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8 Ways to Get a Fish Out of Your Fish Tank

• Oct 19, 2018
• PalaciosAn
•   2547        1      0

So you have a fish that you need to take out of your tank for whatever reason, what are your options.

Grab the Fish Net. The first thing you do is grab your net and try to scoop the fish out. You realize you are at a disadvantage and the fish quickly realizes it just needs to jump into the rocks to escape. You can always try to use two fish nets, use one to catch the fish and one to get it to go where you want the fish to go. If you don’t have much rock or decorations getting a fish out with a net or two is possible and most likely your best option.

Try to add food to the tank near the net while the net if under water. Some people have found success doing this, in my experience, the fish have always been freaked out by the net, especially if you have already tried to net them once before.

Note - Try to keep the fish net handle vertical, and when you catch the fish pull the handle straight up, this causes the net to close or collapse on itself trapping the fish. If the handle is horizontal and you go to pull the fish net up the fish can escape by swimming up. Been there done that.

Warning - Some fish can get caught on a fishnet, and it could damage or severely injure them.

If you have lots of SPS corals, you may not want to get a net anywhere near the corals how you are most likely to break them as you swing the net around to try to catch the fish.

The Ninja Scoop, turn the pumps off in your tank. In one hand you will need some flake food and on the other hand your net. Keep the flake food in one hand and slowly drop flake food little by little into the tank. You want them eating as close to the top of the water as possible so, don’t drop a bunch of food into the tank. Patience is essential. You need to wait for the perfect moment. Try to keep the net behind the fish but don't move it too much, you don’t want them focusing on the net. When you see an opportunity act fast and scoop the fish out of the tank. You may only get one shot at this, if you miss it, you may spook the fish, and it may hesitate to come to the surface while you are near the tank again.

I have caught many fish doing it this way, and it's my favorite way to get a fish out of a tank. Sometimes if the fish does not want to eat or its spooked by my presence. Don’t feed the fish for a few days. It will not hurt them to go a few days without a meal. When you do add the flake food, everyone will come and eat.

Lights Out. Turn the lights out in your tank, keep the room light on you don’t want it to be pitch dark because the fish could go to sleep which in most cases means going into the rock work. Leave it like this for a few hours, then get your net ready, turn on the tank lights and for just a few seconds the fish in the tank will be stunned by the light. Quickly come in with the net and scoop them up.

I tried this once and when I turned the lights on immediately the fish darted into the rock work. I did not have time to get them with the net. Other people online claim it works well for them.

Who Dat? If you have a fish that is aggressive to its own species, you can get a mirror, and when it sees itself in the mirror, it will try to attack its reflexion. You have to be ready with your net as the fish charges the glass to attack its reflection, you come in from behind quickly and catch them with the net while they are distracted with rage.

I have never tried this one, so if you try it and it works let me know. I see the logic behind the idea.

Fish Trap. You can get a fish trap, so the fish trap is just an acrylic box or cylinder with a sliding door. You have a fishing line attached to the sliding door, you pull on the fishing line, and the door comes up (opening the trap) and when you let go of the fishing line the door slide down, simple enough. You put food in the trap (that the fish likes to eat) and when the fish goes in the trap to eat the food you let go of the fishing line and the fish is stuck in the trap.

I guess if you are good at working with acrylic you could build a trap, your Local Fish Store (LFS) could have one, sometimes they will lend them out, you have to leave a deposit to make sure you bring it back. Take it home use it, and when you're done, bring it back to your LFS. Depending on the LFS's policy they may give you your deposit back, or they may give you store credit for the deposit, oh darn you will have to buy something else for your tank.

You can also buy, last time I checked, they were going for about $50 if you are interested in getting you can see the current price here, or check it out to see what it looks like if you plan to build one. 

If you are a bit fo a DIYer but don’t feel like messing with acrylic, you can turn a plastic soda bottle into a fish trap. You have to cut the top off, to make a funnel, you then want to cut a hole just large enough for the fish to squeeze into. You don’t want this hole to be too big. You then invert the funnel into the rest of the soda bottle so that the funnel is going into the bottle, super glue the funnel to the bottle to secure it.

If you want to make it fancy, you can add a couple of small holes to allow the air to escape easier and you can also add a fishing line to it so that you can quickly pull it up. You may want to add a rock inside of the trap if so it may be easier to add before you super glue the top. You could always set a rock on top of the trap to prevent it from floating.

You add food to the trap, and when the fish goes in the trap, it has a hard time figuring out how to get out. So you quickly go in and grab the trap with the fish in it, if the fish stays in the trap too long it will figure out how to get out of the trap and once it figures out how to get out of the trap this type of trap will no longer work.

Here is a simple video showing a rough example.

The one bad thing about all of these traps is that it seems like all of the other fish decide to go in them before the fish that you want to try does. I’ve used these type of traps at least a dozen times, and I would say that I have been able to catch the fish that I wanted to catch most of the time. Stay patient, stay positive and good luck, it could take 10-30 min.

Gone Fishing. Believe it or not, you can get a small fishing hook, remove the barb from the hook if it has one (you can also get them without the barb), attach a fishing line, add a small weight to the line, add a meaty food that the fish likes to eat and go fishing in your tank. It’s important to take the barb off, if not the fish may die when you take the hook out of its mouth. Even if you are less concerned about the fish’s well being that you are trying to catch. Keep in mind fish are quick and a different fish may take the bait.

I have never done this, but I do know someone who has a couple of time, and I have read about q few people who swore by it and that its the best and only way that they take fish out of their tank.

Time to Re-Aquascape. Start pulling out all of the rock to get rid of the hiding spots so that you can quickly catch the fish with your net. This option sucks, but I have done it before, I did not have a trap ready, and the fish was killing things in the tank so I had to act fast. After you're done, you have to aquascape the tank again, and that could be a good thing, or you could have just upset most of the corals in your tank.

Clownfish. Are you trying to get a clownfish out of the tank? If so here is a way to get a clownfish out of your tank in 5 min. I’m not clowning around… lol 

Do you have a different way to get fish out of your tank? Comment below with your suggestions or tips.