To catch a fish.........

[jbpig]

Well it looks like my M. Beta is haveing some nightime fun. My Kole is missing, royal gama..gone, yellow tail dam MIA and now I have noticed that someone has been nipping on one of my cardinals rear fins! :evil: I hardly ever see it besides its tail sticking out of the structure. Tearing down the tank is not an option cause of over 300 lbs of rock. Is there any other easier ways?

TIA
JB

 

[DougBak]

Tear gas?


You could try setting a trap for it at night when it's feeding with a glass jar and some food... wait for it to go in to get the food, then drop a net in front of the opening. Might take a few trys, but I bet you can do it.

 

[Unarce]

I once had a problem Harlequin Tuskfish that was too smart for any trap. Eventually, I bought a tiny fishing hook from the sporting goods store. I didn't feed him for two days and he's was ready to snap at anything. The trick was to pull as soon as he bit, so it doesn't go too deep. Pulled him out, removed the hook and voila, received a nice $75 credit at the LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow.. your marine betta is doing this?? 8O

 

[jbpig]

The odd thing is since I have had this monster, I have yet to see him eat! I feed silversides and shrimp , but he just wont come out of his little holes to grab them. Maybe he will get too close to my carpet! I woudl rather loose him than the others right now.

 

[Anonymous]

I like the fish hook idea. Get a barbless hook of the right size and fish him out.

You could also make it very dark, but light enough so you can see him. Get ready with the net, maybe leave it in the water with the handle out so you don't disturb him when you dip it in. Then find him swimming around and stun him with a very bright flash light. It should give you a few seconds to net him. This doesn't always work BTW and if you fail to get him the first time you'll have to wait until het gets un-spooked.

 

[originalreefdood]

I had fun catching a two spot wrasse once he got ugly and mean as hell. :lol:

I had a breeder trap set up with the top rubberbanded in place, a half of a toothpick proping up one side of the ruberbanded top, and some fishing string tied to the toothpick. I would put food in there and wait, and wait, and wait, and wiat... Finally I got him and the trap worked like a charm. It's just getting the fish in there that was a pia.

 

[Anonymous]

Before my marine tank, I had an A. Cichlid tank. They are really hard to catch, without disturbing everything. I put the lights out... made them all go nighty night... then just netted them when they were sleeping. Worked like a charm.
~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Ooohh.. you're the devious one, ain't ya?

 

[Anonymous]

Well... if I ever told my wife that I was going "fishing" in the tank... :twisted: , she'd bring out the frying pan! :lol: I like the hook idea, but I guess it would have to be a pretty small hook too.. dunno. I know the light trick works great though... couldn't catch a red zebra cichlid for a long time, always saw the "big green net"....swim away!! When he slept.. he would just "waft" under a little cave like opening... it was too easy. LOL
~wings~

 

[Unarce]

You'd be amazed how small those fishing hooks can get. I used one that was small enough to catch a 1.5" clarkii. He was such a pig that he bit it without any bait.

 

[Anonymous]

That's pretty cool! I guess you have to be selective though too... if you have more than one fish in the tank. I'll have to keep that one in mind if I ever run into a problem.
~wings~

 

[Juck]

Texascorals.com sells an excellent fish trap but if you don't know what it wants to eat,, how could you bait it?

I had a shoal of 5 chromis I had to remove,,,, the first four went into the trap within 2 hours,,, caught them all at once ,, but one was really skittish and even when I didn;t feed for 3 days he still wouldn't go near the food in the trap.

I ended up waiting until about 2am in the morning and I snuck up to the tank,,, found the chromis sleeping in his usual place,,, then put my (very) powerful camera flashgun right up to the glass where he was sleeping and let it rip. That stunned him pretty well,,,,just have a net ready,, and close your eyes when the flash goes off.

 

[jbpig]

then put my (very) powerful camera flashgun right up to the glass where he was sleeping and let it rip. That stunned him pretty well,,,,just have a net ready,, and close your eyes when the flash goes off.

8O WOW LOL

 

[fishfanatic2]

Put one of your fish in the trap... he'll go right for it.

i thought they were supposed to be peaceful... or maybe he got hugry since you didn't feed him what he wanted to eat. :twisted:

 

[Juck]

>>Put one of your fish in the trap... he'll go right for it.

Huh? How can you keep a live fish in an open trap? Superglue?


What are your tank specs & inhabitants JB? I don't think I've ever head of a M.Betta taking out a tang before,,was it a really small tang?

Could anything else be responsible? I recently had an Emerald crab 'go bad' ,, killed a couple of fish before I nailed the swine. (Now enjoying the holiday-of-a-lifetime in my Septic Tank).

 

[jbpig]

Well to my delight I found the tang this afternoon, it is odd cause it has never been so shy as to hide for 2 days, however I am still missing a yel tail dam, I found the half eaten body of my royal gama, and my flame angle was belly up yesterday am, however he didnt show any signs of anything........ My cards have had thier fins chomped on.......I dont have anything else in my tank that should do this....jyst snails, & hermits. Tank has been running for 2 years now with no new additions except for fish, IMO it has to be the M beta....

 

[Anonymous]

My money is on something else. I know the timing is right for it to be the betta, but this is so unlike the typical behavior for this species.. it's really got me boggled.

My beau recently lost his marine betta, Spot. He loved that fish! He had to take special pains to be sure this fish (his second one, IIRC) got food, because everything else in the tank is so much more aggressive than it.

With the loss of the C. loriculus, I am now wondering if you have a crash immenent - some disease could have been introduced inadvertently. I know lots of folks get tired of me saying this, but.. did you quarantine the betta?

 

[jbpig]

ok flame me for not QT ing the fish, but I got it from a rep LFS whom had had it 3+ weeks allready. I have been recently changingf out about 10-15 GPD on this tank (150G + 40G sump, cause my DI cart was bad and the TDS prior to changing them was 045 and causing an algee prob. I have checked and double checked and water parm fine. Maybe the Flame angel got too close to the carpet and was stung cause it was found close to it. Maybe ....