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catching a clown?

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anemone clown corals feeding fish par red sump tang tank top tubs
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dragon174

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
okay... i have two ocellaris clowns (tank raised) that i had in my other tank. they are absolutely beautiful, but they have picked on my clarkii clowns ever since i put them together. my clarkii clowns are much smaller and hide all of the time becuase the ocellaris chase them around any time they come out of hidding.

originally i thought that this would go away once they established a teritory, but it continues. which clowns should i part with and what is the best way to catch them?

i would like to not tear apart the entire tank if i don't have to, but if i do, what is the best way not to screw up the tank cycle if i do?

thanks
 
#2 ·
to catch fish I take a 2 liter bottle, cut the pour spout off it, so its big enough for the fish to swim in. Then I go down maybe 4 or 5" from the top of the bottle and I cut that off...

Then I go down about 3 more inches and cut that off, discard that piece.

So now you will have the top of the bottle, with the neck cut off and you will have the bottom of the bottle... the middle of the bottle is discarded.

Now take the top flip it over and put it inside the bottom of the bottle.

Now just put it in the tank for the fish to get use to then add food inside the bottom and lure him into it somehow, have a net ready. He should swim in there and will be confused enought to give you time to catch him.

heres a drawing of how the trap should kind of look
Image
 
#6 ·
When I was trying to catch an evil damsel I handily caught our pair of clowns five or six times with the pop bottle trap as described above. I skipped feeding for a day or so then baited with frozen formula two. I never did catch the damsel with the trap though. If you have a tang or other biggish fish in there be careful it doesn't get stuck in the bottle trap's hole. It's not fun getting them unstuck.
 
#7 ·
I'd say of just about every fish I've had, clowns are the easiest far and away to catch - especially occys, percs, maroons...

They practically swim into the net... If you have an anemone with them, they'll always run there for cover, and makes it even easier...

You *should* just be able to net them - they are slow, lousy, swimmers - not nearly the challenge of a damsel, blennie, etc...
 
#8 ·
Yep, when we moved ours out of quarantine they were the easiest catch ever. I got the pair in one scoop. It was just the same when we upgraded them out of the 75 to a 90.

I'd keep the clarkiis, just because the ocellaris have already demonstrated their aggressive tendencies and might just bring up more difficulties if you add any other small fish to the tank in the future. I'm sure you could find a good home for either pair. Or just put them in your quarantine or sump until you can cycle another tank for them. ;)
 
#9 ·
If they are truly hard to catch this is how we caught the evil damsel and we experienced no cycle issues:

We siphoned off some tank water into rubbermaid tubs and removed most of the corals into them so they wouldn't get hurt and put some of the LR into other rubbermaid tubs. We chased and chased the little (bleep) until we came up with a better plan. We put all of the remaining LR onto one side of the tank and used a tank divider (actually we used a versatop but anything flattish and big enough to block one side from the other should work) to separate the two sides of the tank. We eventually spooked the damsel onto the no LR side and netted him after five or six tries. We tossed him into the sump then returned the LR then the corals to the tank.

Everyone came out fine. We bagged the damsel up and took him to the LFS.
 
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