Maroon Clown fishing 101

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Chaloupa

1. get hook
2. bait hook
3. patience
4. fish
5. have net ready to scoop
6. place in bag with a big smile on face!!!
We have a 65 gallon hex reef with lots of coral and live rock...and a nasty white stripe Maroon clown . She picks on anything and everything and even will lift corals off ledges, and remove frags that I have just epoxy'd on...we decide that we need to get rid of her but how? We put the net into the tank so she wouldn't fear it and fed them all by it....almost had her twice but nope...we tried for over 3 weeks to catch her and were resigning ourself to keeping her...then we chatted with a fellow reefer and he suggested "fishing" for her. So off we go to the local tackle shop, tell him what we need and why (he of course looks at us like we are cracking up) and we pick up a #18 hook and some really fine line....debarbed it...and went fishing. After several attempts, one where we really didn't think we could do it and had no net ready...(refer to step #5), caught her and she got off, then rebaiting the hook as many others snapped up the food...we CAUGHT her! Now she is in a LARGE FOWLR tank and I am sure will be much happier (as will our fish!) Has a slight mark on her lip but ate within 5 minutes of getting into her new home. PHEW! Was I happy!

fishing in your own tank...man oh man.... as long as you do it without the boat you can buy barbless hooks you know

[Chaloupa]

Hey DanG...we caught her on the fishing line, then scooped under her so as not to pull too hard on the hook and line in her mouth and to not lose her if she managed to get off again....then right into a bucket...worked well!

Hey Subdued....we couldn't find any barbless so just bought what we could...now the boat would have been much more fun if only it would have fit on the top!

[DanG]

You really need to be careful with maroon clowns, they have a barb on their cheeks that can get caught in the net and rip when coming out of the net.

For next time anyways.

[Bartman]

I've heard people having good success by not feeding for a few days and then putting food in a jar, or other container, in the tank near the surface. Just pull it out when the fish you want is in there.

[Marcus K]

I tried for days when a friend told me to set the net in close to the RBTA just before lights when out. So I gave it a shot and first try with a upwards scoop I got him. But I'm not sure how he got back into the tank as my Maroon is still tossing frags around.

[fresh]

fishing in your tank is a very nice thing... you get to do 2 hobbies in 1... It is all good and stuff as long as you don't use cyanide lol