How To Catch/net Fish

I have a 75 gallon and am planning to transfer some of the fish to a 29 gallon. I am dreading the thought of capturing the fish that I want to transfer.

How do I successfully catch specific fish while avoiding stressing them out by chasing them around the tank, wreaking havoc on my plants?

From past experience, this can be both comical and frustrating at the same time LOL. There has to be a less stressful way for everyone.

 

I have a 75 gallon and am planning to transfer some of the fish to a 29 gallon. I am dreading the thought of capturing the fish that I want to transfer.

How do I successfully catch specific fish while avoiding stressing them out by chasing them around the tank, wreaking havoc on my plants?

From past experience, this can be both comical and frustrating at the same time LOL. There has to be a less stressful way for everyone.

For my fish, I get a Tupperware container that I can fit in the tank , dunk it in, put some fish food in it and wait for the fish to swim into it. Then I just scoop him out! Gotta trick them haha

 

Stressing them a bit is unfortunately unavoidable. The best way I found is to remove some of the hard scape if possible. Get a gigantic net and a smaller 1. If you catch 1 of your target fish with a few others that's fine. Just bring the big net up to the surface of the water and net the target fish out of the big net with the smaller net.

 

Youtube has some good videos on this. One in particular (can't remember which) showed setting a trap just off one corner with one net, then herding fish around the edge of the trap.
This mockup (mine) shows it better. Seen as if looking down on the tank, the red line is your stationary trap net, the arrows are where you herd your fish (hands work best). When your target comes around the corner and tries to swim across the front, close/lift your trap net.

 

If there is no immediate rush to move the fish then I wouldn't stress them out. When I have to move fish I try to catch them at feeding. If they feed at the top then it will be pretty simples to just get them in one sweeping motion. If you don't get them quickly I would try again the next day. No point in a long chase if there is no rush on the move!

 

You could also try doing it during a water change. With the lower water level, there's less area they can escape to. I always use 2 nets as well - 1 guides them toward the other.

 

Having recently had to go through something similar, there is no easy way to do this. In my case, I was trying to catch a dozen Rainbowfish from a planted 125G. What I found worked was have 2 nets, one larger black net, and one smaller green net. I would use the green net to herd the fish towards the larger black net and then catch the fish with the larger net. Dropping in some food first can help as the fish come to get food, you can then try to surprise a couple of them. Obviously, if you have a bunch of different fish in a community tank (or greedy juvenile angels) this can be difficult as they get in the way.

No matter what you do though after you have caught the first couple, the rest will soon figure out what you are doing and go into hiding. Making it more challenging to catch the remaining fish.

 

Having recently had to go through something similar, there is no easy way to do this. In my case, I was trying to catch a dozen Rainbowfish from a planted 125G. What I found worked was have 2 nets, one larger black net, and one smaller green net. I would use the green net to herd the fish towards the larger black net and then catch the fish with the larger net. Dropping in some food first can help as the fish come to get food, you can then try to surprise a couple of them. Obviously, if you have a bunch of different fish in a community tank (or greedy juvenile angels) this can be difficult as they get in the way.

No matter what you do though after you have caught the first couple, the rest will soon figure out what you are doing and go into hiding. Making it more challenging to catch the remaining fish.

This is one issue I’m not looking forward to. Luckily, like KO_ suggested, I can swap them over a few at a time

Love the details and graph. This is going in my aquatics arsenal