Getting fish out of tank

[peppy]

Anybody have any ideas? I have 1 yellow damsel, 3 yellow tail damsel, 1 two stripe damsel and 1 four stripe damsel that I used to help cycle my tank. I know, I know I did not need to use the damsels my LFS put them in there, but that was before I started to do all the research. How can I get them out? The only one I can see keeping is the little 4-stripe the others are really aggessive chasing each other all over the place. I want to put some nice quality fish in and really need to get the damsels out.

 

[kainrahl]

Well My recommendation would be to have a big net and a lot of time on your hands. It took me a while just to get my two out to put sand in the tank. Also remove any obstructions.

 

[peppy]

That is the hard part. I have my LR all set up just how I want it. I was told about a fish trap?

 

[saltym3]

damsels are nasty. as bad as it sounds you most likely will have to move or take out some of your rock to get to the damsels. they will lead you on a chase for a long time.

 

[sunken ship]

people will hate me for saying this, but if it comes down to it and you can't get them out for the life of you, you could always just crank the temperature way up, or drop it way down and wait for them to float to the top.

 

[entice59]

take out everything and put it in a bucket. (rocks or anything they can hide in)
get a big net. if your tank is really large, get two if you want. Then with two people. trap them. if not try to corner them or slowly creep up on them or use your hand to chase them into the net.
HAVE FUN

 

[wolffam]

Photograph the tank, then remove the rocks, remove fish, study picture, put rock back in tank. Tank want look the same, but at least the fish will be out. Good luck.

 

[phoenixrising]

Yeppers...looks like alot of rock moving ahead of you! That is the surest quickest way to remove the fish. Make sure before you go through all that effort that someone is available to give the fish a new home. Your LFS will probably take them...call ahead of time to check.

 

[clarkiiboi]

It's a major pain (and that was in a 75). To honestly save you the hassle, remove the rocks....that stinks, I know. Most of the time the rock formation after is better than it was before hand. I tried for a few days with the rocks in and let me tell ya, it's basically impossible (hiding spots or the net gets stuck on a piece of rock, for example). Rearranging is a joke, these buggers are smart! With the rocks out it took me about five minutes (I had a bucket waiting with tank water and then moved to my QT).
I thought of, and you may want to try, to move the rocks to one side and then (with a friend or 2) chase the damsels to the now non-rock side, put a divider in to stop them (like the versi top) and then they may be trapped in that space you chased them into. Therefore giving you a upper hand. Never tried it, but sounds good on paper LOL. HTH

 

[elan]

i have seen fish traps in my LFS.. hasnt anyone ever used those??

 

[blondenaso1]

Actually!! I just got my dreaded yellow damsel out of the tank with "The Trap" fish trap with the sliding door thingy. My roommate thought that stupid contraption would never work, but I showed him. I left it in there for about a week so he could get use to it and I kept putting food in it so he would get use to taking food out of it. Then one day I put some flake inside and opened the door and waited. Sure enough that greedy #$@* went in there to get food and snap, I closed the door on him. He was pissed! Now he is in exile in the small 10g in my room. It takes a lot of patience, but in the end it worked!

 

[elan]

oooo... i like the coke bottle trap!!!!!

 

[peppy]

Thanks everyone! I tried the fish trap LFS let me borrow and if I wanted to get out my skunk shrimp that would have worked great!! Damsels.... not. I think I will try the Coke bottle thing, that sounds a lot like the minnow trap we used when we were little kids and I think that is going to be a winner! Will let you know.