# Help?! Catching Chinese Algae Eater



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

They always seem to know when you target them, don't they...

I use 2 nets to catch "difficult" fish. One remains a stationary trap, while the other one is the "attacker" which directs the subject slowly towards the "trap".


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

Hehe. I feel your pain. I've had to perform outpatient "surgery" on some of my fish when I found anchor worms on them. 

I used to do the whole "two net" chase...then I found myself cussing like a sailor because all my plants would get either uprooted or torn up. So I just take my larger net and stick my whole arm in the tank and chase the fish around gently until I "coax" it into the net. Yeah, all the fish get pretty scared except my SAE's which seem to like the taste of my arm hairs!! ouch:tongue:


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## Rosko_22 (May 19, 2004)

If you go in there with two nets, he'll probably just hide under a log, or whatever you have for decor. I think you might have to cut down his hiding options to get him.

Good luck


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

i always have better luck after draining about half the tank water...


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## bigpow (May 24, 2004)

Grrrr....

This CAE has proven to be more sly than my pleco.
I had several (regular) pleco before and whenever they grew big I would catch them using my bare hands.

I'll try with 50% water & less rock/wood.


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

i can't ever catch anything.

i feel your pain!


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Good luck! I ended up breaking my 29 gal almost completely down to catch the CAE bugger that had grown to 6" and took up "aquascaping" in his spare time. The LFS was tickled to get it :icon_roll 

Cindy

.


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## Vinlo (Mar 29, 2003)

You try at night with a flashlight? Hunt it down.. wait till you see the whites of it's eyes.. ahem. I have never tried this, but I hear it works.


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Took me 1.5 hours to catch my Red Tail Black Shark this weekend... sigh...


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Vinlo said:


> You try at night with a flashlight? Hunt it down.. wait till you see the whites of it's eyes.. ahem. I have never tried this, but I hear it works.


That has never worked for me... I ended up doing more damage to the scape than when chasing them in a well lit tank!

Another thing that might work -- if you have time and patience -- is to put the net into the tank, and regularly feed in it's proximity, until the fish loose their fear. I have not tried that myself, but IME it can be very easy to catch fish that "think" the net provides food.

Finally, there is the inverted soda bottle trap... I don't know if that would work for a CAE though.


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## Rosko_22 (May 19, 2004)

I just caught my golden CAE on Saturday. I lifted his fav. log out of the water, and chased him around for a good five minutes. I did manage to get him relatively easily. However my tank is only a 20 gal high, and my net's pretty wide.
I think the poor fish was shocked when I started trying to catch him. I've had him for two years, one of the first fish in my tank. Poor guy, I took him back to the LFS and replaced him with two otos. He started getting a bit grumpy towards my tetras, hence the swap.
Good luck again with your CAE, my tank has been more peaceful in the past few days than it ever has been. Keep trying.


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## csfish (Sep 29, 2003)

Try this.... 
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/aq_articles/data/131/page0.php?page=0&cat_id=110&article_id=131


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

ya know, it's funny, i had a huge pleco a few years back. terrorized anything that moved, uprooted plants, a general nuisance. so off to the lfs store i go with poor old "costas". what a mean sob... but wouldn't you know it, every evening for a week i'd find myself walking past the store to peer in the big display tank to see if he was still there and ok.


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## amanda huggenkiss (Mar 3, 2004)

Hee! I did the same with my angel who was eating (or trying to eat) all my ottos. He lives at the in-store aquarium of my LFS now, and every time I go, I _have_ to look to make sure he's doing okay.


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

yeah amanda but i'm not about to give anybody 5:2 odds that my pleco was cuter than your angelfish.:icon_bigg


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## cich (Aug 5, 2003)

I generally do one of two things for these hard-to-catch "suckers" (pardon the pun)... I either will slowly get the net somewhat close to the subject, hoping to gain a trust factor, then pounce, or do that with a second net, as described before, chasing the fish into the stationary net, ready to yank it.

--cich


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## Mori (Jul 23, 2003)

CAEs are the hardest fish to catch. My CAE would hide beneath a moving pleco when I was trying to catch him. They are THAT crafty! 

If you have time, you can get him a new cave (opaque jar of some sort), bait it with algae wafers, let him get comfy (might take days of course), and surprise him.

