Fish trapped in overflow box

[nCorr]

So my male lyretail anthia is trapped in my trapezoidal overflow box. I've tried netting him to no success because he can wiggle around the standpipe really easily. Getting my fish trap(water bottle with top cut off + fishing line) to fit in such a tight space and work correctly is impossible. I tried overflowing the overflow box but my ball valve still lets water through. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[iVgOnMaD]

is the overflow pipe glued on (the one that connects to the bulkhead at the bottom of the overflow)? If not, you could just pull it off and flush the whole overflow out into the sump (the water in overflow tower will drop into sump so beware if your sump is small or very full). Keep a pitcher of water just in case you need to pour some more water in there if he gets stuck in the plumbing or something.

HTH

[SDguy]

Good luck, I ripped apart a brand new net, scraped the crap out of the fish (almost killing it), and did this to my hand, last time I needed to pull a fish out of my 31" tall overflow....
http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p5/SDreefguy/IMG_9436.jpg

[nCorr]

Thanks for the help guys, unfortunately my standpipe is glued. Im going to try to use some fishing string and a clip to clip a half of a silverside and try to lure him to the top and net him. He eats mysis so hopefully he'll atleast be attracted by the silverside.

[SDguy]

They sell nets with VERY long handles, BTW ;)

[nCorr]

Fishing hasn't worked out so well, he might be too traumatized from my efforts today. I'm gonna head to PK and see what they've got.

[Live Water Aquariums]

Shop Vac.

[semifan1]

siphon him out into a bucket with a 1 inch hose I did that with a neon goby stuck in my overflow and I have a tall tank 30 inchs

[sac_ngheo]

Try to use only red light at night; fish won't move.

Good luck.

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

try filling the overflow with something easy to remove, like bioballs. As you pour them in, he should come towards the surface until he has nowhere to go. Just an idea.

[nCorr]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. But unfortunately today after I got back from the pool I found him dead on my carpet. There's no way that he made the 3+inch leap back into the display and then leaped out into the carpet. So I assume he went through stand pipe and ended up in the refugium, then hopped out and flapped around. Really beautiful male lyretail too.

[ManTis]

sorry for your lost....