Feeding fish by hand

[bronxer]

I read in a thread a couple of weeks ago that one of our members feeds his fish by hand.

How? My fish are afraid of me.
What? What can you possibly put in your hand that doesn't float off.
How long? Do your fingers turn wrinkly? Do you wear a foley catheter so you don't have to run off and pee from keeping your hands in water forever?
How long does it take to get your fish used to your touch?
Have you ever been stung by a tang or any other fish?

If anyone knows the answers to these, please let me know. In a couple of weeks I'll have to take down my tank and replace it with a larger one - and I do not want some of the fish (I have a large yellow tang and a pair of engineer gobies). I'd love to be able to take them out without freaking them out. Last move, I had a large yellow tang in a plastic bag on my lap in the car - and the tang punctured the bag. Needless to say, I got soaked.

Your input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You can pinch some flake food and put it in the tank and hold it there with your fingers.. After some time your fish will grow accustomed to you, it took my fish about a year to do so.. My clowns attack my hand when I am moving frags around and they also let me feed them by hand. My goby lets me pick him up off the sand. The royal gramma not so much, he's not too trusting yet and I bought him from russ and jim about 2 years ago I think.

 

[NYreefNoob]

hand fed

i could feed most of my fish by hand also, as well as my one wrasse would let me pet him. guess hey got use to my hand being in the tank :irked:

 

[ellebelle]

Even better - I feed my fish mysis shrimp using a net. When I put my net into the tank, some of the fish will immediately swim up into the net to get at the food faster. Safer than feeding by hand, but accomplishes the same thing. One of my fish will come right up and take food from my hand though.

 

[alistair]

I used to feed my snowflake eel krill by hand.

 

[KathyC]

Since you seem to want to know this info to be able to get your fish out of the tank easily I'd begin feeding by dipping the net in the tank so they are less fearful of it. Start slowly & don't move it around much.

Btw - it isn't a good idea to handle fish if you can avoid it. Most have a protective slime coat and touching them wears it away leaving an ideal place for any undesireable bacteria/parasites to attack the fish.
A healthy slime coat is the reason why some types of fish are less prone to developing ich..and considering that you are going to stress your fish by moving them, handling them is a doubly bad idea.

 

[bronxer]

Kathy C - I agree totally. I normally do not even try to touch my fish, but my son is moving his 75 gallon tank back into my house, and I have no place to put it, so I thought I would take down my 55 gallon and place his 75 gallon in its place.

The only problem is the fish. Even if I sold them, I'd still have to be able to catch them, which I do not think will happen easily. I guess I'll just have to do what I did last time - reduce the water in the tank and just net the fish out.