Goin' Fishin' -- Catching Your Marine Fish

[leebca]

One of the biggest challenges in this hobby is trying to get a fish out of your display aquarium.

You might need to get the fish out for any number of reasons, including but not limited to: the fish is sick/ill/injured and needs to be transfered to a hospital tank, the fish is 'wrong' for the aquarium, the fish is not getting along (either the bully or the milquetoast), the fish has gotten too big, etc.

I want everyone reading this post to realize a very important fact: Unless your fish was tank bred, it was caught in an ocean by a person. If a person caught this fish in the ocean, near its hiding places, there is no reason YOU can't catch this fish in a little 'box' (your aquarium). I'm assuming here that you are smarter than a marine fish. If you think you aren't, I invite you to find another hobby.

So: What to do and how to do it? I'd like you to post your experiences and any tricks you've used to get fish out.

Some that I have used or know of include the following:
1. Reduce water volume to give the fish less chance to get away;
2. Remove decorations and/or rocks (place in buckets);
3. Move rocks and decorations to one side of the aquarium and get the fish to go to the 'open' side for easy netting;
4. Go fishing at night! Sneak up on the sleeping fish;
5. Use 'stealth' nets (black that can't be seen) at night;
6. Fish traps (food as bait);
7. Catch 'em when it comes to the top to get its food! (NOTE: does not instill trust in you over the long run; );
8. Larger fish can be hooked -- Cut off the barb of a regular fish hook, attach food and drop the line in to catch the fish;
9. I've seen other fish caught in a cut open jug into which a mirror was placed. Thinking it was another fish of the same species, the fish to be caught wouldn't stop trying to attack the mirror, even as it was being lifted out of the aquarium;
10. Use the 'two-net method' as many professionals do; and
11. Use almost invisible plastic bags to 'bag the fish' underwater. Fish can't see a clear plastic bag!

The REAL problem is that you're nervous and/or inexperienced. That's to be expected. You didn't net the fish at the LFS or from wherever it was acquired. You don't do this sort of thing for a living, so it's relatively new to you. Be brave and determined! The most difficult fish you think you have to move out of your tank, I've seen LFS employees catch in my heavily rocked tanks, a fish in less than 20 seconds!

Some use the above or a combination of the above. How have you gotten fish out of your aquarium? Please add the things that have been successful for you (and that you've done).

[Marinefish]

Many fish (especially wrasses and blennies) bury themselves in the sand when scared. Scare the bejeebers out of it, then scoop up the patch of sand he's in. I catch the fish in my freshwater tank with my bare hands (except my platy-he bites!) I also hand-catch about half the fish in my reef tank by hand. The other half have teeth.

[leebca]

You REALLY don't want to touch marine fishes. Besides a few of them having a poisonous barb/sting they can carry diseases that can affect humans. Also some human diseases can infect them. Next handling a fish can put foreign bacteria on them. And lastly handling marine fishes can remove, disturb, and/ or halt the protection that their mucous coating provides. A little like scraping off the top 3-4 human skin layers.

[Marinefish]

You REALLY don't want to touch marine fishes. Besides a few of them having a poisonous barb/sting they can carry diseases that can affect humans. Also some human diseases can infect them. Next handling a fish can put foreign bacteria on them. And lastly handling marine fishes can remove, disturb, and/ or halt the protection that their mucous coating provides. A little like scraping off the top 3-4 human skin layers.

Wouldn't a net scrape the fish up even more? I don't catch my marine fish unless I have to, but I have been catching my freshies that way for 6 years and have had 1 with dropsey, and one with a parasite total. You are right about the spines, but none of mine have them. Just my opinion. The sand thing works great though.

[Marinefish]

You REALLY don't want to touch marine fishes. Besides a few of them having a poisonous barb/sting they can carry diseases that can affect humans. Also some human diseases can infect them. Next handling a fish can put foreign bacteria on them. And lastly handling marine fishes can remove, disturb, and/ or halt the protection that their mucous coating provides. A little like scraping off the top 3-4 human skin layers.

Wouldn't a net scrape the fish up even more? I don't catch my marine fish unless I have to, but I have been catching my freshies that way for 6 years and have had 1 with dropsey, and one with a parasite total. You are right about the spines, but none of mine have them. Just my opinion. The sand thing works great though. BTW, I meant hands in place of a net.

[leebca]

Not all nets are created equal. If the right net is used by an experienced hobbyist liitle damage is done. However in this case (fish in substrate) there is no damage in catching the in a plastic bag.