Need a good fish trap to catch a spastic sailfin tang

revenant · Mar 25, 2021

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the fish section but I want to buy aquarium hardware so I landed here. I have a sailfin tang which is getting really aggro, really territorial about food and keeps my foxface hiding all day and is bugging everyone (including me) with it's crazy fast swooping in and out of caves and such.. She also hides a LOT and gets really skittish at times... I have a lot of LR in the tank... pulling the scape apart would be really really unfun.. I have soft corals all over rocks now.. Anyways I suspect it's on the cusp of outgrowing or has outgrown my tank (100G long).. this behavior has built up over time as the tang gets larger.. shes is about 4 inches compressed and 6ish in peacock mode. I want to catch her using a trap but she's so wicked fast...

I found this: Glass Door Fish Trap (11" x 7" x 7") - Aqua Medic but it is no longer available ....

My tank has a lip at the top with only two openings which are about 12x20 inches so I have solid acrylic top all around the rim for a good four or five inches.. which makes these traps which suction on and require direct overhead access to work properly problematic. I can add pics later... at any rate.. She goes crazy for frozen food and nori so that much is good.. What kind of trap do you all recommend??

cylon032 · Mar 25, 2021

Had the same issue except almost all my fish ended up dying so I had to take him out. I used a regular acclimation box . I just put the box in at an angle and a clip with nori in it once it swam in just close the top. I was surprised how fast I caught it. You could also put the box upside down and tie a fishing line to the lid if it wouldn’t work with the lid from the top.

revenant · Mar 25, 2021

Looks promising.. I need to flip closed like lightning fast though.. thanks for the info and link.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 25, 2021

Ive done the traps with the doors. The idea is to use magnets and fish line so you can stand way back and pull the fish line to release the door.

Bait with fish food obviously. Lol

Ive seen these bubble ring globe type though recently on instagram that look promising.

U pull the line and it releases the whole trap and the yellow floaty ring basically floats the whole trap to the surface catching the fish.
Hths
D

revenant · Mar 25, 2021

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
Ive done the traps with the doors. The idea is to use magnets and fish line so you can stand way back and pull the fish line to release the door.

Bait with fish food obviously. Lol

Ive seen these bubble ring globe type though recently on instagram that look promising.

U pull the line and it releases the whole trap and the yellow floaty ring basically floats the whole trap to the surface catching the fish.
Hths
D

Yup... seen both.. the one trap I like which is OOS has a nice glass door which shuts fast because it's heavy.. I was hoping to find something like that... but maybe the floaty ones might work too.. not sure if the sailfin might be able to swim out while it's going up but it's clear so maybe it would try and swim down and then get trapped...

revenant · Mar 25, 2021

Looking at this one ... seems like my best bet.. that and some fishing line.

TankMatez - The Holy Grail Of Fish Traps!

TankMatez is committed to saving fish keepers time and money by offering the most effective Eco-friendly aquatic products on the market. Our goal is to make caring for fish safer and easier. Catering to the small fish owner all the way to large exotic aquariums; TankMatez has the solution to...

www.tankmatez.com