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Foiled by one inch of fish!


PineSong
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In a lightbulb moment I realized it's crazy to have 4 male guppies in the underpopulated 29g keeping me from moving females from the very overcrowded female guppy tank into it.

"I'll just move those four guys out, and then I can add 20 or so of the 5,235 female guppies currently living in the 20 tall", I said.

Guppies being guppies, I caught the first two males just by putting a net near the surface and waiting for them to hop in.

Male #3 had no intention of leaving the 29 and attempted to outpace the net. Sadly for him, he's a hybrid with a tiny Endler body and the dramatically oversized Moscow tail he has to drag around prevented him from escaping. He was promptly relocated to the kitchen tank.

Male # 4 is an Endler hybrid with a sporty short tail and a body built for speed. Four days later he is still in the 29. I cannot catch him.

After five attempts he hid for two days, leading me to believe that my attempts to net him had accidentally killed him. I could not find a body, but also could not find him. I unplugged the filter and air, poked through the plants with a chopstick. No guppy. 

Luckily I know from experience that guppies are diabolical, so I did not add females just yet. I waited him out.

On day three, he emerged when he thought I was out of the room. All I caught was a glimpse of him darting back behind the coconut husk.

I tried catching him after dark. No luck. I tried feeding frozen BBS to lure him out. No luck.

So now it's the weekend, a perfect time for working on tanks and moving guppy girls, but no. 

I hate the depth of the 29 and loathe putting my hands into it, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to in order to remove the filter and all the wood he hides behind. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The culprit:

IMG_2271.jpg.8176a9b6c19654d3a08d540f67387bce.jpg

 

 

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You might try making a soda bottle fish trap and feed only in the trap over the next few days.  You may need to hang it from the side so it’s at the level where you expect him to be.

 

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The plastic wrap serves as a baffle to minimize the chance of the fish finding their way back out.

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On 12/31/2022 at 11:30 AM, PineSong said:

I hate the depth of the 29 and loathe putting my hands into it, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to in order to remove the filter and all the wood he hides behind. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I'll try to find a SKU or something, but I use a black small net with an extra long handle that I got from the big box store.  Seachem has a new line of nets I really thing are nice too.  The advantage being it's good mesh, but comes in about 10+ different sizes with one of the main factors just being the same basket size, but longer or shorter handles. 

I tend to be very, very specific about my net choice just because of how I catch fish I guess.... maybe I'm just one who is always particular when it comes to certain design preferences.

The one I have is like this, but black (longer handle one).

Best aquarium fish nets for your fish tank (Over 30 tested)

Here's what Seachem has that might be equivalent.  Still can't seem to find these anywhere, but gives you a sku to search for or something maybe you can find locally.
image.png.268f5d048714d99c17bc8a42eae15600.png

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Thanks for the empathy, guys, and the clever fish trap how-to, @Odd Duck!

I had no soda bottles so I thought I could try with a mason jar, but decided to try to net him one more time using my most "zen" mode of putting on a soothing Keith Morrison episode of the Dateline podcast, removing half the water, all the large rocks and  a 2g bucketful plants. Got him! He is safely tucked into the kitchen tank with his compadres.

I moved several scoops of female guppies and Kevin the baby angelfish to the 29g, then put in my OG white cloud and the new baby white clouds I got him for company in there, too. So now both the 20g tall and the 29g are much more balanced in stocking levels. Tomorrow I will tackle the out of control plant situation and bring in the new year with things officially spruced!

On 12/31/2022 at 6:26 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I'll try to find a SKU or something, but I use a black small net with an extra long handle that I got from the big box store.  Seachem has a new line of nets I really thing are nice too.  The advantage being it's good mesh, but comes in about 10+ different sizes with one of the main factors just being the same basket size, but longer or shorter handles. 

I tend to be very, very specific about my net choice just because of how I catch fish I guess.... maybe I'm just one who is always particular when it comes to certain design preferences.

The one I have is like this, but black (longer handle one).

Best aquarium fish nets for your fish tank (Over 30 tested)

Here's what Seachem has that might be equivalent.  Still can't seem to find these anywhere, but gives you a sku to search for or something maybe you can find locally.
image.png.268f5d048714d99c17bc8a42eae15600.png

Thank you. I'm also very fond of particular nets for different tasks/reasons!

I have a large "telescoping" shrimp net that I use, which is long but it isn't long enough to reach the bottom unless I remove water first. Today I took out about 10 gallons and after I nabbed the guppy I put them back in. 

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I know what he wants....

Get a friend to help. Put some pretty females in a net and suspend it into the tank an inch out 2, or maybe use a breeder box with a lot of water flowing through it. He is lonely and scared and has no one to warn him when that net is hovering over the tank.  He wants the safety of other guppies and if they are female, so much the better. He will be looking at the new fish in the tank, not at some boring old net sneaking up on him.

Try it, he'll like it.

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On 1/1/2023 at 11:06 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I just spent about two hours netting seven Amano shrimp out of one tank to move to another and definitely said out loud "how was Forrest Gump able to do this when he couldn't even see them!?"

Thank you for making me feel like I’m not the only one! Two hours for seven shrimp is definitely a Keith Morrison episode for me!

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 12/31/2022 at 11:30 AM, PineSong said:

I hate the depth of the 29 and loathe putting my hands into it, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to in order to remove the filter and all the wood he hides behind. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The culprit:

Grabbed a new one just to see how it worked.  Here are my thoughts. I snagged a photo of the long handled version on my 29 just so you could see the length on the handle with that tank.  Hopefully helpful for you!
 

 

Edited by nabokovfan87
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