Ways To Kill A Golden Pygmy Angel?

[nivlac]

For those of you who might've known, I've got a golden pygmy angel in my tank for the past year and the bugger has ate nothing except my prata corals. Lost quite a few to it, and now left with only a few......can't add new ones until he's gone. But he's staying fit and not dead!

I'm now quite determined to get rid of it, but don't want to rearrange my rocks just to get one fish. Tried to trap it with some live brine shrimp, but no luck too.....he wouldn't even come out to eat live brine shrimp (adult sized some more!)......

Some of my thoughts were:

1. Introduce a predator that can be easily removed, e.g. lionfish to eat the fella. Moray eel would be best but hard to remove and expensive to come by.

2. Introduce a deadly diesease or parasite into the tank e.g. Ich to kill the bugger (get a dead, diseased fish from LFS to intro to the tank)

As it is only one of two fish in my tank now, option 2 sounds very feasible. I'll just donate my maroon clown or set up a temp tank for it until the ich takes its course and the fella dies of 'natural courses'

But if anyone has any better suggestions, I'm all for it and look forward to your suggestions. Can't wait to kill the bastard. 5 roti prata corals have RIPed cos of it (amongst them, 2 prized orange specimens). My tank is mainly an LPS coral tank. No clams. Two fish (the bastard and one maroon clown).

[diabolus]

try using a wet vacuum cleaner to suck it out.

just a suggestion.

[woonming]

try using a wet vacuum cleaner to suck it out.

just a suggestion.

HAhaha u sure know how to tell a joke LOL~

introduce a trigger larger then it would do , once u are done u can give it to trigger queen aka deepblue

or borrow that HUGE lionfish from Marine Life..

Heheh~

[SpiderOne]

heres a method i heard .

use skewer. skewer the bastard. try to make a cave he can hide . once u know where he hides grab the skewer he run into his cave skewer him inside.

[dersuz]

Remove all your corals and empty the entire tank water(store the water in few containers, so you can pour it back later) to very low level, then use a net to catch it. Make sure it don't swim into the cave where you have problem catching it.

[Razo]

have u tried to switch on the lights after lites out? my fishes will get stun by the sudden briteness... i can even use my hand n scope it up.. and they dun resist... maybe u can try this method... if ur maroon is small size.. donate to me..

[boxfish]

heres a method i heard .

use skewer. skewer the bastard. try to make a cave he can hide . once u know where he hides grab the skewer he run into his cave skewer him inside.

wah... good poem wor ..

[williammuk]

I've not tried this but heard from Henry (ML) that it might work for those aggressive fish.

First, test to see if your angel is aggressive towards its own kind. Place a mirror against the tank and see if it charge towards its reflection. If it does, then get a large, transparent container with a mirror at the bottom. Place the container horizontally into the tank. Tie a fishing line at the opening of the container.

The idea is for the fish to see its reflection inside the container. When it charges into the container to attack the reflection, you can quickly pull the string and lift up the container.

Hopefully it works for you ... but please don't kill the fish, OK?

Good luck.

[killfire]

hmm.... on one hand we have people who are so concerned with the welfare of LS that they would swallow their pride and approach a RUDE "ah soh" on a MRT so that her child will not abuse a so called "Nemo" in a betta tank....

And on the other we have people thinking of ways and means to kill a "bastard" fish which is just trying to survive in a tank... tsk tsk .....

maybe it will save you more time, effort and frustration if you would just remove the rock and catch the fish.... and find it a new owner.

No offense ... not out to flame... just feel sorry for the "bastard"

[DeepBlue]

wat I did to catch my blueface in my extensively stacked rockwork without emptying a drop of water or move a rock....

I have a plastic box...tied a string to the top, which opened the sliding door....have a prata inside..yes..his favourite snack....after it wonders in ....I let go of the string....bam...its cage in.... (encouraged also by some favourite dry pellets inside as well)....

alternatively...get a squirt bottle...fill it up with cynide...squirt the guy....

[SpiderOne]

wah... good poem wor ..

im a very.. poetic soul

[FuEl]

The poor fish. It's a wild animal. You can't always expect it to behave as you would expect it to. Why not just give up keeping prata corals? Is'nt there other more attractive corals like plate corals etc?

[Hecter]

poor basket...

poor pratas...

[nivlac]

Remove all your corals and empty the entire tank water(store the water in few containers, so you can pour it back later) to very low level, then use a net to catch it. Make sure it don't swim into the cave where you have problem catching it.

sounds like a good idea but I dun have enough containers to hold 300 litres

My rocks are also stacked in such a way that there's plenty of caves for the fella to hide.

BTW, a little background on my golden pygmy-

1. Bugger never swims in the open freely. It's ALWAYS hiding in the rocks, even during feeding time for other fish (even with live adult sized brine shrimp)

2. Only comes out to feed once in a while (pecking on pratas), when the lights are off in the daytime (my lights are timed 6pm- 12am)

Rearranging the rock work is too much of a task for me, so I was hoping for a less tiresome method.....

