Catching a fish in an heavily planted tank

[heelllooo]

Hello everyone,

I neef too catch a young male apisto in an heavily planted tank.

I've catch more than 50 youngs in this tank recently with a lot of patience but this male I just can't. I've been trying for 3 days.

He is very secretive and stays behind the plant mass most of the time and I can't get close to the tank without him disappearing.

I really don't want to dismantle the tank after all that effort.

Any tips or technique ?

 

[martin_c]

Hi,
that sure is a painful part of our hobby.
Some inspiration:

Actively chasing with a net is way more difficult than chasing the fish into the net while it stands perfectly still (with another net or a stick). So you could place a net in the back of your tank and then try to chase the fish into it.

There are transparent catch bowls available that are quite useful. You can add live tubifex into it to lure the fish into it.

Placing short pvc pipes on the ground of the tank and wait for the fish to investigate / take shelter in it, then put your net on one end and move it out.

 

[haveagoodtime]

what about draining some water temporarily? Might make it easier to catch him with less space to swim. But be careful not to stress him out too much. Just an idea, might be risky.

 

[Mazan]

I have had success with traps made of plastic drink bottles. Simply cut the top off and invert it inside the bottle to make a funnel. Make a hole in the bottle so that it sinks easily. Put some food (preferably live) in the bottle and place it at the bottom of the tank. Then wait until your Apistogramma goes in.

 

[Mazan]

what about draining some water temporarily? Might make it easier to catch him with less space to swim. But be careful not to stress him out too much. Just an idea, might be risky.

This method doesn’t work so well in densely planted tanks.

 

[KenL]

This method doesn’t work so well in densely planted tanks.

Worth a try, no?

 

[MacZ]

Worth a try, no?

Plants can be pushed aside better if submerged, also if by accident the fish in question is taking refuge in the thicket while the waterline is dropping it's possible the fish will be hard to even find, let alone the risk of it being trapped above the waterline unnoticed.
So it has more downsides than practical use.

 

[Mazan]

Exactly, as the water level goes down the plants occupy more and more of the space, some will flop over, it will be really hard to see where the fish is hiding and very hard to move a net around. The trap method works well with very little disturbance to fish or plants. The only downside is that, if there are other fish in the tank, you might get the wrong fish first, but just let it go and try again.