namehater

im thinning out my yellow lab population. i traded some yellow labs off the other day and spent 30min trying to catch 3. i had to take out all my rock-work and completely stress everyone in the tank to accomplish it. im looking for alternative ways to catching more of these guys.

from googling, the best result i get is cutting the top off of a 2-liter bottle and reinserting it as a funnel. seems like it will be a pretty effective method, i was just wondering if anybody else has any methods.

charlenelc

Get an even bigger net lol and use two! One to chase into the other. I've tried the soda bottle way. It doesn't really work, they see me when I'm coming and swim right out of there.

I was venting my mbuna the other day and I had to pull out all the lace rock and plants too. Totally feel your pain.

namehater

have you ever seen the nets that have a clear bag in place of the net? ive seen them around the web, on youtube theres a video of someone catching a discus with it and the fish not even flinching. the idea seems pretty far fetched tho, my labs are way to skittish for it to be that easy. maybe ill try making one of those bag/nets after i buy some new big nets lol.

Amanda

Drain the tank down to half way, the fish have less water to get away in. Use something to block off half of the tank, and herd them together. That's what I did when I was selling my african cichlids.

charlenelc

Man, my guys are crazy skittish too! They are shy as heck and run away from me everytime I come towards the tank, except when I'm holding the red can of food. They are so smart <_<

I haven't seen those bag nets before, but they sound unrealistic. The thing I find it fault with that idea is that the fish's fins might easily pop a hole in the bag or rip it. I know they are really sharp and stiff, one of the larger male's anal almost pierced my finger. SA/CA cichlids are even worst, my rainbow's anal fin cut my finger.

namehater

watch where you put your fingers, lol

i think they bags they were using werent typical zip-lock type bags, probably something a bit thicker, here are my work we have some clear-ish plastic bags that are 4mil thick, dont think fins would give it any trouble

Angela_96

I always go ahead and take all the rocks out of the tank, I try to do that once a week anyways to vaccum good so if I need to move fish, etc I do it then.

charlenelc

But you gotta put water resistance into that equation too. There are no holes, so either you wait for it to swim in to the bag or you push it away while chasing it. I don't think you are going to spend a lot of time punching holes lol.

That makes me think that the clear quart size containers might be a good idea if compared to the bag net method.