How to catch a Damsel?

[Euclid]

I've been trying to catch this guy for an hour!
Any tips how to get him in my net?

[Texreefer]

tiny hook and some mysid shrimp :wacko

[BioCube14]

Not really sure I can throw some ideas..leave a net in the water let him get usto it feed and catch him or..take all the rocks out or...use severals nets or....dinamite as last resort

[caferacermike]

Let your room mate drop your light in the tank again?

[TexasTodd]

Big Eel!

:)

[Hotrod32487]

I would give up on the net right away. Unless you're Chuck Norris, i cant see it working. What i had to use was a trap. I’m sure you can find some posts on it but in a nutshell its a plastic tube about the circumference of a softball or whatever you think would be big enough. Its capped at one end and on the other its got a drop down door so when the fish swims in you can drop it shut. Hard part is getting the fish comfortable enough to swim in there

[emac]

i've found that if you just move very slowly with a net and just wait for the perfect time you can catch them pretty easy. the trick is just not to freak them out.

[Euclid]

Let your room mate drop your light in the tank again?
:lol



I think I'll make a fish trap out of a coke bottle or something. :blink

[blueboy]

i drained my tank to catch mine. it's really not that big of a deal if you have a large enough container and a pretty big pump handy. i didn't move any rock, just turned off the halides, drained it down to about 2", netted the offending damsels, and filled 'er back up. of course some of the corals slimed up a bit, but nothing they weren't designed for. this was after several weeks of trying to get them used to the nets, then i tried a trap, i wished i'd just drained it in the beginning once i realised how simple it was.

[Sawbones]

The trap has worked for me 6 out of 6 times, including borrowing it and taking it 500 miles north to visit my Dad, removing his Domino Damsel demon-fish. He'd tried everthing else and was ready to give up, but the trap worked in about a half hour. I used to borrow it from Austin Aquariums, and I bet the new owner would be pleased to have you drop in to look around and take the trap out for the day like I used to. I always brought it back with a mean fish to trade in, and I almost always bought a new fish to replace the mean one in my tank. That's how I ended up with 32 fish and none of them mean.

[Enigma13]

Have used the fish trap method. One lesson learned: My damsels did not like to feed at the top of the water column, so I had to hold the trap about half way down the tank with one hand, but some garlic soaked food in there, and hold the door string with the other hand. Usually would take them about 10 minutes or so to get used to my arm being in the tank, but then the food urge would overcome them. I trapped six out on consecutive days, never took longer than 20 minutes. Though I waited for hours before I figured out about lowering the trap in the water, as I started by attaching it to my center brace. Good luck.

[RayAllen]

Dont buy damsels, lol. No but really they are smart little buggers. Good luck