Capturing fish

[War ape]

I want to catch a few fish and put new ones in anyone have any tricks so I don't have to tear down 250lbs of live rock and coral?

[oldschoolcoupe]

If they are smaller fish I have had great luck with the water bottle trap. Cut the top of the bottle off and turn it upside down and insert it back into the bottle to make a funnel going into the bottle. Then bait it with food.

[War ape]

Yeah I've tried that for past few days no takers yet.

[Wall_Tank]

What fish are you looking to catch?

[kscott]

This is how I've caught several fish from my 125. I found out where they liked to sleep. For example my Scopas Tang slept between the same two rocks every night. About 1.5 hrs after the lights went out I put on my head band flashlight and used a little net to nudge it out and push it into a big net. Over in about ten seconds before it even started to wake up. My ruby scooter was easy because it would just sleep on the bottom out in the open. I just checked for a couple of nights until he was right up front. I only needed one net for him. Some fish will be more difficult. Chromis are easy because they tend to sleep in the top corners of the tank.

[muttley000]

Barbless fish hook and line!

[Humphrey]

Larger fish trap ( think the club has one)!

Last resort... Drain the tank. Sounds absurd but good if you've got to catch a bunch. Create low spot in the sand in the front or another accessible place and drain the tank really quick into enough reef safe containers. Typically, if you are slow moving and they are comfortable, they will proceed to the low spot as the tank volume falls.  Catch all fish and then quickly refill. Need lots of containers and a few pumps.

[soldiers4christ50]

Ive had great success with the club trap.

[War ape]

Thanks for all the input I think I will try a trap first then spend a while netting if that fails and last resort drain.  I'm working on capturing black clown pair, engineer goby, maroon lightning clown.  Leaves me with cooperban, engineer goby, and reef safe angel.  I inherited from friend and I just want a different mix of fish.  I plan on replacing with regular clown pair, yellow tang, 5 or so green cromis, a hippo or similar tang, mby a wrase, or one or two other reef friendly species. If I have to drain as last resort I will but would not look forward to it as its 90 gallons with corals and 200+ lbs of live rock.  Will be transferring them to mini tank within tank if I can locate buyer quickly or worst case moving over to quarantine tank, all are healthy and happy I just want to switch eit the tank more to my personal liking, so speed is not my main concern, want a minimal stress on fish and coral approach. Again thanks for posts wish me luck.   

[Humphrey]

Oopps one caveat on the tank drain method...  Engineer and Dragon gobies. If they are anything like the couple I had, you may have to trap the engineer as he will likely shoot to a cave if you're draining, and he probably won't come out no matter how low the water gets.  Good luck!

[Kenn]

Wow sounds like you have a few to catch. Good Luck!!