How do I catch a clownfish?
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Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=44155
Printed Date: November 24 2024 at 11:17pm
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Topic: How do I catch a clownfish?
Posted By: Jeffs_little_ocean
Subject: How do I catch a clownfish?
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 9:52pm
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My tomato clown has killed his last fish. He's gotta go. Hes about 3 years old and mean as all heck. And smart. Any time he even sees the net, he is gone gone gone! Is there a way to catch him without tearing down all my rock? ------------- Life is good....right? |
Replies:
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 10:08pm
| have you try to lure him with 2 nets? i heard of fish traps but i never seen one in my life |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 10:23pm
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I use a bottle like a 20 oz. or 2 liter pop bottle take off the label and cut the top part off. I then put it in my tank with food in it, frozen works best and wait for it to swim in to get the food. I have caught every fish I own doing this method.
------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Jeffs_little_ocean
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 10:29pm
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What do you mean cut the top off? How far down? Do you lay the bottle sideways on the bottom? I have a feeling he wont go in. Hes super smart, but I will give it a try. ------------- Life is good....right? |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 10:37pm
Cut the top to where he can fit in the bottle and then lay it sideways on the bottom of the sand, you will need to fill it with water for it to sink. I fill it up drop the food in hold my hand over the opening while I turn the opening to the water and get it to sink this causes the food to go to the end of the bottle that isn't open. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Jeffs_little_ocean wrote:Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 10:39pm
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Also I put it in the tank and sit somewhere in the room very still preferably where the fish can't see me so that they get comfortable. I have caught all my wrasses, tangs and clowns this way.
------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Jeffs_little_ocean
Date Posted: October 21 2010 at 11:01pm
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So if he swims in there, I run over.....stick my arm in the tank with ninja lightning speed and scoop out the bottle, before he just simply swims out? Hmmm Okay, I will give it a try. I should probably record this, I sense a youtube moment coming on.... ------------- Life is good....right? |
Posted By: kellerexpress
Date Posted: October 22 2010 at 12:41am
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http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=249712 - http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=249712 try this------------- IM 30L Kessil A160we x2 |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: October 22 2010 at 1:27am
Exactly what I was talking about however I forgot one of the things you can do is cut it that far and put that part back in. I just cut the hole big enough for them to get in and when they go in there if you are fast enough I come at the tank from the end that is open which causes them to swim to the end that is closed  ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: CapnMorgan
Date Posted: October 22 2010 at 3:29am
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The best trick, is wait until the lights are out and the fish is asleep. Then simply reach in scoop it up and put in in whatever container you have for it. Works every time. ------------- Steve http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40637&PID=356246" rel="nofollow - My Old 180G Mixed Reef Currently: 120G Wavefront Mixed 29G Seahorse & Softies Running ReefAngel Plus x2 435-8 |
Posted By: SGH360
Date Posted: October 22 2010 at 3:49am
| i was wondering what fish did it kill? |
Posted By: DanhNgo
Date Posted: October 22 2010 at 2:43pm
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Jeff,
The club has a fish trap. I don't know who has it now, but if you reach out to Adam. He might know.
------------- 200 Gal Reef 25 Gal Nano Reef |
Posted By: Jeffs_little_ocean
Date Posted: October 24 2010 at 12:24am
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So I made a bottle trap, but so far no luck. He wont go in. Ive caught every other fish in my tank though ------------- Life is good....right? |
Posted By: fishoutawater
Date Posted: October 24 2010 at 12:35am
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I started feeding my tank from my fingers, if my fish want food, they have to come and get it from my fingertips. I have a pair of gsm's, and a bristle tooth tang that will come and take the food. I started doing it in case I ever had to get the clowns out of the tank.
When the net goes in does the clown go to the anenome? I just redid my rockstack, and one of my clowns refused to leave the anenome, even when I pulled it and the rock out of the water. ------------- Some day, when I grow up,... |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: October 25 2010 at 9:10am
 Been there done that. I even went fishing once with a tiny #22 hook baited with a tiny piece of worm. The target fish, a Neon Black Damsel, must have been the smartest fish in the world because it stayed away from the bait while I hooked some of my Tomato ClownfishI agree with Steve, easiest fishing I've ever done is at night.  I prepare the tank before lights out with the top open and a way to turn on the lights. I'll often set my alarm to wake me. Staying out of sight with the room dark I silently creep/crawl over to the tank. With net in hand I flip on the tank lights all at once. This blinds the fish momentarily while I just scoop it up and drop in in a small bucket of tankwater. Works as slick as a whistle and I'm back in bed in 5 minutes sawing logs ZzZzZz. If the fish is hiding in the rocks, it cannot see and is very sluggish. I quickly move it out with my hand or a stick to where I can get the net around it. If this doesn't work the fist night, the experience I gain makes me successful the next night.  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: davser
Date Posted: October 26 2010 at 10:13pm
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why dont you try to catch him at night when the lights are off you can just go in slow and catch him ------------- It's not about what you know but about who you know |
Posted By: xlr8r
Date Posted: October 27 2010 at 11:12am
Mark, I'm trying to get a visual on what it looks like, you doing an army crawl across the floor in the dark in your PJs with a fish net in hand.  ------------- When you hear hoofbeats....Think of a zebra |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: October 27 2010 at 3:31pm
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Who says I wear PJ's?
