*RESOLVED* Help!! Need to catch a German Blue Ram

[Dolbec Aqua Designs]

*PROBLEM RESOLVED*
Hello fish keepers! I have a bit of a problem.

I have two german blue rams who are bickering/fighting in a 32G aquarium (see picture). They used to be just fine (see full story below) but they now recently seem to hate eachother. 

I want to seperate them but it's super hard to catch them since they are way too quick, tiny and hide really well in the aquascape. I wish to find a way that to catch the fish without stressing them too much or risk hurting them and without having to completely tear down the aquarium.

Right now, I plan to get them used to the net when I feed bloodworms to be able to catch one ''easily''.

Please help me if you have first hand experience with this kind of matter. Thank you in advance!

 

Full history of the fish :

A year ago, two German Blue Rams (marked as ''golden'' although they seem more of a mix of regular GBR and golden rams) were sold to me as a pair. However I am pretty sure that they are of the same sex (from my readings it's hard to reliably tell between F/M). The aquarium has multiple hiding spots with plants, deadwood and rocks (see pictures). They were getting along, sharing the same hiding spots, swimming next to eachother, eating from the same spot so I originally thought they were a pair, but sometimes (rare) one would lightly chase the other one. It bothered me a bit as this is not a behaviour I see with my other fish, so I tried to net one but they are super quick, tiny and hide really well in the aquascape. I deemed it impossible to net one without causing more stress/injuries to the fish during the process or riping the whole aquarium apart. Since the chasing was light and would end as soon as it started, I decided that I was okay with keeping things this way.

However, it's now been a whole year since I purchased them and recently (since last week) they have switched to a more agressive behaviour. I decided to wait a bit to see if this would resolve itself and make sure it was not a one time thing. But the behaviour did not go away and so now I am seriously considering separating them because this time I fear for the health of the fish. They seem to openely challenge (see picture) one another (especially around feeding time) and it's not the occasional light chase as they now trade pecks at eachother. I have tried to feed differently by spreadind the food around to reduce agression over food but it does not work. I have tried increasing the amount of food/feedings but this behaviour didn't go away. We are now back to my original problem of catching them without causing more harm or totally ripping the aquarium apart.

Since I can get the Rams to come to the surface when I am feeding blood worms with a pipette, I am considering to get them used to the net during feedings and hopefully I'll be able to catch one by quickly raising the net. Please help me if you have any experience with this kind of situation.
Thank you in advance!!

Edited August 25, 2021 by Dolbec Aqua Designs
Problem resolved

[Patrick_G]

I’ve had success using two nets one for catching and one to direct the fish. 
Beautiful aquascape BTW! 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Patrick_G

[Odd Duck]

You can make a fish trap from a water or soda bottle, but you’ll likely need o find a bottle with a larger mouth for rams.  Maybe a Gatorade type bottle?  I’ll post pics of mine that’s a soda bottle.  I’m looking for a bottle with a bigger mouth since I think I’ll need to be able to catch cories out of my 100 gallon.

The trick is finding a bottle that has a bulge you can use to hold the top that is inverted into a funnel, and cutting the top just right so it kind of snaps into place.  I added a couple layers of plastic wrap to help prevent escapes once caught.  The plastic wrap is held in place by the ring that stays on after opening the bottle.

[Dolbec Aqua Designs]

Thanks everyone for the tips!

This morning I was able to feed bloodworms and a ram went into the net, I lifted and got it. They were really sceptic about the net but I was able to make it work quick and easy.