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View Full Version : Advice for rescuing a 6-line wrasse



dolfans1
11-29-2009, 3:34 PM
I thought my 6-line wrasses had died a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't seen it for several days, and since it's a pretty active fish it's usually hard to miss. I looked all over in the tank for it but couldn't find any trace of it.

To replace it, I set up my quarantine tank and bought a Coral Beauty a week ago.

As I was feeding my main tank today, I saw some movement in one of the overflows, and sure enough it was my 6-line wrasse. It must have jumped over the barrier and has been surviving in there for the last 3 weeks or so.

The question now is how to get it out. There's barely enough room to fit a net down there, and unless the fish is near the top (which doesn't seem to be too often) I can't even see it. I thought of pulling out the standpipe, as that will give me more room to work, and if I'm lucky the water flow will pull the wrasse through and get caught in a filter bag, but I'm also worried that this might hurt it.

Any suggestions?

hmotorsol
11-29-2009, 3:51 PM
They are jumpers and at one of the lfs around me they have one that will almost immediately go back into the over flow. if u cant get a net down there try something smaller and see if he wont jump back over into the tank but be prepared to catch him from the floor and put him in the display.

dolfans1
11-29-2009, 4:20 PM
Mission accomplished! I ended up taking the standpipe out and he was flushed out of the overflow into the filter bag in the sump. I took the filter bag out of the sump, scooped him out with my hand and put him back in the display tank. He darted into the live rock and hasn't come out. Hopefully he's OK.

hmotorsol
11-29-2009, 5:38 PM
good to hear. they are tough he should be fine. when i got mine it was in a bag with a feather duster and a serpent star for almost 5 hours. The person gave it to a petstore and my buddy was working there all they did was left in the tank to keep the temp right. he survived and did well but became very mean.

dolfans1
11-29-2009, 6:00 PM
He's come out now and is swimming around. Doesn't look any worse for the wear. He's definitely a tough bugger.