how to catch a damsel?

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jejeclav

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Apr 28, 2005
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I have a 55g tank with 80 lbs of live rock. I started the tank with a damsel.
I then introduced a school of blue chromis. Everything went fine. Yesterday, I bought 2 clownfishes. The yellow damsel becomes very aggressive and attacks everyone, even the chromis.
I would like to remove the damsel from this tank, and put it in a small 10G that I have prepared for it. After several hours of battle, the damsel is still in the 55g tank (which by now looks like a mess). Could you give me an advice to catch this fish?

Thanks !

Jejeclav
 

A7ESF

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Jan 18, 2005
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The easiest wasy (easy being a erlative term) is to remove all the live rock and go from there. I know thats a very daunting task, but as you no doubt have noticed, the damsels are fast and sneaky and will use the rock to their advantage. Try catching them at night after the lights go off and they are "asleep". I have also heard of people using very very small fish hooks with the barb ground off and catching them.
 

Oliver

Oliver
Jan 17, 2005
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Perth, Western Australia
nooooo! don't take the rocks out for heavens sake!!! there are a ton of easier ways to do this!!!!

1. get a large net and put food in it, he swims in, and you take him. only try this once though as they learn.

2. get a piece of plastic chicken wire and put it across one end of the tank, so it devides into two sections. cut a hole in the middle with a plastic bad stuck to it and chase him in there.

3. use 2 large nets, I did this with my clown and it worked fine.

4. as you will have found the fish are very vaulnerable at night, but the fish stores and open then, no before you go to bed, close all the blinds in the aquarium room so that it is backed out. when you wake up, the room will be pitch black and the fish will be sleeping. so get ready to go to the fish shop, and then catch him when he is sleeping, it will me much easier.

don't resore to taking the rock out, its too much of a hassel. good luck!
 

Raki

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Jan 17, 2004
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cut the end off a water bottle and invert it back into the bottle .duct tape it in there. string going from top of bottle to outside tank.food in bottle. bottle in water . damsel goes in to eat pull up on string quickly one trapped damsel.
 

jejeclav

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Apr 28, 2005
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The damsel hunt

It has been a little bit over a week, and I tried all of your methods! Thanks to all of you.
Well, now the results :
- The 2 fish nets: My tank is only a 55 G , and it is full of rock. I always got one of the fish net stuck in a rock at the time I wanted to close on the damsel.
- The chciken wire... Woa! this is a great thing. However, after extensive searching, I only found metal chicken wire, and I was reluctant putting it in the tank as I was told metal residues can kill the critters.
- The food stuck at the end of a fish net or a bottle... it nearly worked, but I was so clumsy that the little guy escaped. I tried for two more days in a row, but each time the damsel saw I was not far from the tank, (s)he would ignore the food. Of course, as soon as I was far from the tank, the food would disappear!!!
- Every morning, before dawn (I had to put my alarm clock very early!!), I tried to catch the sleeping damsel...but this guy sleeps in a hide under the rock
- Bottle trick... I think it did not work because I tried the fish net thing before and the guy learnt.
After a week of hunting...I gave up. One of the clownfish was terrorized, huddled in the corner of the tank. So, I pulled all the live rock out, got the critter out, and put back the rock in... You were right, it was a mess!!!
But today, the clown seems to be more active!

Thanks anyway to all of you for your help. This fishing party was sure entertaining, and I am looking forward to having more "problems" with my new tank.
 
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