easy way is just use a divider and clean 1/2 at a time. i have a few dovii and 12' + red texes that cant bite enough. i like being able to do a good job cleaning without worring about being snapped at... it would be a pain without dividers especialy in some of my tanks that are 24'+ tall
cleaning a tank with a mean fish
- Thread starter davew
- Start date
Jimmy16;5131976; said:he bit me a few days ago when i tried to take him out of his tank (by hand) to measure him... how dumb of me lol
Yeah... That's a super bad idea for a way to pull them out for measurements. Check this method out, it works super well. Take a T-shirt, tie the top closed, then open it up and SLOWLY corner your cichlid while keeping the other end wide open. They'll run to the sanctuary of the opening as if it's a cave to hide in and close other end and gently remove while supporting the fish with your second hand. Also lay them on the cloth shirt to measure. Works wonderfully.
To OP, I'd just get urself an extra long python bell part. Mine's 24" and I rarely have to stick my hand in my water. That and a magnet cleaner and ur solid.
In time your FH will recognize your hand and it will just play with you during your tank cleaning; just have patience.
Jon M;5137360; said:Yeah... That's a super bad idea for a way to pull them out for measurements. Check this method out, it works super well. Take a T-shirt, tie the top closed, then open it up and SLOWLY corner your cichlid while keeping the other end wide open. They'll run to the sanctuary of the opening as if it's a cave to hide in and close other end and gently remove while supporting the fish with your second hand. Also lay them on the cloth shirt to measure. Works wonderfully.
To OP, I'd just get urself an extra long python bell part. Mine's 24" and I rarely have to stick my hand in my water. That and a magnet cleaner and ur solid.
Great idea!!!
I'm going to use this as a net instead of trying to fabricate a custom net.
Thanks bro!!!
Red Devil Horde;5137392; said:Great idea!!!
I'm going to use this as a net instead of trying to fabricate a custom net.
Thanks bro!!!
for sure dude. It really works great. I picked it up from an article on moving large cichlid on Ofish.
When I had the gar, I used coralife gloves. They are nice and thick for the ones that like to bite.
I use a pair of leather gloves I bought for doing maintenance on Psycho's tank, they have more than a few marks on them and pieces missing from bites, but he can't hurt me through them although I still get startled if I don't see it comming, I can definatly feel the pressure from the bite. The end of the tube on the python has a few cracks in it from being bitten and rammed. Once the water gets about half way down he goes behind his rock and leaves me alone to finsh but the first 20 mins is a fight. Honestly, I wouldn't put my hand in the tank with out the glove on, he tries to bite me from accross the room. This is all part of the reason I keep him, otherwise he'd just be a big orange fish taking up tank space I could use for somthing else. Out of all my fish Psycho is the only one that's a true family pet, the rest are just Dad's fish.
