Help catching a tricky Wrasse

1

1boatnut

New member
Have a Hoven's Wrasse that I'm trying to catch in a reef tank.
Monday he saw me come up to the tank with a net and dove in the sand, He didn't come out until Wednesday AM.
I tried to make a fish trap but so far only caught a crab

Any helpful ideas ??
 
I need to a remove a larger blue headed wrasse my reef tank. Need to find a way to remove him without breaking coral in the process. I have too much LR to drain the tank and grab him. Any other thoughts?
 
I've had success with acclimation boxes that have "sliding doors".

This one is more expensive than some of the others I've seen, but it does have some additional features to help you get your fish.
https://www.marinedepot.com/Aqua_Medic_Fish_Trap_Fish_Containers_Traps_for_Saltwater_Aquariums-Aqua_Medic_USA-AQ20460-FIMISC-vi.html

Thing I like about this approach over the DIY bottles is 1) you choose when to close the door, so you don't have to remove the wrong fish and reset over and over, and 2) the bait can't be "stolen" or float away. Been there done that...

I'm sure you could DIY a box like this as well. The key is the door being heavy enough that you can use a piece of fishing line to hold it open, and when you let go it drops closed fast enough.

Good luck!
 
Ask ur LFS if they have a fish trap to loan out. You can feed directly into them. It takes a few days for them to get comfortable with going in and out but they eventually do. Then it's super easy to get them out. Some of my fish seem to remember the trap and will go directly into it after putting it in.
 
Catching fish without ripping apart a tank is difficult. Best bet is a fish trap. We have one instore that we rent out.

Shoot us a message (Facebook is best) as we can help you out.
 
Thank you everyone for the input! After reading posts and watching a couple YouTube vids, I decided to make an attempt at a DIY solution first before trying a trap. Lucky for me, my DIY solution worked in less than an hour. It didn't hurt that the wrasse, nicknamed "The Pig," had an insatiable appetite.

I used an flower vase, a ziplock bag with a corner cut, a rubber band and a string.
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I attached the bag over the vase with the hole (cut corner) on the inside of the vase.
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I had to temporarily move my frogspawn place the trap. I carefully hung the trap and then set it with krill shrimp bits inside the bowl and with a trail of mysis shrimp leading into trap.
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The wrasse really wanted to eat the shrimp. It took about an hour for him to work himself up to go to the same level as the entrance to the trap. Soon after, he was inside and I tilted the trap up with him caught. No corals damaged!
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DIY Fish Trap #2

I designed a slightly different trap to catch a Kole Tang. This time, I needed a different trap because I needed to go lower in the tank full of coral and LR.

I punched two holes in a plastic Feta cheese container and corresponding side of the lid. Then, I used zip ties through the holes to create hinges. (Green arrows point to them.)

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I punched a hole in the lid and the container on the other side. I ran fishing string (drawn red line) through those two holes and out of the tank. This way, I could pull up on the string and close the lid with the fish inside.

I punched a couple more holes in the lid to try to reduce water resistance when closing the lid. I kept slight tension on the fishing string and kept it in place with tape to the rim of the tank when I wasn't fishing. If I didn't, the fishing string would float free and get caught up in the SPS.

After placing the trap, I used an old oyster shell to camouflage the top. Because the lid would sometimes float upwards, I used a frag plug to weigh it down.

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By placing food only in the container for a day, the fish learned to associated food with the container. With patience, I caught the Kole Tang on the next morning.

I'm saving this trap for future use as many of the other fish were "caught and released" while I was going after the tang.

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