Is This True (Re: Catching Fish While They Are Asleep)

euphoria

Active Member
I'm having problems catching my niger trigger (it already killed my tang). LFS told me today that I may have luck catching it at night when it's hooked itself on a rock and sleeping. He said just pull the rock out, the fish won't know.
Is this true
 

fishnerd

Member
This method works quite well with triggers. When they go to sleep, they wedge themselves into something "trigger up". If you can remove the whole object they are wedged into, they are yours.
What are you going to do with the Niger once you catch him?
 

euphoria

Active Member
once I have him out i"m gonna kill that

[hr]
:) It chases all my fish and it killed my tang....I'll just return it to LFS for some credit.
 

guineawhop

Member
haha, i have to catch fish all the time, if you have tons of live rock then this will be harder,unless you get a garbage can or big bucket and start loading the live rock into the buckets. i would take out all the major ornaments and get 2 nets. one net in one hand and the other net in the other and they usually tend to either swim real fast in the opposite net they see. the sleeping thing above might work though, i've never tried that though.
 

fishnerd

Member
The sleeping method only works on triggers. They will "lock" themselves in place once they go to sleep.
 

dmitry

Member
Why couldn't you quickly net a sleeping fish?? (Assuming it's sleeping suspended in the water...like my Clowns!)
 

fishnerd

Member
Theoretically, you could catch any sleeping fish.
Triggers are "a deer in the headlights" when it comes to sleeping. They feel that their trigger-up position makes them totally safe, thus they don't resist if you pull their rock out.
 

euphoria

Active Member
Hell yeahhhhhhhhh. I finally caught the trigger and it's out of the tank for good. I'll never in my life take the chance or listen to the stupid LFS and attempt to put a trigger in a reef tank w/ calmer fish.
Anyways, I came home early morning from a night shift at work. It was in the middle of a small hole in a rock w/ it's hook. I slowly removed the rock out of the tank and tried to get the trigger out but it wouldn't come out. I spent the next half hour trying to get the

[hr]
out and it was so frustrating. It just wouldn't let it's hook loose and come out, I tried to shake the rock and it still wouldn't come out. I was forced to break the rock into two pieces by a hammer to get him out. At that point the fish was very stressed and right now it's in a bucket w/ water and i'm waiting for the LFS to open so I can take it back.
Anyways, even if it dies I don't care. It killed 2 shrimps and a yellow tang I had.
Thanks for the tip of cathching it while it's asleep. It really worked :)
Myself - 1
Trigger - 0
 

fishnerd

Member
For future reference...
If you would have put the trigger and rock in the bucket, he would have unlodged himself.
 

benj2112

Member
Well, I feel sorry for that trigger. It was just being itself. Always research, research, research before you buy a fish or anything else in this hobby.
 

ophiura

Active Member
Originally Posted by fishnerd
For future reference...
If you would have put the trigger and rock in the bucket, he would have unlodged himself.
Yup, just put it in there and let it be...and it would have come out on its own. I can believe it was totally stressed out, as were you for trying so hard. As for the shrimp, well, triggers are natural predators of them and they should not have been placed together. That was not the triggers fault in the slightest.
Having said this, I know of someone who had a HUGE hunk oout of their knuckle trying to take a trigger out during the night. Just totally startled it and that thing just latched on.
 

ophiura

Active Member
Yikes. The one I knew of was a crosshatch. And I was real wary of a particular Queen and an undulated. I think they were just waiting for the right moment....
 

rubberduck

Active Member
Originally Posted by fishnerd
I got 2 stitches, compliments of a Titan Trigger (B. viridicens)
was it yours?
 

euphoria

Active Member
I did put the rock w/ trigger in a bucket w/ water and sat waiting for it to come out. It just wouldn't come out. I waited 15 minutes and nothing. I had a lot of LR out of the tank trying to get this peace out, and this was a big piece of LR that had to go under those LR's, so I needed the rock to put things back again and arrange my corals on the rocks again.
I waited and waited and just got very impatient and had to go to breaking the LR in half and releasing the fish. Now my big piece of rock is 2 small ones and I had to rearrange my rocks too :mad:
Anyways, I'll never buy those guys again.
I took it to the LFS and he took it back. Now my other fish can be happy :)
 

fishnerd

Member
The Titan was in a 750 aggressive tank I maintain.
A month later it went on a rampage and killed everyone. This fish "Moses" was by far, the most aggressive fish I have met.
 
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