Catching a Yellow Wrasse

[Reefie]

If anyone's got any good tips to catch a Yellow Wrasse I'd appreciate it.

I've tried draining the whole tank, I've got an Ich issue that I'm dealing with. However, this is the last fish that I cannot catch. It dives into the sand as soon as anything enters the tank.

I've also tried putting food inside a net in hopes it'll just swim in to try to grab the pellets.

I NEED to get this fish out so the tank can go fallow for 8-9 weeks.

Any suggestions???

[Delphinus]

The only way I was ever able to move one from one tank to another was to drain the tank as much as possible, remove all the rocks that I could (taking care not to drop said rocks onto the sand for fear of squishing him) .. and then scooping the sand with the net.

Some people have reported success catching wrasses using a teeny tiny fish hook (no more than 1/4") and baiting it with mysis. I have tried this method with a sixline wrasse and can report the only thing I caught with it was: 1) every other fish imaginable, and 2) myself, more times than I care to admit. My hands were full of 100's of little cuts from getting that hook caught in my own skin. I'm pretty sure that wrasse was laughing at me. I don't really recommend this approach but I mention it in case you're far less clumsy and unlucky than I seem to be.

[Borderjumper]

I cut a piece of white 1.5" PVC pipe aout 5" tall capped off at the bottom with a frag disk and stuck it vertically into the sand. wrasses can't help themselves and have to investigate.. When the wrasse goes in cover the top and he's toast:mrgreen:

[Reefie]

This sounds like it might work for me, I'm going to go try it out! Thanks for the tip!

When I drained the tank to get all the other fish out, I did try sifting through the sand. Draining the tank again and removing all the rockwork is something I don't want to do again. Broke too many frags, and kept the clams out of water for a bit too long also. 4 out of the 5 clams are ok, but the 5th isn't fully opening again yet.

I cut a piece of white 1.5" PVC pipe aout 5" tall capped off at the bottom with a frag disk and stuck it vertically into the sand. wrasses can't help themselves and have to investigate.. When the wrasse goes in cover the top and he's toast:mrgreen: