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

[joylynn]

I was planning on really reducing the water level and trying to get the fish to swim into the pitcher. I tried a net I thought had fine enough mesh and turned out I was wrong I really don't want to go through that again. I have to move 3 pictus, 3 gouramis, 1 albino shark and 1 spotted pleco tonight and the low water and pitcher is the best thing I could think of to do to gett each of these species.

 

[rosita]

SUCCESS!!! I used a combination of suggestions--took out the plants again, shifted rocks, took small net and 5 inch net, and corraled her into the big one!!!! And yes, a minimum amount of cursing did help!! I have 2 pitchers dedicated to the fish, so I popped her into the smaller one with some anacharis for cover. Then I checked the tank to make sure I had the right fish, and then looked in the pitcher--6 FRY!!! She's been holding them so long---wow!! They're about 1/4 inch long--mostly eyes. This is a first for me--it's always been horses; they're alot bigger lol.

So, she's in the 5g hospital tank with the snail, i put a layer of the 55g substrate, and some of the water with the cichlid salts in it. Covered waterfilter intake tube with stocking. And the conch shell--I correctly figured the babies might go straight for that But momma's frantic, all alone, but I don't know who my baby daddy is, and fear any other fish would eat them and cause problems She's such a young mother--teen mom!! Gosh, I hope some survive. That would be sooo cool for my new students!! New school. Thanks so much everyone!!

POLOCROSSEPLYER: I got the 36" long "Giant Plant"--that one is adianthus or something like that,,and a bamboo leaf one--really nice, from PetSmart. At the store they're 15 bucks, on line 9!!! So in case you don't know, just find it on their website and print it off, and they'll honor the reduced price. I did a big order a while ago so just ordered them (free shipping!) BTW, how big a string do you keep?

:thm: :dive2: Thanks again!!!!!!!

 

[itvilcu]

I just had this problem......

this morning with one of my mamas. What I did, was buy a piece of plexy glass just big enough to fit inside the tank, and then heated up a drill bit so that I could drill holes in it. Then, I coaxed her to the one side and "locked her in". I didnt have to worry about catching her!

I was soo ploud of myself cause my brother in law was here, and told me I couldnt drill holes in plexy glass without it cracking, but I DID!!!!! AND, I trapped her!!!

:joke:

 

[DeBree420]

i have a kinda bizzare idea...but it has worked for me for fast tetras...
get a funnel...hold your thumb over the small hole and place it in the water so its holding a huge bubble...get near the fish(above works best depending on hight of tank)then just release your thumb..the fish will be sucked into the funnel and if you have a net handy(this is really easy with 2 people)you can trap the large end of the funnel and just slowly lift it out of the water
done!
hope this helps

 

[DeBree420]

i also used that technique for spiky catfish and that damned coolie loach that just would not come out from behind the filter!

 

[Star_Rider]

next time you have to net a fish..try it in the morning ..mine are lazy..I can easiiy net them at first light.

 

[stillaround55]

I once had to net 6 zebra danios out of a 55 with a 5" wide net. You want to talk about ridiculously fast fish. Trying to maneuver the net with that frickin' support bar in the middle of the tank was just absurd. In the end, the only thing that worked was to hold the net in one half of the tank and just kind of slowly coral the fish into the net with my other hand. This method took about 10 minutes to work..............as opposed to the 2 hours it took me to successfully catch ONE of these speedy buggers by chasing them around. And this was before I had all the plants that I have now.....so they had plenty of room to swim around and avoid the net.

So, in short, bring the fish to the net....not the other way around.

 

[lousybreed]

use two nets. keep the larger one stationary and use a smaller one to chase the fish out. Position the larger one in an area that the fish used and bam! you got it.

I worked at an aquarium shop for several years and this is the trick I always used.

If this fails get a clear plastic "specimen" holder and use a net to corral the fish into the plastic box. Once it is in the box make sure the net has the opening sealed and pull it out!

 

[12 Volt Man]

another tip from another former LFS employee is always chase the fish into the corner of the tank or to an end and scoop upwards with the net.

never chase the fish around and around with the net.

as mentioned, use your other arm or another net to get the fish into a corner, then move in and scoop upwards.

for large fish, net them nose first, and get them up and out of the water as quickly as possible.

this reduces the splash time and stress on the fish as it will try and swim down into the net while in the water.

once in the air, they generally are much more calm.

 

[gatotsu77]

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

I had to catch a pictus cat that I felt had outgrown my 55g tank. (I've since switched to smaller schooling fish... but **** I loved that fish) The only way I could catch him was to use a 2L ziploc food container (rectangular, almost clear) set down in the bottom of the tank, and I had to chase him into it with my hand, which I wrapped a scrap of old pillow case (thoroughly rinsed) so as to give some protection against his spines. I had to take all of the plants and decorations out of the tank, and it took me **** near 20 minutes, but I finally managed to corral him into the container and scoop it out before he could swim back out. (I actually caught him 3 times before that, but he kept getting out before I could get the container out of the water) A pictus cat's fins will not get caught in bed sheets/pillow covers, so if you make a small bag out of one, it would be great for catching them also. (used by large catfish owners because its easy on the fish and lets water out of it slowly so as to minimize stress)