Dismantiling rockwork to catch clown gobies

[Tomoko Schum]

I need to catch my two yellow clown gobies out of my 180. I've lost enough acroporas due to their constantly chewing and irritating the skins of my acros. My aquascape could use some rearrangement. I will definitely be dismantling the rockwork and rearranging it if I were to catch these guys.

One thing that I am really concerned about is disturbing and stressing corals. Every time that I had to rearrange my aquascape in the past for capturing fish or upgrading to a bigger tank, I seem to get a number of casualties.

Have any of you reset your tank successfully without losing corals and fish? Do you have any suggestion for minimizing the loss?

I will make a large amount of fresh salt water and have a number of containers available to hold corals and fish. I will have a large bucket to rinse off live rocks to get rid of accumulated detritus.

Is there anything that I should do to make this work less stressful (to me and to my poor inmates) ?

 

[H@rry]

I think that's about all you can do. When I did that a couple of years ago I had some RTN issues and loss of color for a month or so. I stirred up so much detritus from the bottom that I couldn't see the back glass for a couple of hours. I later realized that I probably released some PO4 from under the rocks. Since then if I move very much stuff I have the cannister filter going. You might hve some carbon and GFO ready too.

 

[navila06]

I did this this weekend to remove a blue tang. I did it before the lights came on so I knew where the tang liked to hide overnight, this made it to where I only had to take out a 3rd of the rock work. So far no issues.

 

[aslmx]

I made a diy drop door fish trap to catch a 6 line. You might could try that before you start tearing it apart.

 

[markkazdad]

I'd be interested in your gobies. I have a lonely pistol shrimp.

 

[JSB]

Tomoko,

I have a plexiglass drop-door fish trap if you want to try it, before you go stirring things up. It will likely require some patience, but may be worth it.

 

[Duffam3434]

I made a diy drop door fish trap to catch a 6 line. You might could try that before you start tearing it apart.

That's a Good Idea! I always try to find a way to make the fish come to me.

 

[Chameleon]

I have always lost fish or corals when doing anything of that magnitude, but it sounds like your plans will minimize losses. Maybe try to set up a temporary tank with some of your current water and rock where your acros can reside during the nutrient spike in your display. I'd imagine after a month or so things would go back to normal in the display, maybe faster with aggressive skimming and gfo. My biggest problem was keeping alk, salinity, and temp constant in temporary tanks, because I never took the time to dial in my dosers and set up the ato on the temporary tanks and that is where most of my losses occurred. Also have a lot of fresh saltwater on hand for water changes.

 

[navila06]

I forgot to add I took out the rock to get the blue tang out during a water change, so i used the take out water in a tub to house the rockwork. The hole process added about 30 minutes to my water change.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you guys!

I am watching my tank in the wee hours of morning to see where the little buggers are sleeping at. I found one wedged in-between a large poci frag (more of a small colony) and a large frag of tri-color acro on my frag tray. The corals are kinda growing into each other and the little yellow fish squeezes itself in the middle of the tangle. I don't know where the other one sleeps at. :noidea:

Scott - I might hit you up on the trap before I dismantle the tank. I probably have to bait the trap with newly hatched bbs or something like that.

To be honest I am not sure if they will go into a trap but I can try. They typically hang out in the middle of intricately intertwining acropora branches. They also swims around going from acros to acros like a pair of butterflies all day long :mad2: I chase the little fish with my net, but I am too slow and always end up getting my net caught in acro branches :frusty:

Markkasdad - these are not yellow watchman gobies. They won't live with your pistol shrimp. Their natural habitat is pocillopora.

 

[JSB]

Scott - I might hit you up on the trap before I dismantle the tank. I probably have to bait the trap with newly hatched bbs or something like that.

To be honest I am not sure if they will go into a trap but I can try. They typically hang out in the middle of intricately intertwining acropora branches. They also swims around going from acros to acros like a pair of butterflies all day long :mad2: I chase the little fish with my net, but I am too slow and always end up getting my net caught in acro branches :frusty:

Well, you might be able to chase them into the box with the net, as the opening is about 8"x2.5", however it would be a frustrating exercise. Oh, and while you chase, Riley will have to man the trap door release string. Or, you could grow out a pocillopora frag, put it in the trap and wait for them to butterfly in.:bigsmile: Either way, you are welcome to it, just let me know.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Reilly will be glad to oblige, I am sure. He is up in Canada right now fishing for big Walleyes. I'd rather go down to Caribbean islands for 7 days of diving instead of fighting man-eating mosquitos for 7 days in Canada.

 

[H@rry]

I agree with Scott; if you can trap them that will save a lot of headache. I tried for two weeks to catch a Powder Blue with nets and fish hooks all to no avail. I finally made a trap out of the bottle ARM comes in and put it in the corner of the tank. Two weeks later I noticed him in the bottle, pulled the string, and voila!

 

[navila06]

I seems we have had luck with each other unlucky methods. I tried for weeks to catch a chromis using the bottle method. Where the hook method only took 3 minutes...lol

I agree with Scott; if you can trap them that will save a lot of headache. I tried for two weeks to catch a Powder Blue with nets and fish hooks all to no avail. I finally made a trap out of the bottle ARM comes in and put it in the corner of the tank. Two weeks later I noticed him in the bottle, pulled the string, and voila!

 

[JSB]

I'd rather go down to Caribbean islands for 7 days of diving instead of fighting man-eating mosquitos for 7 days in Canada.

So would I!

I agree with Scott;

Remarkably, so do I.

Seriously though, if you want to use it for a month or more, to try to avoid a tear down, I have no problem with it.

 

[aslmx]

I put the trap in and left it for a few days and fed normally before I went fishing. I was lucky and caught that greedy p.o.s. in five minutes. I did find him a new home to terrorise.:fish:

 

[markkazdad]

Markkasdad - these are not yellow watchman gobies. They won't live with your pistol shrimp. Their natural habitat is pocillopora.

Is this pocillopora? I think I got this from you at the NARC meeting at the Aquarium Shop last fall.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

markkasdad - Yes, that's a pocillopora. It seems to be growing nicely

The yellow rascals are hiding well this morning. They are nowhere to be seen in the dark. They are on to what I intend to do.

How do you guys keep a trap (especially a DIY bottle trap) from getting blown around? I used a trap that I borrowed from CRA years ago to catch a foxface, but it was quite difficult to keep the trap in place. I remember the flap kept closing periodically, too.

 

[navila06]

when i attempted the trap method, I used some live rock rubble inside to keep it in place.

markkasdad - Yes, that's a pocillopora. It seems to be growing nicely

The yellow rascals are hiding well this morning. They are nowhere to be seen in the dark. They are on to what I intend to do.

How do you guys keep a trap (especially a DIY bottle trap) from getting blown around? I used a trap that I borrowed from CRA years ago to catch a foxface, but it was quite difficult to keep the trap in place. I remember the flap kept closing periodically, too.

 

[H@rry]

when i attempted the trap method, I used some live rock rubble inside to keep it in place.

Me to.