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
|
Posted By: Jeffs_little_ocean
Date Posted: October 27 2010 at 3:37pm
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Ive got 5 bucks that says yes Mark DOES wear PJ's. And I bet his favorite pair has a big ole Nemo on the chest! ------------- Life is good....right? |
Posted By: Sculpin
Date Posted: October 27 2010 at 5:54pm
| i dont know if you got the clown yet but what worked for me was 2 pund tess fishing line and a super small hook. youll have to go to a fly shop to find one that small but it works. i didnt even need to bait it. |
Posted By: xlr8r
Date Posted: October 28 2010 at 11:17am
Excuse me while I go poke out my mind's eye. ------------- When you hear hoofbeats....Think of a zebra |
Posted By: MajorPayne
Date Posted: November 01 2010 at 4:01pm
| If you still have the clown and nobody else wants him, I will take it |
Posted By: base762
Date Posted: January 12 2011 at 10:09pm
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i have been trying to catch three blue chromis ...have tried the bottle trap...feeding with net in hand.....night time opp's.... they are way to smart ...... think its time for the small hook fishing....thought about sitting back on the couch and putting a red dot laser from an AR-15 but quickly realized the cost of that foolishness ....
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Posted By: jmw
Date Posted: January 12 2011 at 10:42pm
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Posted By: wickedsnowman
Date Posted: January 12 2011 at 11:05pm
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Nobody has mentioned the siphon method yet.... just go to home depot get a tube bigger than the fish, start the siphon and just suck him out. Then put the 20g (or what ever it took to catch him) back in the tank and call it a night.
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Posted By: Reefboy4life
Date Posted: January 13 2011 at 9:24am
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Nightfall, zzzzzzzz ------------- 90 gallon mixed reef |
Posted By: vadryn
Date Posted: January 13 2011 at 3:47pm
| I have a pair of clowns to catch in the near future and have not been looking forward to it. Hope one of these ideas works for me. |
Posted By: Summertop
Date Posted: January 13 2011 at 4:16pm
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If you do the suction method, you could have it drain into your refugium (through a net)...assuming your return pump can keep up with your siphon.
------------- =========== Shawn Winterbottom |
Posted By: philhender
Date Posted: January 20 2011 at 2:49pm
That's how I do my weekly cleaning.. set up a sock in the sump and siphon through, catches all the bad stuff I'm cleaning out. I don't have to worry about watching how much water I'm siphoning out and can spend long periods of time this way. Of course making sure the pump can keep up with the withdrawal :) I will usually watch the overflow and make sure that 'some' water is still going over... also taking the bulb off a turkey baster and sliding that over the siphon end gives me some pin-point suction as well. After I'm done cleaning this way, I remove the sock and do my W/C if I'm doing one that week. Usually don't even break the siphon, just move the hose straight to waste bucket. Back to discussion.. I'm going to be pulling my tomatoes out soon as well.. they don't like where I put my new Monti frag and have broken it several times moving it... darn grumpy fish.. lol! I'll be trying the night-time catch with turning on all the lights.. I've seen there response when my timer gets fouled ... the clownfish 'stumble' around for a few minutes as do I in the middle of the night. ------------- I asked the Lord for the blessing of Patience... he gave me 6 kids! 125g Reef / 55g Sump-Fuge |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: January 21 2011 at 9:45am
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Once upon a time there was a hobbyist and her husband that tried using a shop vac to capture an elusive Mantis Shrimp. The day was clear and the birds were chirping, but when the siphon began flowing in that 3" pipe, the water really started rushing out. Within just a few seconds it filled the shop vac and was spilling onto the hardwood floor. Somehow the hobbyist finally had the presence of mind to lift the hose end out of the aquarium. The Mantis Shrimp was still in the tank but 20 gallons of water was on the floor. The Mantis came back out onto it's front porch with a beer in one claw and watched, laughing while the husband cleaned up the mess.  The shop vac was useful after
all.  The End
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Will Spencer
Date Posted: January 21 2011 at 10:39am
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Mark, I've heard that story only I think it was a Yellow Citron Goby. I've successfully used the nighttime light stunner to catch a Moorish Idol. I tried for over a hour to catch it with nets. Then thought, hey if I quickly shut down the lights it will be blind and then I can catch it. The first time it didn't work, then I realized it would take a long time to try again because Metal Halide lights don't just come right back on like normal bulbs. So I tried the opposite, since it was night, I turned off all lights in the room and ont he tank. Twenty minutes later after my eyes had adjusted to the darkness I carefully found where the fish was in the tank, got the net ready, and had my wife flip on the room lights. I quickly dove in the tank with the net and caught that sucker first try. I've also used the soda bottle trap method successfully, but it took a LOT of of patience. I built the soda bottle trap with the inverted top and I also added a string to pull the bottle out of the tank. ( I basically stapled 3 pieces of sting around the top of the bottle then tied them to a 4th piece that would hang out of the tank that I could yank on.) I was trying to catch a Half Black Dwarf Angel that was nipping at my corals. I snuggled the bottle down into one of the caves in the rock that fish liked to swim through and put frozen food inside. Literally every fish I had went in to eat EXCEPT the one I wanted to catch. I decided to be patient and left the bottle in the tank for 2 weeks feeding only in the bottle every time I fed. Through the whole time all my fish ate in that bottle except the Angel. Finally after 2 weeks I saw it in the bottle one afternoon. Of course as soon as I approached the tank it swam out. I decided that day might be the day and immediately fed in the bottle. I watched from a few feet away as the Angel swam in then I sprang into action. I rushed the tank which startled the fish and it tried to bolt into the cave which of course meant toward the back of the bottle. I yanked the string and pulled the bottle out and had my fish.  They do say this hobby is all about patience.  |