[nivlac]

have u tried to switch on the lights after lites out? my fishes will get stun by the sudden briteness... i can even use my hand n scope it up.. and they dun resist... maybe u can try this method... if ur maroon is small size.. donate to me..

unfortunately the guy hides in the rocks even when asleep.

[nivlac]

I've not tried this but heard from Henry (ML) that it might work for those aggressive fish.

First, test to see if your angel is aggressive towards its own kind. Place a mirror against the tank and see if it charge towards its reflection. If it does, then get a large, transparent container with a mirror at the bottom. Place the container horizontally into the tank. Tie a fishing line at the opening of the container.

The idea is for the fish to see its reflection inside the container. When it charges into the container to attack the reflection, you can quickly pull the string and lift up the container.

Hopefully it works for you ... but please don't kill the fish, OK?

Good luck.

killing the fish is only my last resort. Have used numerous traps in the past (the sliding door with victimised 'on the way to coral heaven' pratas' and my latest contraption, a one way fish trap (DIYed from a baby milk bottle) with LIVE adult size brine shrimp inside.

The fish is extremely shy, so no chance of it wandering out.

[nivlac]

hmm.... on one hand we have people who are so concerned with the welfare of LS that they would swallow their pride and approach a RUDE "ah soh" on a MRT so that her child will not abuse a so called "Nemo" in a betta tank....

And on the other we have people thinking of ways and means to kill a "bastard" fish which is just trying to survive in a tank... tsk tsk .....

maybe it will save you more time, effort and frustration if you would just remove the rock and catch the fish.... and find it a new owner.

No offense ... not out to flame... just feel sorry for the "bastard"

no worries, and no offence taken.

Killing the fish is only a last resort. I really wouldn't want to take out the corals and the rock work, and am hence looking for a short-cut to this. Have been patient enough for one year already, but 5 prata deaths later, I've really lost all sympathy for the devil

To me, a fish, a bristleworm, and a coral- they're all the same. My favourite tends to be the pratas, and hence my priority of care and protection extends as such too. Just like some fellas who own clams and set up traps to remove pests like bristleworms. It's all the same to me.

[Fishy Clown]

Instead of killing it why don't you give it to some one else instead???

Save a life

[DeepBlue]

please read whole thread leh ....I think he couldn't catch it leh....that's why he is trying to get suggestions.......I dun believe a minute he will kill the poor guy...

[diabolus]

after u caught the little bugger...

use the Spider Effect on him.

[SpiderOne]

i dun think anyone knows what that means anymore. except the old birds

[nivlac]

after u caught the little bugger...

use the Spider Effect on him.

sorry bro, dunno what the spider effect is......haven't been very active for the past half year due to a change in focus on another hobby of mine......so I haven't had any new additions (livestock and equipment) to the tank for the same period, only deaths of pratas due to this stupid fish.

Was thinking of tearing apart the tank to catch the bugger this afternoon, but looking at the 70kg of live rock I've got in the tank, I think I'll pass using this method. Will be on my way to an LFS to look for an ich-infested tank for a couple of ich-infested clownfish to intro to my tank. Seems it's more 'humane' to let the bugger die of natural causes

But should anyone like to have a prata-eating golden pygmy in your tank, you're more than welcome to come down to my place personally to catch the fella (if you can).

[nivlac]

Latest update:

1. Fearing for further deaths of my pratas, I've moved my prized specimens (one orange and 2 reds- one red slight tear at the side after being 'pecked' by this fish) into my refugium for refuge. Due to lack of space in the refugium, could only move my most treasured ones into the refugium. My refugium lighting is a generous 56W worth of PLCs (daylight) so they should be OK for the time being

2. Most likely Course of action- I've decided against shifting the rockwork cos' it's just too much. Most probably will look for some ich-infested fish like common clowns to purchase and intro into my tank. Will set my chiller at 26 to ensure the ich cycles maintain and have the target die of natural courses. Thereafter, tank will be quarantined for 3 weeks with no fish to ensure ich life cycle is discontinued.

3. Lionfish route- what do u guys think? Considering the golden angel hides in the rocks most of the time, will the lionfish have a fair chance of 'hunting' down the bugger? I'm scared the lionfish will die of hunger before the angel does, as the angel has not taken any fish food for a whole year, living only on coral flesh.

[Dispar_Anthias]

Lower the salinty of the tank to 1.012 then wait for the fish to die

[GATECRASHER]

hmm.... on one hand we have people who are so concerned with the welfare of LS that they would swallow their pride and approach a RUDE "ah soh" on a MRT so that her child will not abuse a so called "Nemo" in a betta tank....

And on the other we have people thinking of ways and means to kill a "bastard" fish which is just trying to survive in a tank... tsk tsk .....

maybe it will save you more time, effort and frustration if you would just remove the rock and catch the fish.... and find it a new owner.

No offense ... not out to flame... just feel sorry for the "bastard"

yayaya those fellows who are all out to save nemo still eat poultry, red meat, fish, kill mosquitoes, kill cockroaches, feed plankton to their corals. damn double standard hor