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How to catch a SAE?

Ichthyologist

Member
Joined
1 Dec 2012
Messages
72
Location
East Renfrewshire
I have been chasing the bugger about for weeks now, he has started to recognise the net before it even gets in the tank. I built a bottle trap, it caught all the shrimp, but not him.

Any ideas?
 
Try the bottle trap again, place cucumber slices or algae wafers in there, that's how I caught mine, it takes patience...
 
I find that the best way to catch fish is to lie a clear pint glass down on the bottom of the tank in a corner and chase them into it with the net, my hand and then scoop the pint glass up with the net/hand over the top.
 
2 nets. 1 white one green. Use the white net to heard the green net to catch. For some reason the green nets seem less visible to fish. I discovered this whilst catching out my fish recently from a still hardscaped and semi planted tank :).....felt like sharing that with the young lad trying to catch my corys yesterday with a single white net. He was thrashing about all over squashing them against the glass and all sorts, its much more stress and hassle free with two nets.
 
Video please? :lol:

Joking aside though, if you get truely stumped I always find the best way is to drain the tank down as above. At least then you're only chasing in two dimensions rather than 3.
 
Thats how i catch mine if i need to Ady. I have a 350l bowfront corner tank and had to make my net the same curve as tank to stop fish escaping through the gaps. Clown loach are very hard to catch and removing lots of water and anything they can hide in makes in much easier. You wouldnt stand a chance in a planted tank, mind you clowns would have destroyed a planted tank long before you needed to remove them. I might try the glass trick next time if i can find one big enough.
 
Clown loach are very hard to catch

I disagree with that one. Clown loaches are very panicky - you need one big (really big) net and the second to scare them and cover the top once caught. Once they got to the big one, they are so keen to move forward, they never realise they can go back. So the big, deep net gives you a lot of time to take it out of water.
 
I have caught various loaches,plecos, by using a piece of PVC pipe with one end stuffed with filter flossand either glued to a rock or resting under a rock.
I place it in the tank, and over a period of a few day's I reach in the tank each morning and place my hand over the open end and then dump out the fish,loach.(they are curious creatures).
Not sure if SAE is as curious as loaches,plecos,but might be worth a try.
If tank is CO2 injected?? maybe briefly increasing the CO2 would send the fish to the surface where netting might be a bit easier.
 
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