Which fish to breed - please advise

[beastie]

Hi guys. My white cloud minnow fry is nearly large enough to be moved to the adult tank, so I am thinking, since I already culture stuff I might try to breed something else.

I have four options:

bolivian rams - but they sell here under one euro on fish fairs I highly doubt I will have people to buy those and I do not have place to house them if they remain

ember tetras

rummynose tetras (I have the bleheri)

otocinclus - some of mine have been in the tank for over a year, I have six, seven, eight, I do not know. I heard about accidental spawning if I move the group to the cube and they like it, fry might survive.

 

While I would appreciate help with picking what fish would be best/made most sense for my 40x40x40cm cube, the main issue I have is HOW DO I CATCH THE FISH?! All of those are in my 360liter tank, 120x50x60cm

Since I considered otocinclus, I have not seen even one in my tank, especially not sucking on the glass since I did some redesign, where they would be easily caught. They are hidden in a wood pile. Once I had to catch rummynose that was sick and it took me two or three days and all tank was stressed. When I caught all of my sterbais at some point, I had to raise all the hardscape. I love using a bottle trap, but I can only catch the fish I am not trying to catch. Even if I use a small 0,5l bottle with very narrow entrance, I will always end up with two or three bolivian rams, some sterbais. If I try to catch sterbais, I will catch 5 rummynose tetra that are like 5 cm large and absolutely should not ever fit in the stupid small bottle.

Guys like @TheSwissAquarist how do you do that?! 

Thank you

[TheSwissAquarist]

Try removing most of the decorations (hard scape etc) or leave the net in there for them to become accustomed to it. Maybe try putting the woodpile in the net (I hope you have a big one) and leave and come back in 10 mins and see how many returned to the wood pile in the meantime. Have you seen the ACO video on how to catch fish? 

Good luck! @Cory may have some recommendations on how to catch fish out of big tanks. 

[beastie]

like a 100 cm long net? to accommodate the wood pile? :))

I will have to mentally prepare myself, last time I had to ask my boyfriend to help catch the rummynose, we used two nets, hands and it will be quicker this time if I just climb in the tank and catch it in hand or something 😄 buggers are fast, unlike embers. Also unlike minnows that will climb into the net, cause it is there, same as drain pipes, cleaning buckets, anywhere

 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Try partly draining the tank. I’ve seen people “cordoning” parts of tanks off with old mattenfilters.