Catching loaches by hand

[raecarrow]

Hey everyone,

I had to do some serious rehabbing of my loach tank today. For this, I had to remove my loaches from the tank. My loaches, the kuhlies especially, got really stressed out by me stripping the ornaments and hiding places from the tank and became impossible to catch with the net. I had a limited time to do this rehab and I HAD to get them out to do this work. So I tried something new. After leaving them to settle for 5 min I caught them by hand.

I have experience catching aquatic critters by hand because I used to catch frogs and mud puppies in the stream behind my house when I was a kid. The kuhlies were the easiest of all to catch and they seemed barely stressed out at all by the experience. The Botias were a little more freaked out but not as much as if I used a net. Whenever I use a net I fear squishing my fish (I accidentally squished a guppy fry one time ). I think that I may have stumbled on a good way to move my fish without stressing them out too much.

Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.

NOTE: I thoroughly rinsed off my hands before doing this in some tank water I had removed out of the tank.

[Diana]

I do this often enough with livebearers (Guppies, Endlers) and my big Angel is pretty calm when I do this (only a couple of times in his life) but have always been afraid to do it with spine protected fish (Cats, Loaches) especially after seeing them stuck in a net, and imagining my hand getting speared. I catch these fish in a cup. I find the square 1 quart storage containers work well, mine are deep enough that the fish often swim to the bottom of the container making it very easy to lift the container out of the tank and not lose the fish.

[soul-hugger]

Hello! I am sooo glad you posted this thread! I was going to post something similar because my loaches are all about to be moved to a larger aquarium. (From a 20 to a 55). I was very concerned about catching the kuhlis; the guy at the pet store took nearly half an hour to catch the four I have in a smaller tank with even less hiding places. I was beginning to think about trying to catch them by hand, and now I think I will. The dojo trust my hands; they eat out of them; and none of the fish seem upset at the presence of my hand in their home, whether I am feeding them or doing maintenance. The net, on the other hand, they do not like the looks of. I'm glad I have read this here today.

[starsplitter7]

I have caught many fish by hand. I think it is less stressful. I also lift out decorations filled with fish. Especially PCV pipe filled with loaches. I would also caution with the loaches and catfish. I accidentally got spiked by a yoyo who was hiding in a decoration, and I didn't know it. I also have croaking catfish, and I am alway careful of where my fingers are in relation to spines. And Andre said his eel can give quite a bite (when he gets overenthusiastic at dinner time.). I have fish that nibble me, but none of my fish have a bad bite or have the urge to bite.

[raecarrow]

I'll have to be more careful with my botias, I forgot they had spines. Do Otos have spines?

I also got a guppy manicure yesterday. I was holding a tube in their tank to drain out some water and I felt all these little bodies bumping against my fingers. My guppies were nibbling at my fingers. It was actually kinda funny and it tickled.

[Diana]

I do not know if Otos have spines. I have handled them by hand with no problems. Of course I was moving slowly so as to keep them calm.

[raecarrow]

I actually had one of my botias (a striata) sit in my hand and was reluctant to swim away once I put him back into the tank I think it was because my hands were warm.

[valkyrie]

I suppose it depends on the fish I have caught my Ghost knife by hand but if you had ever been spiked by a clown loach you would think twice about trying to catch them by hand.

[raecarrow]

I don't have anything larger then a Yoyo and he is still around 2-3"

[Ashleigh]

My larger cl let me move them about in the tank by hand, but I would never go so far as trying to handle them unless necessary. I have been spiked before by an 8inch cl when I was moving him, trust me, its not something I want to repeat again plus the larger they are, the more difficult it will be to move-and the chances of dropping them are greatly increased-they are strong little buggers Easy enough to do when they are little though.




Ashleigh

[mickthefish]

i'd prefer to use two nets, like Ashleigh i've been spiked and it bloody hurts.
the only fish i handle are L cats, cory's and big Cichlids.
if you go steady with a net you can catch the majority of fish.

mick

[Doc]

I use two nets, a 6" net for guiding and herding (slowly done) and coaxing into a larger 10" net. Done slowly the fish do not panic as much and as the larger net is deeper and provides more room they tend not to thrash about and never get tangled.
I have been nipped, sliced and spiked by Loaches and the latter two are not pleasant to say the least..

I do catch the odd fish by hand but rarely.

[Ashleigh]

Yea the herding into larger nets works well, I have also tried herding the larger cl into a container once the tank was drained by 3/4, they did not panic, just accepted were to go I have also caught them in decorations, and no panic either. If I used my hands Im sure it would be another matter


Ashleigh

[plaalye]

Last time that I transferred fish I was having a little trouble and in the process I changed nets. I also use a smaller net for herding and a larger one to drive them into. I was using 2 white nets to begin with but after having trouble I tried a green net for the catch net. I was surprised that the fish readily entered the green net after changing. I also have some blue nets so I tried a blue catch net with the next fish and more trouble. I changed back to the green net and they went right in. Has anyone else noticed a difference with net color?

[Doc]

I use Green nets and they are far better, the larger net I use is a rectangular net and is Black. I find these colours spook fish far less than white or blue.