cant catch darn damsel

[blueyota]

Hello to anyone who reads .... i have been trying to catch two yellow tail damsels in my 140 ...dam things are smarter then they look....i have sat there with a net for an hour straight at one point and they wont even come out of the rock work i put a 2 liter bottle trap in for two days and still no go they are a breeding pair so i want to put them in there own tank and maybe get some small frys and they wont leave any one else in the tank alone.....any help would be great thanks.......

[jasond]

You need a trap for sure. The one I used to catch a similar fish you baited with some food tied to fish line, when it was pulled on it would pull the pin for the door and let it drop, worked like a charm. It was small enough that the fish wasnt scared to go into it.

I dont think you will get him with rock etc in your tank, I didnt stand a chance.

[Whatigot]

I had a ytd in my 72.
He was a terror to everyone else in the tank.
These fish are smart and if the even see a shadow of a net, they're hiding.
I tried everything to get them and in the end, had to take all the rockwork out to do it.

Good luck

[Diana]

Try the trap, but if the damsels are food-crazy (which they are!) then a good old hook and line will probably work, just use a small hook and bend the barbs down so you can take it out of it's mouth. :D

[Whatigot]

A trap will probably not work for these fish.
they are in my experience, very spatially aware and will not trust a bottle ( i tried a few different variations) but the hook and line I never tried...

I could see that working with this fish.

[Drock169]

Start feeding out of a net, the rest is pretty easy

[Whatigot]

tried that too.
everyone BUT my damsel fell for it, as they did the bottle trap.

[blueyota]

awesome i will try the good old hook line and sinker then lol....never in a million years would i have thought of that... even though i love to go fishing every now and again... thanks all

[Murminator]

I caught mine with a small barbless hook baited with mysis......I have another to catch I should video it :mrgreen:

[mumster]

I had to catch two in my tank and I put a mirror in the front and when they where busy attacking the 'intruders' snip/snap in under a minute they were netted.

[Scythanith]

I'll post some videos of the "fishing" technique when I get time lol. I fished a couple striped cardinalfish out that way. They evaded every other method of capture I could come up with, but the hook and line with some PE mysis on the end took less than 2 minutes for the three fish. Just don't catch the ones you want to stay in the tank!