fish grew up in overflow.

[jrthor_85]

Hello,

I have a standard 125 glass reef-ready tank with dual corner overflows. Each overflow has a 2" drain and a 1" return. Apparently a young AF peacock has been living in one of the overflows long enough to grow quite a bit, and I'm looking for ideas to get him out. He's too large to siphon out with a normal vac hose, and the drain/return pipes are too tightly packed to use a larger hose or a small fry net (have tried 2.5" rectangular and a ~1.5" triangular brine shrimp net I made).

I see one option as disassembling the drain/return bulkheads and getting the fish out that way, but judging by the time it took me to get it all together the first time I'm worried about not running the filter for that length of time... I'm a very big guy and fitting myself under the stand to do this is almost not practical... I can do it, but it will take hours to finish.

An other option I just thought of and wondering if anyone's ever tried is draining the main tank a bit, closing the ball valve on my drain-to-sump, and backflushing the overflow to hopfully force the fish up and over into the main tank... any thoughts on that or additional ideas?

Thanks in advance

 

[Rob3rtPhan]

Need picture?


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[doomiedee]

I had some blood fin tetras do this in my wet dry sump. I just turned off the pump and fished it out with a small net then grabbed it in my hand once it got to the top.


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[brich999]

I've had this happen and shut off sump and removed standpipe and pull him out of the sump

 

[jrthor_85]

Took a lot of fighting to get pics... dead camera that wont charge, cell phone that wont recognize memory card yadda yadda ya, today is not a good one for me... lol

Can't see the fish in there, but trust me he is. Also, the plumbing is so tight in there that I cannot pull the sliding-drain-thing up and out. I have tried, it wont fit around the framing of the tank with breaking something at the bulkead.

 

[brich999]

Doubt u have space but maybe a small fish trap? Honestly if u really wanted him out id get the smallest hook u can find and a tiny piece of something and literally fish him out. He would have to be quite aggressive to catch food between the time it goes in the overflow box and out the drain. No chance u can just remove the intake guard? Chase him and let him get sucked down

 

[jrthor_85]

Doubt u have space but maybe a small fish trap? Honestly if u really wanted him out id get the smallest hook u can find and a tiny piece of something and literally fish him out. He would have to be quite aggressive to catch food between the time it goes in the overflow box and out the drain. No chance u can just remove the intake guard? Chase him and let him get sucked down

While the idea of going fishing in my tank is REALLY appealing to this hardcore fisherman, the fish is maybe 2" ruby red peacock. Don't think they're aggressive enough, and it's not as if he's short food. You can see a small pile of 2mm NLS that went into the overflow on the bottom. I do think I'll try this just to tell people "yes, I do go fishing in my house" lmao. Don't know what you mean by a fish trap.

Maybe this weekend I'll have to set a bucket under the tank, remove the 2" bulkhead, and pour water into the overflow till he falls into the bucket (if he doesnt fall in in initial fall...) I do have seeded sponge filters and multiple air pumps that I can move into this tank to keep the tank alive for however long this takes, then do a water change afterwards. Normally dont have to run any aeration or excess filtration on this tank. Medium stock african hap/peacock with an ancient Marineland Tidepool II tray-type sump that provides tons of trickle aeration.

 

[brich999]

With like a size 16 hook I've caught fish that size, but if theres lots of food prob wont work. I was thinking small trap like u catch bait with just cut top off a bottle flip and tape so cone goes into bottle fish swim in n have trouble getting out. Don't think that will work cuz too big. Looks like taking it apart may be the only way

 

[ska_kid]

Ask a,6 year old to get it tiny hand tiny hole

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[jrthor_85]

With like a size 16 hook I've caught fish that size, but if theres lots of food prob wont work. I was thinking small trap like u catch bait with just cut top off a bottle flip and tape so cone goes into bottle fish swim in n have trouble getting out. Don't think that will work cuz too big. Looks like taking it apart may be the only way

I don't know if that will work or not, but it is a fantastic idea! Not legal to catch bait that way in CA, but still a design idea I will definitely keep in mind. Thanks!