How to catch a damsel?

[SECTER1]

I had her for a month and I just got a pair of clowns. She keeps attacking them so she has to go.. I have a acrylic box that I can trap her in but she is too smart not to swim in it...those stupid clowns find there way in all day long. Any one know what I should do?

[davidryder]

You can use a net

I don't think I've ever heard of a fish trap

Damsels are hard to get out once you put them in

[meschaefer]

I just read someplace, that if you know where they sleep that you can get them fairly easily at night. An alternative method employing the same tactic, is to turn on all the lights in the aquarium when they are asleep, as it kind of dazes them for a second.

Have never tried either theory, but thought I would let you know.

[SECTER1]

I have one coral in my tank that the Damsel claimed but my clowns wanted it. My damsel is scared of the net so I placed the net right by the coral and right away she hid and the clowns are no playing in that area. I am hoping that the clowns will claim in so they will start to defend them selfs against the damsel. Is that a bad idea?

[Ewan]

If you know any fly fisherman that happen to tie their own flies, Get the smallest hook you can find (#20 of higher) and crimp the barb. I've found that damsels don't even need bait on the hook, they'll attack it just the same.

With the barb crimped, there is very little harm done to the fish. IME, much less harm than being handled (and chased) by a net. It will help to have some hemostats or forceps available to handle the tiny hook.

I've helped a few people out catching fish, and they're always amazed how effortless I make it look. A friend of mine tried for 3 weeks to remove a domino damsel, and I caught him in under a minute. Hook slid out of his mouth with no damage whatsoever.

It works VERY well.

-E.

[exacta123]

throw some flake in and have the net ready when the come to the top snag them up..works for me

[Spectre2006]

I have blue and dominoe damsels, they pretty much leave my yellow tang and dottyback, cardinal, green citron gobies alone.
I have a ton of LR so if a fight starts the other fish can always find cover.

Chris

[godoggo]

How big is you tank?

Karen

[SECTER1]

Flake and net don't work..she is too smart and fast and too much rock to get a good swipe.
I have a 40g.

Maybe I need another torch or frogspawn so I can put it on th eother side so th eclowns can claim it. Right now they are fighting for the one coral in the tank.

[reefshadow]

I made a tube trap a few years back out of some spare acrylic. I fed ONLY in the trap for a couple of weeks, if they didn't go in the trap, they didn't get fed. Within a few days I had every fish entering the trap as soon as they saw me coming. I had it propped up high in the rockwork so I could just pick it up with the fish inside. worked great. When it was time to move the tank I had every fish caught within 10 minutes.

The tip about sleeping at night also works with many fish, also using the hook can work well. - never tried that myself, but I know alot of folks have had good success.

Good luck!

[Satori]

Here's a short video clip of when I used a "trap-door" type fish trap to catch my two damsels.

http://mike.magnuson.com/fishtrap.wmv

[21Reefman]

Originally posted by davidryder
You can use a net

I don't think I've ever heard of a fish trap

wow, not much from the petland crew, never heard of a fish trap???

You can buy traps from Dr fosters as well as Marine depot, in all sizes. There are also always some on ebay. I made my own and it works great. The key is leaving it in the tank and feeding in it.

[21Reefman]

Oh, and the hook idea will work too, and they sell barbless trout hooks so no need to crimp with those.

The sleeping rock, works well for Blue hippo tangs I have a friend who removed 2 from a 400 gal reef after all other methods had failed for weeks, they NEVER went into the trap and all 15 of his other tangs did.

[palestine]

lol love the video, it usually takes me about 15 minutes to catch them with a net.. i just drive them crazy and tired and then get lucky. Old school methods still work. The fish that gave me the hardest time was the foxface. He nearly had a heart attack. Good luck

[jiggy]

get a lionfish.. once it eats the damsel, trade it in