How to catch a Damsil?

I have a blue fin damsil nearing maturity and it's beating up my
dragonnet badly and my coral beauty showed up with wounds as well
(although I'm not sure what happened to it).

I pulled out the dragonnet, but the damsil is hard to catch. I tried
floating some food with the net ready, but damsil is quicker then the hand.

I see that there are fish traps. Do they work? Any other ideas?

--Kurt

I had a chalk BAsslet one time that was giving me fits, and I made a
trap. It was sucessfull in removing the basslet. The trap I made had a
pivoting door, not the typical funnel type trap. It was merely a box
of clear acrylic 2" wide x 6" high by 8" long. one one end it had
adoor that hinged on a piece of clea round acrylic. Placed food inside
at back of trap, hung trap off aquarium rim, with pivot rod extending
up out of the top of the tan, fish see and smell food, if worng fish
went to go in the trap I merely closed the door, when right fish
entered I justy turned rod and swung door closed. Pieceof cake.

Short of a spear gun or dynamite Damsels are tough fish to catch ;-)
In a web based forum, it seems to be a pretty common agreed on method
to use a tiny hook and actually go fishing in the tank. I do not know
if I would go to that extreme, but I just refuse to rip my live rock
apart to catch a fish. And with what IU have read thehook method is
very quick and effective and does not really harm the fish as long sa
the fish does not swallow the hook. Hook also needs to be made in to a
barbless hook to facilitate removal.

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006 13:56:49 -0500, KurtG
wrote:


I have a blue fin damsil nearing maturity and it's beating up my
dragonnet badly and my coral beauty showed up with wounds as well
(although I'm not sure what happened to it).

I pulled out the dragonnet, but the damsil is hard to catch. I tried
floating some food with the net ready, but damsil is quicker then the hand.

I see that there are fish traps. Do they work? Any other ideas?

--Kurt



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Tristan wrote:
And with what IU have read thehook method is
very quick and effective and does not really harm the fish as long sa
the fish does not swallow the hook. Hook also needs to be made in to a
barbless hook to facilitate removal.

Funny. The damsel definitely needs to come out, so I'll consider that.

I was going to pick up a 2 litre bottle of soda and see if I can fashion
a trap. And, check the useless LFS.

--Kurt

PS- Apparently, useless LFS is down to one sal****er tank.

Tristan wrote:
Short of a spear gun or dynamite Damsels are tough fish to catch ;-)


The 2 liter bottle trap caught my coral beauty and the offending damsel
in about 3 minutes. He's already in my quarantine tank.

I hope you weren't kidding about the fish hook. The smallest I could
find was #10 and it was just too big. Although, I almost nailed a Tang.
I pulled out the hook in the nick of time.

However, I gave up wondering if it was a joke. :-) A smaller hook
would have worked.

--Kurt

It's no joke, a tiny hook works best for the most
aggressive fish, ie the one that will be the first to take
the bait.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



KurtG wrote on 12/17/2006 7:25 PM:
Tristan wrote:
Short of a spear gun or dynamite Damsels are tough fish to catch ;-)


The 2 liter bottle trap caught my coral beauty and the offending damsel
in about 3 minutes. He's already in my quarantine tank.

I hope you weren't kidding about the fish hook. The smallest I could
find was #10 and it was just too big. Although, I almost nailed a Tang.
I pulled out the hook in the nick of time.

However, I gave up wondering if it was a joke. :-) A smaller hook
would have worked.

--Kurt

I kow in a lot of areas a small tiny hook is not the eaisest thing to
find. SOme folks use salmon egg hooks and others use a hook which
looks like a segment of a circle. You can always take a hook (as small
as yu can find), and heat it with a cigarette lighter to red hot and
use a needle nose pliers to reform the hook point to shank distance
to a smaller dimension, and then squeeze in the barb. Heating will
take the temper out of the hook which may be a problem if your trying
to catch dinner or looking for that world record fish, but a one time
deal on a aquarium fish it should not be a problem.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:43:33 GMT, Wayne Sallee
wrote:

It's no joke, a tiny hook works best for the most
aggressive fish, ie the one that will be the first to take
the bait.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



KurtG wrote on 12/17/2006 7:25 PM:
Tristan wrote:
Short of a spear gun or dynamite Damsels are tough fish to catch ;-)


The 2 liter bottle trap caught my coral beauty and the offending damsel
in about 3 minutes. He's already in my quarantine tank.

I hope you weren't kidding about the fish hook. The smallest I could
find was #10 and it was just too big. Although, I almost nailed a Tang.
I pulled out the hook in the nick of time.

However, I gave up wondering if it was a joke. :-) A smaller hook
would have worked.

--Kurt




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

I had to get rid of my damsels - man that was fun. I literally took
every live rock out of the tank to get them. But it was a blessing in
disguise because I rearranged the rock, and made the tank look better
in the process. But I like the fish hook idea!

KurtG wrote:
I have a blue fin damsil nearing maturity and it's beating up my
dragonnet badly and my coral beauty showed up with wounds as well
(although I'm not sure what happened to it).

I pulled out the dragonnet, but the damsil is hard to catch. I tried
floating some food with the net ready, but damsil is quicker then the hand.

I see that there are fish traps. Do they work? Any other ideas?

--Kurt

Take a 20 ox bottle of coke and cut the tappered mouth piece off of it. Take
the actual part where you drink from and stick it inside of the other side
of the bottle. (This is a makeshift trap). you can secure it with a drop of
crazy glue. Put the contraption aside for 2 or 3 days while you alow the
fish to go hungry. Put food inside the bottle and submerge it. The damsil
will go in for a tasty treat and will be unable to figure out how to
escape...
The trick is to make sure he is HUNGRY.
Good luck
"Joe" wrote in message
ups.com...
I had to get rid of my damsels - man that was fun. I literally took
every live rock out of the tank to get them. But it was a blessing in
disguise because I rearranged the rock, and made the tank look better
in the process. But I like the fish hook idea!

KurtG wrote:
I have a blue fin damsil nearing maturity and it's beating up my
dragonnet badly and my coral beauty showed up with wounds as well
(although I'm not sure what happened to it).

I pulled out the dragonnet, but the damsil is hard to catch. I tried
floating some food with the net ready, but damsil is quicker then the
hand.

I see that there are fish traps. Do they work? Any other ideas?

--Kurt

i learned the hard way that the best way to not have any problems with
Damsels, is to not have any Damsels in your tank.

i learned the hard way that the best way to not have any problems with
Damsels, is to not have any Damsels in your tank.

Yeah, but they make great starter fish, the problem is then you're stuck
with them..