Removing a Yellow tail cleaner wrasse

[Anonymous]

I was gone for a week and had my LFS do service on my reef, well he decided to give me a cleaner wrasse. Well its a yellow tail and its known for eating SPS poylops. AND IT IS!!!

Anyone have a way to get him out? I really cant move any rock and I dont mind killing him, my SPS are way more valuable.


Thanks for the help

 

[rbursek]

Put it back onto the LFS, they put it in!!!!!!!
Bob

 

[Anonymous]

Put something in there that's easily removed that he'll become acclimated to and consider a hide spot. I used to use an 11" giant clam shell for this. The fish would swim in there and hide, and I'd simply reach in, close the shell and remove it.
You can do the same thing with a bottle, plastic container, etc. Sometimes the fish will use the spot to sleep at night, and doing this with a few "traps" will move things along faster.
It may take some days for the fish to get used to the introduced objects.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jim

I have some 6" clear PVC that I can make a trap. May be some screen on the bottom?

I was thinking of getting a regular blue cleaner wrasse. Maybe they will fight and weaken him so I can remove him...

I got a guy from the LFS to come over tomorrow or Sunday. I put two nets in the tank so the fish will get used to them. This guy is good at removing fish. I just am scared of him hitting coral. But I guess its better than them getting eaten.

 

[Anonymous]

No screen necessary, although it might help if you have to be quick and move the trap through the water before he escapes. Frankly I've had ZERO luck trying to be faster than the fish though.

I've done the net thing too. Just leave the nets in there, put food in the nets, and eventually they just swim into them on their own.

Another trick, feed and when the fish is at the surface, turn the lights out and strike at the last known position of the fish. It works better for some species than others, but I caught 3 damsels in one scoop like this once. The trick is you need lights that go off instantly...I had a PC light on the particular tank where I used this trick. It won't work with halides.

Another time I simply dropped a small grouper into the tank, and he ate the problem fish immediately. I then fished the grouper out with a line and barb-less hook.

The whole process took 5 minutes. I don't necessarily recommend this, as it's not very considerate towards the fish involved (either one) but sometimes I've done it.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok I think I know what Im going to do. The right side of my 125 is the least populated by coral. A duncan, monti . So I was going to take the corals and move them, remove the larger piece and put in a bucket of SW. Then persuade the wrase to the right side, place a 1/8 plexiglas in and then get the wrase.

Sound good?

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a plan...good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

I use a empty 2 liter bottle. I cut it in half, and put the top inside the bottle, upside down. Then I put a piece of smelly shrimp inside it and put it in the tank at night. During the night, fish swim into it to get the shrimp, but they can't figure out how to get out the tiny hole. In the morning, the fish that are able to fit in the hole will be in it, waiting to come out and swim freely in the sump world...or go back to the LFS.

 

[Anonymous]

Seahorse good idea!

Do you think krill would work?

 

[Anonymous]

Sure. It just has to have a smell, so krill will work fine. It has worked every time for me....as long as the fish is small enough to fit through the opening. You can cut a bigger hole for bigger fish, but then they usually figure out how to get out.

 

[Anonymous]

I got him!!!!

I used the plexiglass to section off about 12" from the side of my tank, left about 3"on the bottom to let him in, then fully lowered the plexiglass and got him using 2 nets.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[Len]

Congrats!