Am i going to have to take out all my rocks?

icebear · 02-25-2003, 09:06 AM

to catch my peach damsels and my 4line damsel?

tried the coke bottle fish trap. baited it with shrimp- didn't work. put a mirror in it, didn't work. put both shrimp and mirror in it, nope.... i can't imagine that the ones that you can buy will be much better....???
this is not gonna be fun....and i have a small tank

wasabi · 02-25-2003, 09:21 AM

i had one 2 inch damsel that illuded my every effort. removing all the rocks is what worked for me.

Doug1 · 02-25-2003, 09:32 AM

Sounds like you may have to, other options are starve them for days, then feed and swoop or try the tiny hook trick

slacroix · 02-25-2003, 09:45 AM

i had a &*#% of a time getting out some peppermint shrimp that were eating my mushrooms. here is how i finally got them. i got some plexiglass and took out enough rock to divide the tank in two. now you can leave at least part of your tank undistrubed. then if you can, close in on the fish until you have to remove minimal amounts of rock. the plexiglass wasnt a perfect fit but it was pretty close. it took two people to get 'em.

we put the live rock on a towel and left it there only about 10 mintues. apparently that was too long because the coraline algae turned white from the exposure. it has since come back but it took a while. i dont know if it hurt the coraline, but it definitely concerned me for a while.

icebear · 02-25-2003, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Doug1
Sounds like you may have to, other options are starve them for days, then feed and swoop

i tried the feed and swoop and ended up knocking my poor, nosy maroon clown almost sensless when i swooped the net right into him. Poor thing, i still feel guilty! He's ok but not nearly as trusting as he once was.

Jimbo · 02-25-2003, 01:33 PM

You might want to keep your net in the tank and when you feed hover over the top so that they see you. Feeding by hand should work, but it might take a couple weeks before they are trusting. Or you could also put the food in the net. They will eventually go for it.

dfitzz · 02-26-2003, 07:37 AM

It took me many tries to catch my devil fish-as soon as the net came anywhere near she would head for the hills. I even left the net in the tank for weeks and periodically put food in it-no luck.

What finally worked was a small hook, # 12 was the smallest I could find-with the barb cut off. The key was to use a very small piece of bait so it just fit on the hook. She kept nibbling off the larger pieces and I was left with a bare hook

HTH