Need Help Catching Fish

[Thunder32]

Greeting's All:

Recently in my 90 Gallon SPS mixed tank I had an outbreak of "Ick". I've been removing all my fish to a quarantine tank but I'm having problems catching my hawkfish. I've tried numerous bottle traps, and even purchased the "Aquamedic" fish trap to no avail. I've tried numerous foods to try and get him into the trap - flake, brine, mysis, a type of gel tab, and have gotten nowhere. I tried adding a mirror to the trap. Lowering any type of glass partition to corner the fish won't work as my live rock landscape covers allot of the tank - and in all honesty, he's just to quick. Also, removing any rock will not work as most of my corals are growing, and attached to rock (my corals are my main priority). To make matters worse I know he's laughing at me the whole time. At this point I'm at wits end thinking of what I can do. This has been going on now for almost 4 weeks!!!! Moving these traps in and out of my tank, adding food, and just the disruption of the care of my tank is beginning to affect my corals, and this I cannot allow!!! Anyone that can offer help would be appreciated!

[fishmate]

I say leave the hawk in the tank. Hawkfish are very resilient when healthy. If it is not exhibiting any signs of ich, stop stressing out the fish and yourself.

[RayL]

I dont think leaving him in is the right choice, to clear ich completely from your tank, it has to be fish-less.

have you tried taking out water and giving him less spaces to go. If you drain the water into buckets, it will be much easier to catch him and then you can add the water back

[bnumair]

hawks are not immune to ich. i would try to get it out. i know this sounds lot of work but i have removed most of the water and then caught fish easier in few inches than whole tank.

[seanm001]

After trying netting, various traps, and all the usual methods of catching every last fish to run them thru QT and finally clear the ich in my tank, I invented a nice little tool for catching sneaky fish.

I took a square piece of clear mesh netting about 12" square (left over from making mesh covers for the tank), tied one piece of thin fishing line to each corner, then tied those four together onto one long piece of fishing line.

I turn off the flow in the tank, lay the net flat on the bottom of the tank, and run the long piece of string out of the tank. And wait. Sometimes I bury the netting a bit in the sand to keep it in place, sometimes I put some food in the middle of the net to lure my target, sometimes I sit on the floor 5 feet away so I'm inconspicuous, turn the lights off and use a red flashlight, whatever it takes, but I sit and hold the end of the string. If it's a bottom dweller going after the bait, then I just wait until it's in the middle of the net. If it's a swimmer, then I wait until it's swimming above the net.

And when the moment is right, just give a solid yank on the string. That will pull the four corners of the netting up and together, trapping the fish. Keep pulling until the fish is out of the water, and bang, you got yourself a sneaky fish.

[Thunder32]

Thanks everyone for the input so far. Yes, leaving the fish in the tank isn't an option and I need the tank fallow to get rid of the disease. I have thought about removing the water, and I was kinda keeping this for a last resort kinda thing. Thank's again - Thunder.