Handling Fish

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Depends on the fish, use common sense, any scorpean fish or stinging catfish are not something you want to risk grabbing, as waldo said puffers are also not good if you like your fingers, I can think of several other that will remove or thoroughly mangle fingers, stingrays are probably not a good idea either.
 
I have an oranda that we hold all the time and he seems fine. I know its a goldfish but still he's pretty cool. When I had my knifefish I would put my hands in the tank and grab them to show that they arent mean agressive fish unless you were food. Many times they actually seemed to welcome it. When I got them I had to use a big trout net to move them and they threw a fit, so when I had to get rid of them at the fish store I picked them up by my hands from the cooler and placed them in there new home. I was worried a little cause 2 foot long clownknifes are rather strong but luckily all went well.
 
I love holding my 2' SAL and the eels.
 
I handle mine quite a bit. The best thing to do is get a bucket and chase it in with a net though. No worrying about if you damaged slime coat.

I caught about 4 goldfish by hand when I moved. It does take practice to hold onto a fish in your hands like some one already said. For me my big clown is almost impossible to hold...(okay try getting a good hold on a fish that's too big to reach around in the middle and sloped at the head...)
 
Here's another thought. If these fish are just baught, they might have something you can catch. Some sporazoites can transmit to humans. Some of these are incurable in either species. As for handling, I pet my carps often. Just put my CLEAN hand in and they do the rest. Like a cat rubs against you.
 
TONY60 said:
Some sporazoites can transmit to humans. Some of these are incurable in either species.

hmmm ok what kind of sporozites are you talking about here?
spores give rise to a new organism, so how can a spore be incurable? please explain.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com