I think you need two people and a large pitcher...had the toughest time getting mine out of a 75 gallon and moving him, even after removing rocks and water. Mine has a deformity on his fins so I can't use a net on him or he gets snagged badly. In general I like to use the net for chasing and a pitcher for the actual capture of fragile or high-strung fish. 

CAEs do get tired after about 2 hours of chasing....


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

Well, I'm a little late getting to this thread, and you've probably already tore your tank apart and sent it flying all over the living room trying to catch that CAE . But...I'll add my $.02, in the event that it helps with future catches. 

I advocate the flashlight method, but it must be done correctly. The room must be pitch-black, and the light must be very bright. I use a large maglight. If you have a 2nd person on the job, this will also help - one spotter and one netter. And the netter should do his/her best to net the fish from underneath (not always easy, I know). Many fish naturally want to settle to the bottom when they are nervous/blinded; if you get underneath, it will settle into the net. The blinding light will serve to be able to get the net under him without the fish seeing it. Just be careful not to bump nearby plants, or you will cue the fish to your intentions.

I used this method to capture 4 SAE's out of my tank without disturbing any of the plants. Click on the "46" in my signature to see the tank.


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## nonamethefish (Jun 15, 2004)

Has it been caught...if not

Get a piece of pvc, and jab it into the sand. Leave it there for the CAE to inspect. Chances are, he will call it home, or at least think it is harmless. When he is near it, stick in your hand, and guide him towards it. He should happily dart into the pipe...and thats the end of the story.


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## bigpow (May 24, 2004)

Thanks for the inputs Folks.

My CAE is still "camping" in my 55 gallon... I've tried to capture it 7 times now. No luck!

I can't disturb the tank now since a lot of the fish has given birth... even the snails gave birth... 

Maybe someday, when I re-decorate the tank, I'll catch him
For now, my only option is to move the other fish (that CAE bullied) out into different tanks....


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## csfish (Sep 29, 2003)

Gee, sounds like the "trapping" method might be worth a try...


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## bigpow (May 24, 2004)

Good idea with the trap...

Grrr... I'll give it a try!


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## corigan (Feb 22, 2004)

Keep up the faith bigpow, you will endure.

Matt


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## SueNH (Feb 25, 2004)

Just a word of warning with the trap. I was using one this morning to thin out some molly fry and a few of my adults managed to slip in somehow. Trap was only unattended for 1/2 hr. 3 adult mollies are dead and one is hurting.

I still have a ton of fry to catch so I'm going to pop a few small holes in it and watch it closer. I'm assuming they suffocated.


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

Yikes. Sorry for your loss, Sue. But thank you for the warning. I'm betting the poor fish suffocated as well. With a lot of fish in a small bottle, I don't think O2 could diffuse quickly enough through the one open hole. I agree, as you suggested, that a lot of small holes punched in the bottle will serve to diffuse O2 much more quickly.


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## bigpow (May 24, 2004)

IT WAS CAUGHT! 

It hid inside an internal power filter that I use as a CO2 distributor
I jumped and pull the filter out!!

It is inside a different tank with much bigger top/middle fish where it will be fed algae wafer. It'll be the only bottom dweller.

Patience is the virtue...


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## corigan (Feb 22, 2004)

bigpow said:


> IT WAS CAUGHT!


 WTG BigPow. Told ya with time it would be done.  

Matt


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## ggoldmmember (Sep 14, 2013)

*Catching Chinese Algae Eater*

have a net ready first thing in the morning.. just as you turn on the lights look for them.
mine was right in front one morning and were very easy to catch as they were kind of sleeping..
otherwise these guys are really fast and sharp..


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## steakman (Feb 3, 2012)

I have never had any problem in catching fish in a tank, no matter how dense or populated.

Here's how I do. It works every time without stress for both parties.

- I turn the light off around 7pm

- Go to another room to do my things

- Wait for 3-4 hours before I go to bed

- Take a good strong flash light to shine thru the thickest bushes in the tank

- Find the "victim(s)"

- Scoop him out when he or she is well in his deep sleep before he knows what happens.

The sign to know when the fish is deep in their sleeping state, is their color. They all change into a dull wash out color, but they still carry enough color and shape to be recognized.

If you need to catch more than a few, do not leave your flash light on for too long. They all will be well awake ...

SM


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