Catching an eel?

[peachie98]

Any suggestions on how to catch my snowflake eel? He "accidently" got into my 40 gallon reef tank a couple months ago and I want him out! (long story short...his tank crashed and I put him in the overflow for just a moment to get a container for him...and he jumped in the tank!).
He's gotten big (probably close to 20-24") and I've noticed a few smaller fish are now just gone.
I've been trying with a water bottle for the past week (silversides at far end that he has to go in to get)...but he won't fit all the way in and when I try to stick my hand in the tank (or a net) when he's in the bottle as far as he fits, he flys backwards out of the bottle.
I have a TON of rock and corals all over the tank so breaking it all down to catch him isn't possible.
HELP!

 

[rotarymagic]

I know it's slightly complicated, but you need to do something similar to the bottle with a piece of acrylic on a spring that when he pushes it, it opens and he can get in to get the silverside, but springs shut behind him then he's caught. just when getting him out becareful using a long stick of some sort to open the trap door.

 

[peachie98]

Hmmm...I was thinking of some sort of trap door like that (or something I could trigger when watching him so my hand or the net doesn't spook him.
I was also thinking of using a large piece of PVC pipe with one end having clear plastic/acrylic over it so he can see through. That way I can make it longer than a bottle so his whole body can fit.
This is so complicated! hahaha

 

[peachie98]

Well, I finally caught him today!!!
I cut the very end (threaded part) off of the water bottle, and superglued about 12" of 1inch pvc piping onto it. For the past 2 days I've been putting his silversides in there at the far end of the water bottle. Today within 5 minutes of putting the silverside in there he went in, and I just reached into the tank and covered the pvc end.
Time for him to find a new home where there aren't any small fish!

He is gorgeous though...and really large width-wise (guess he's been eating good!). Oh well...gonna miss him.