my hand so when I need to get them out I can condition them into having something like a plastic container in the tank then I bring my hand with the food right over the container and catch them. The only fish I never caught to transfer from one tank to another is a lemonpeel the last time I moved him.

 

[Reeffanman]

Good luck I did one in a 75 with a 3"net I was down to the sandbed and 4 inches of water. Not a good afternoon.