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Re: Catching SAEs -- Netting Success & Bottled Up Rewards



---Eric Wahlig said, in part:

> Regarding catching fish in a heavily planted tank, Rachel asked: >How
> do I 
> catch them?
> 
> . . .Another option, and the least destructive I think, involves a 
>  lot of 
> patients. First, I stop feeding the fish for several days. Then I
> take a 
> large fine-mesh net and put one sinking food pellet (or food tablet)
> into 
> the net and put the net into the tank up against the glass panel
> leaving 
> about a 2 inch gap. Then I wait for the right fish to enter the net
> to eat. 
> If the food gets eaten by other fish I just replace the pellet with
> another 
> one. If there are several fish in the net feeding and the one you
> want 
> enters, take them all and separate them later. This can take quite a
> while 
> but eventually I get the right fish caught without destroying the
> plants. I 
> have not used the various traps that are available.

This works. Sometimes it's better at night when the fish are pokier.  
Someone said in the morning, before light, you can just net them
without trouble.  I haven't found that to be so.  SAE's seem to me to
have excellent memories about nets -- once they've been scooped they
avoid the hoop.  But food will lure any fish back, eventually, even
those with "net" memories.

You can do pretty much the same thing with a bottle trap and not have
to wait around for the fish to enter -- however, it can take longer,
since, when you catch the wrong fish, you don't release it and reset
the trap until you return.  As for "bottle" memories, I have caught the
same individual fish multiple times in a bottle trap, even SAEs.  Some
individuals get wise but some never catch on -- or else they just don't
mind the risk for food ;-)

Good luck,
Scott H.

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