Need Help to Capture a SAE in my tank!

[cube]

Hi good people of AQ,

I have 1x SAE in my planted tank thats outgrowing every other livestock in my tank, its now a big bully and harassing all my tetras n shrimps that swims near it. I tried netting it out, Its impossible to capture it... Any recommendations?

[David]

Lower your water level to about half. Use two nets one large as a blockage to reduce space and a small net as the chaser.

Herd the SAE with the small net to the larger net.

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

Hi good people of AQ,

I have 1x SAE in my planted tank thats outgrowing every other livestock in my tank, its now a big bully and harassing all my tetras n shrimps that swims near it. I tried netting it out, Its impossible to capture it... Any recommendations?

Haha... I am facing the same issue, been camping at my tank for 1 whole night to try get the 3 musketeers out of my tank. So far only succeeded to capture 1 of them.

They are always feeding on my tubifex worm that I left for my puffer fish, I camp there with a container beside it. Once the SAE starts munching on it, I slowly move the container from bottom up, this trapping it together with the feeding container with the tubifex worms.

Any others out there have got a better way?

[limz_777]

use fish trap to trap it

[PKB]

1 ) Lights off at night for 1 or 2 hrs. Then try catching them.

2 ) Put some Tubi in a mineral water bottle and leave it in the tank as a trap. Once they go in cover the entrance with a net and slowly remove the bottle.

[David]

PKB sounds like a good plan

[felix_fx2]

use 2 nets is my prefered method. cause i have...... erm.... erm.... 5-6 nets of many sizes at home.
or
cut a 1.5L bottle and make it funnel in. use something the sae has been feeding madly on as bait. ( i use this to catch loach/annoying fish)

[cube]

Thanks guys ! I had successfully just ' Detained' this fugitive SAE, I simply just used a 500ml mineral water bottle filled with his favorite algae wafer as bait and placed it uncapped in the tank, after a couple of minutes , it swam into the bottom of the bottle to feed on the bait, I quickly covered the bottle opening with a net and voila!! Captured it ! Sweat less and quick ! No ' deforestation' of my plants or playing 'Shepard' with multiple fish nets!

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

Nice! Me too, I just captured the terror of 3 terror, the biggest terror. I left a 125ml bottle half submerged in the tank half filled with water. I placed it in such a way that it is slanted and place their favour tubifex worms at the back of the bottle. Went out and came back home to see the terror lying comfortably in there. I just went over to the tank and tilted the bottle upright. And it is trap in the bottle. 2 down, 1 to go. By the way, it is best done when lights are off.


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[David]

Wonderful. Just a gentle reminder not to 'donate' the SAEs into our reservoir or waterways...

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

They are currently in another small little tank of mine with plenty of food.


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[ConcaveLiNkiN]

UPDATES! Finally got all 3 terrors out of my tank. Crack my my brain a little to get the last terror out of the tank, need to set a trap with cut bottle and tubifex worms. Anyway, all 3 terrors safely out of my main tank without much struggle and happily chasing one another in a small tank.


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[blue33]

Fish trap is dangerous if left unattended, they will deprive from oxygen and get the fish to drown. Best method is to use a big net facing to the front glass panel and left some opening, throw some food inside the net, the greedy SAE will come in and eat the food and you just scoop them up easily.

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

This is the fish trap I DIY, hope it might be helpful to some of us here:



The moment the trap went into my tank, I monitored it and it was only a short period where the SAE will explore the new object and when it finally felt comfortable, it swam up the bottle for the bait.

Using two nets to catch them is impossible for my 2ft tank as my hardscape and plants occupied most of the space. And not to mention, my SAEs had a thing about nets. The moment I brought out my net waiting at the top of the tank, it will never never come out of its hiding. But when I changed the net to my tweezer, it happily swim out in the open. That is how clever they are.

[David]

Why so complicated? Just drain out all the tank water and you can even use your fingers to pick out the SAEs....joking joking...

[ConcaveLiNkiN]

Why so complicated? Just drain out all the tank water and you can even use your fingers to pick out the SAEs....joking joking...

Alamak, then all the other fishes also jumping around.

I am telling you, these terrors are really clever. They can recognise my green net, perhaps I should had change the color of my net before setting up the trap. They might had fell for it. Haha...


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[kebab7]

Lower your water level to about half. Use two nets one large as a blockage to reduce space and a small net as the chaser.

Herd the SAE with the small net to the larger net.

This method is useful for catching shrimps too. Used to do that to capture wild shrimps in the wild.

[takaco]

remove all accessories then can catch already

[qngwn]

fill the tank to the brim.. use nets to corner it and it will jump out of the tank..get some help catching the falling SAE

[hyperoko]

I also having a hard time for catching


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