DIY fish trap...

I need to catch my CAE (only 1"). He's too fast to net, tried all day. I need him in another tank for algae control asap. I tried putting food in a bottle left floating in tank overnight, no luck.
Any ideas? (can't be too big, don't want to trap goldfish)

 

I imagine you've removed whatever decor is in the tank?

I had a dickens of a time with my zebra danios. And I've found that the only way I can catch these zoomer type of fish is a double net method. I hold a net about half way down the length of the tank so that they think that's coming towards them, and they end up coming towards the net I'm actually ready to swoop them with. It usually works.

 

You could try removing all the ornaments in the tank and cornering the CAE to catch it.

I got Ninja'd

 

The double net worked. I got a big net that went from wall to wall and finally got him! He's in the tetra tank and not too happy. TOO BAD

 

dr. fosters grant has a multipurpose acclimation tank and trap for about forty but for a diy route I have been using a 3 way breeder to catch my baby bn plecos in my show tank. I place a couple of algae wafers in the breeder then put the bottom grate in the breeder. then I sink it to the bottom of the tank. You could do the same with a breeder trap or net. Got about 20 one time using the breeder trap.

 

What I usually do is take a plastic 2 litre pop bottle, clean it out and cut off the label. then cut off the spout so that there is a hole big enough for the fish to fit through. Then, cut the top of the bottle off about 1/2" below where the top of the label was and invert the top part into the bottle. It will look like this