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Catching Fish In A Reef

HerbieK

NJRC Honorary Member
NJRC Member
Anyone have any tricks or tips (besides spear fishing, which I am considering!) for catching a fairly large Powder Blue tang in a 180? This guy's coral munching days are coming to a close. I don't want to tear down my rockwork if I can help it. Much of my colonies/frags are attached to the rocks and moving stuff around would cause lots of other problems.

Any help would be appreciated.

Herb
 

reefsandrotts

NJRC Member
I used a 3 litre soda bottle,cut an opening on one side and pushed the flap inside the bottle put some freeze dried krill in the bottle and 2 hours later had the 2 big hippos out of my 150 reef.
HTH
 
you could hook him with a fishing pole and a small hook. I've never done it but I heard it works.

Yesterday I reaquascaped and I took out my Desarjini Tang. I netted him after all the rock was out.
 

danthemanj

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
I can lend you my Fish Trap if you like. I built it out of 1/4 inch acrylic. Its a rectangular box that is about 14 inches long, 6 inches wide and high and hangs on the rim of the tank. You would have to leave it in your tank for about 2-3 days so that the fish are familiar with it. Then don't feed the tank for a day and when you do feed the tank, place the food in the fish trap. It has doors on it with fishing line attached to it. Once the fish you want enters the trap to eat, simply pull the doors shut. Then use a net or fish container to take the fish out of it.

I'm in Piscataway, NJ. PM me if you are interested.

Dan
 
Getting my two hippos out was one the hardest experiences I have had to do. They can hide anywhere! It took 2 people about 3 hours to get both of them out with a coat hanger (get them to move from between the rocks) and about 5 collection cups.
 
I've had success with the soda bottle trick noted above. You would need one on a larger scale, but here's the small one I built as an example. Throw some food inside and let him catch himself...
 
I was at Herbie's house today and saw the fish in question, in person.

It's a monster!! Powerder Blue that's about 6 to 7 inches. Hopefully Dan's trap can work for it.
 

danthemanj

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
I used my fish trap to catch my Sohal Tang which was about 7 inches in size and very aggressive. It took a few days of patiently waiting for it to trust the trap. Even when I closed the doors of the trap, it was pushing against it with its mouth trying to pry it open.
 

HerbieK

NJRC Honorary Member
NJRC Member
Dan you are the man!!!! Dan's fish trap strikes again. I finally caught that Powder Blue that was munching down my SPS tips.

There was much rejoicing among my SPS. The fiend has been banished to the sump, and will be traded in.

Herb
 

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
debfife said:
MikeNapoli said:
you could hook him with a fishing pole and a small hook. I've never done it but I heard it works.
Brian just tried that this weekend with no luck.

It finally did work! A very small hook and a piece of caulpera did the trick! ;D

I may need to borrow this fish trap to catch a wrasse though..he's a bit tougher to catch.
 
Brian said:
debfife said:
MikeNapoli said:
you could hook him with a fishing pole and a small hook. I've never done it but I heard it works.
Brian just tried that this weekend with no luck.

It finally did work! A very small hook and a piece of caulpera did the trick! ;D

I may need to borrow this fish trap to catch a wrasse though..he's a bit tougher to catch.

Congratulations to you too, Brian! I saw the Sohal at Will's last week. Glad it worked out.
 
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