Zen and the Art of Fish Netting--Any one up for it?

[rosita]

So here's the situation. I have a 2.5" Aulonocara nyassa (Kaleidoscope peacock) young female who's been carrying fry since last Friday. As my beloved companion, Tuffy, was ailing and then died Sunday, I was at my wit's end on how to help the little fish. She needs to be netted out and put in the hospital tank, but the dilemma is:
She's awfully quick, and I've got 12 other small fish (sig) in there. I've included a foto below. It's a 55g. Took (fake) plants out, moved rocks, tried nets small and large, a sieve, and even a divider to shrink her space--she and the brichardi would do well at an aquatic center!!

Is there anyone who can share wisdom in netting her before: she starves to death; the fry get eaten; whatever else that can happen (bad luck rainin' down this year). I'm hoping now to get some babies for an aquarium I'd like to set up at my new school. I still can't believe this little juvie had fry--altho at the rate my teenaged students get pregnant, I shouldn't be! And at the rate the Taiwan Reefs have been shagging on the large rock surface, I figure something might happen there!!

Thanks, I hope someone reads this and will be able to share some pearls of wisdom/experience. This may not be the correct forum, but I figured it gets the most traffic. ~r

 

[psilo]

I had this problem with trying to get one of my female gouramis out of my 50 gallon tank. In the end i had to take out the plants to get at her. How large a net have you tried? I bought one that was 8 inches across and i caught her easily in that! goodluck!

 

[Penfan66]

Get a plastic divider made for a 55 gal, they are pretty cheap. Try coaxing the fish to one end of the tank to get it alone. Slide the divider in and then gently net the fish. I've used this method in the past and it worked well. Good Luck Rosita.

 

[rosita]

Hmm, yeah, I pulled the plants out, no help. My largest net is 5", but seeing as how I have some fish that will get more bigger, I'll spring for a bigger one. Thanks!!

 

[Chickieepooh2u]

Well, I've found that swearing helps. Usually just get a bigger net. Its never a quick process.

 

[cajinfry]

You could always just get a wet/dry vac cover the suction end with Nylon pantyhose and suck the fish out of the water :thm:

Ok j/k'ing

:Angel:

 

[SynoSteff]

You could also empty ouy about 50% of the water and then used the divider. Should help, no?

 

[joylynn]

I have to try and corral my pictus catfish tonight, same sort of deal, very fast fish, only catch I have is I can't use a net witht he pictus, the spines on their fins get caught in them (I found this out the hard way). My thought is to drain the tank to about 5 inches or so of water and try to use a large plastic pitcher to scoop them. may also look for a divider to use to help herd them into the pitcher. By the way the pitcher is one I only use for the fish tanks, so I am not sure about using your every day ice tea pitcher as there may be soap buildup or soemthing. This is just my plan, it may fail miserably but this post is very timely for me as well, looking forward to more advice I can use too

 

[polocrosseplyer]

:OT:
hey rosita - where did you get your fake plants? i love the huge one in the left corner!

 

[SynoSteff]

With the spiny catfish, try use something that has holes in it to catch him otherwise it will be very difficult to scoop the fish out. Unless you are going to get the fish to swim into the pitcher.
My Synodontis also have spines and I just use a net with a very fine mesh and the spines dont go through. Helps a lot but not flawless

SynoSteff