Best way to move a powder blue from a reef???

[findingnemo1]

HI there.

I have a friend that needs to remove a powder blue from her full blown reef tank and is wanting to do it without pulling it all apart?

Any ideas? He is still pretty little about 4 inches but just scared enough to run from the net or anything else for that matter.

[DanG]

you can try and get him in his sleep, try to coral him into the net with something else or get a fish trap, although I don't recall seeing anything that specifically will work with a tang.

[niloc16]

the only way i could get mine out was a fish trap. fed inside the trap only. after 3 days he was the first in for nori, and boom had him. i wasted countless hours trying to get him with nets

[sphelps]

As stated build a trap, I built this one which worked very well.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k36/EngineeredAquariums/projects007.jpg

It hangs on the side of my tank and using a long string I can slam down the trap door. It has a feeding hole on the top so I can easily place food inside the trap.

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k36/EngineeredAquariums/projects006.jpg

Made catching fish pretty easy for me

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k36/EngineeredAquariums/projects008.jpg

The key is to leave the trap in place for a while to gain the trust of the fish, start feeding through the trap and eventually the fish will love going inside, then you pick your moment and bam.

[andresont]

If the fish is still small the best thing is an inverted Pop bottle with an air pipe at the bottom for food adding with the suringe.
I did not belive it my self before , but it worked like a charm for me.
It took longer to built one than to catch the fish !

And after i got it in, the trap is so transparent that lemon peel angel was still eating when i pulled the trap up to the serfice.

With heavy traps it will take days to get fish acustomed to it , piop bottle works in 30 min.
hth

[fishoholic]

I caught my lavender tang (he's small 2-3") in a little feeding cup that I use to scoop up tank water with to unthaw the frozen mysis in. I wasn't trying to catch him, he just swam in as I was lifting the cup out. Luckly I noticed right away and got him back into the tank with no problems.