need help catching blenny

[jason604]

I cant seem for the life of me catch this stupid sifter blenny that is wrecking havoc on my plates and brain corals. I tried starving him n puttin a net n spray food near it in hopes to catch him but i missed him by a hair once and now he never goes near the net again. His home is under the largest rock in my tank so i cant get him. Any1 has any good tips or is there any1 local that can lend me a fish trap if those things actually work?

Thanks

Jason

[Aquattro]

Drain the tank, pick him up, put water back. Done.

[jason604]

Will draining 100% of the water then putting it back harm any of my tank mates in any way?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Clams and sponges should never be out of water, but corals and live rock can be for a short while. If you work quickly it should be ok to drain, catch and refill.

[Seriak]

To catch my bi-color, I just scared it into a piece of rock and then removed the entire piece of rock, as they like to hide when scared, into another container. After he came out of the rock in the separate container, I put it back it the tank.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Drain the tank, pick him up, put water back. Done.

caught both of my anthias in under 2 min. this is hands down the easiest method i've used.

[Misses.ReefWars]

personally i would place the rock he is living in, in a bucket filled with your system water, i would suggest continually pulling rock in and out of water, it may make him want to escape the rock or possibly stress him out but that is dependent, Ive never tried this but could be a good method lol

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by jason604

Will draining 100% of the water then putting it back harm any of my tank mates in any way?

Not at all. Anthony's comment about clams is especially wrong Sponges, who cares.
I've drained my tank many times to catch fish. I wouldn't even try any other way.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Not at all. Anthony's comment about clams is especially wrong Sponges, who cares.
I've drained my tank many times to catch fish. I wouldn't even try any other way.

You leave your clams exposed to the air??? At over $100 each and getting harder to find nowadays, that's not a risk I'm willing to take.

Also, sponges exposed to air can very quickly die and then you'll end up with dying sponges creating an ammonia spike & you go through a mini-cycle. Ornamental sponges are hard enough to keep alive as it is without the added stress of air exposure.

For these two reef inhabitants, a few seconds is not a big deal. However, if they're going to be exposed to air for longer (which is usually the case when completely draining your tank, catching the fish and then refilling the tank), I would move them to a holding container to stay submerged during the whole process.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

You leave your clams exposed to the air??? At over $100 each and getting harder to find nowadays, that's not a risk I'm willing to take.

I would leave it sitting on the table for 30 minutes if I needed to. They do just fine. I've also soaked them in RO for an hour, no issues there either.

As for sponges, I've hardly ever seen a tank with enough sponge that could die and cause any kind of spike.

I've left acros outside for 2 hours and put them back in the tank, did fine too.

These things are way tougher than you give them credit for.