Be Very Very Quiet....

[jcg432]

Help!!!!

Can Someone Tell me what is the best way to capture a Domino Damsel?

[wwest]

You can try and use two nets. Use one net to scare it into the other net.

But (there is always a but) most of the time we end up taking out all of our aqua scape so there isnt anywhere to hide and then we capture it.

Little fish like damsels,wrasse's and other little fish are a pain to catch. ultimately leading to removal of everything in the tank. But i would try the 2 nets first.

[PSH]

Don't try the eel method. It didn't work well for me. :o Honestly your best bet is to just remove everything in the tank. You may get lucky and not have to.

[Amphibious]

I've found that working after dark works best. But, (there's always a but), Damsels are masters at disappearing into the rocks, even at night. So, here are some suggestions that will tip the scales in your favor.

1. The room must be pitch black. Use a flaslight, covering the lens with your free hand or other person working the light.

2. You will have better success if you scope out his "sleeping" area a couple of times before the actual attempt. Damsels often sleep at the water's surface and the edge of the aquarium.

3. The night you are going to "do it" remove the canopy and lights at the time of "lights out". This will allow the attempt to be done in total stealth.

4. Have your net already wet. A dry net being dipped into the water disturbs the surface tension enough to put the Damsel into the rocks.

5. If there are rocks close to the surface that can catch the net, remove them at the time you remove the canopy and lights. The last thing you need is to tumble your LR in your attempt to get the offending little bugger.

The above method has worked for me many times over the last oh too many years. :) Good luck! It isn't an easy task but well worth the effort.

[JustDavidP]

How much do you like the fish? ;)

I've found that they can be fooled if you use a net and one of those clear, plastic, specimen boxes...you know..the kind that the LFS hang on the tank when they are catching your fishy...

Otherwise, depending on the size of the fish, I've also used teeny tiny trout hooks and caught them :) Finally, I had one in my first ever tank (20 gallon) that was PACKED with LR..and I was NOT going to take it apart...and...for what it's worth...the bugger (fish) would bite me, my clowns, even had the testosterone to take on my orchid dottyback (tore it's fins to bits) soooo.... a wooden dowel, with a largish sewing needle inserted in the end...and I played "Survivor Cook Island" :D

D

[jcg432]

It actually took four nets and two people. I was not going to take my rocks apart because I had finally gotten it the way I wanted it two weeks ago and like all of you know I was never going to get it like that again if I moved them.

So I asked my girlfriend to join me in the hunt.

I sprinkled some food pellets let the little guy think he was safe and snatch.

I caught him!

Thanks!

[Amphibious]

Congrats!!!

[Rob]

great job...
as you can see many of us here have been through loads trying to get a fish out (i had to tear down my tank to get a devil damsel out)

awesome you got it so quickly

[CarmieJo]

I'm impressed!

[V]

sweet, no need for extra input from me, just got to hand it to dave ~ you evil dude, you've gone native on us survivor style & at which point we're dirty for not actually getting around to doing it ourselves..lol

[Astrivian]

Props jcg on the success!

I had to take down my entire tank, oh okay it was only 10 gallons :p , to catch a dang arabian dottyback. Then it burrowed into a pvc i was using to keep the rocks off the sand. Damn fish. I could have pulled the tube out, but i was worried about burring the fish in the sand. nooo...sorry David, i couldn't go in for the kill :)

After completely disturbing every living thing in the tank, and nearly stressing the fish to death, i finally had him. Traded him in for $20, so it was worth it for me!

[JustDavidP]

I've only done that to one other critter...a Lysmata cleaner that was he** bent on eating byssal threads on one of my clams.... One fell swoop and "Shrimp-kabobs"

D

[BrianPlankis]

Glad you caught the fish!

For anyone else that ends up reading this later, another thing you can try is leaving all your live rock in the tank and draining most of the water out of your tank until you only have 3-4" of water left. This severely restricts where the fish can go and once you get them in the open front of the tank, much easier to catch. Be sure your live rock structure is stable, the supporting weight of water is removed doing this method.

I know several people that have done this, including with large tanks, and it works great. Your corals get a little grumpy for a couple of hours, but are fine after that.

1. Bring lots of containers near the tank, enough to hold most of your tank water. Turn off everything and pump the water into the holding containers.

2. Use nets/sticks/etc. to move the fish into the open and use a plastic container or net to capture it. (Of course nets can easily damage fish, plastic containers are better).

3. Pump the water back into the tank.

This can all be done in a matter of 10-30 minutes depending on the size of your tank, corals can easily take this in stride assuming one very important thing. MAKE SURE YOUR LIGHTS ARE OFF. Corals with no water between them and strong light is not a good thing.

4. Trade the offending creature back to the LFS for credit.

Brian

[JustDavidP]

Excellent guidance Brian...

I'd only add (because I have done this as well) that you need to watch and ensure that none of your fish go into holes within the LR that may be left exposed when you draw down the water. This happened to me and I ALMOST lost a wrasse :(

Dave

[Cyclura]

what about commerical fish traps? just put whatever you catch into a specimen container or quarrantine tank until you catch the right one. Ive only used a trap on one animal and that was a camel shrimp. It took a little time and patience because i kepy catching my emerald crabs and hermits, but eventually i got him and returned him to a different store...one that can actually tell the difference between a camel shrimp and a peppermint shrimp.

[lcstorc]

I too have used a fish trap. In fact my lfs has one that they rent for like $5.00 per week for people to use just for this purpose. A little bait and a bit of patience and you have your fish. Of course you will catch everything else in the tank first, but eventually you will get the one you want to remove.