Getting a cleaner shrimp out of my overflow.

[Wall_Tank]

Its a beautiful blood red cleaner, and it found and loves my overflow.    It has no problem coming up and cleaning my hand, but I cannot get him far enough to catch.

Any ideas.

[Twizted1]

Can you shut the system down & flush it out?

[Wall_Tank]

That is too much work, but will be my last resort.   

[Boonjob]

Long net?or do the bottle trick... invert a small bottle top,tie some fishing line to it, bait it and wait for him to go in and then pull bottle out??

Same principle.... Just don't use rocks... just poke some smaller holes in the rear of the bottle and weigh down with some sand.

[Wall_Tank]

This is a corner overflow.   not much room for a bottle, or a net.    Maybe I can get one of those small 10oz pop bottles in there.

[Twizted1]

And put some food in it. Or just bait a hook with mysis & snag him 

[Boonjob]

you can shorten the bottle to fit your needs... so long as the top and body fit together snugly, and the shrimp has room to fall into the bottle to get the bait as opposed to standing in the opening to get it.

Also maybe try sucking him out with a gravel vac? put some mesh in the top of the vac so he doesnt get sucked into the hose, but you should be able to create enough siphon to keep him suspended in the tube until you can pull him out to the top

[Wall_Tank]

Tried a small bottle, the shrimp would not go past the hole.   Tried a gatoraid bottle with a little larger opening.   Same thing, just won't let the legs leave the opening.......then freaks out and backs up.

[Wall_Tank]

Well patience is what I needed.  It was kinda funny, almost as if it slipped in the hole.    I moved him to my frag tank, and then rewarded him with a nice chunk of mysis.

[Twizted1]

  It was kinda funny, almost as if it slipped in the hole.

That's funny, that's how I got my 1st kid. 

I wonder of this would work for a pesky watchman goby?

[Boonjob]

It will work on fish aswell, you just have to bait what they want... and if you make it to catch fish dont leave it in your tank any longer than over night.


If you make the trap out of non transparent material like PVC it makes it easier for the shrimp to transition into the trap as they arent as cautious they will feel safer and more content with entering it, as odd as it sounds.

Glad to here the bottle trap worked for you...