Your fish will get stressed out any time that you need to catch them in a net, move them out of the aquarium and temporarily put them in a bag. Since stress can lead to disease it is important to try and do your best to minimize the amount of stress that your saltwater fish receives when you are handling them. There are some good things to remember when you are catching your saltwater fish with a net and handling them.
Although it is a good idea to get fresh saltwater fish from the pet store it is important that the fish have at least been in the pet store for a week, this way they will have had time to recover from the stress that they got during capture and travel to the pet store. When you are catching your saltwater fish in a net at home it is very important that you try your best to limit the amount of time that you are chasing your saltwater fish with the net. Never chase a saltwater fish in their aquarium in efforts to tire them out, the less time that you spent chasing them and the less time that they spent running from you and the net the better. An exhausted fish will not be able to fight off an illness that they may get from being stressed, and when saltwater fish are handled they get stressed.
The best way to get a saltwater fish into a net is to try and coax the fish with food in the corner of the aquarium. Gently and quickly corner the fish and place the net around the fish. You will want to have the container that will be housing your saltwater fish while it is out of the aquarium completely ready so that you make a quick transfer. The time that the fish is out of water should only be a couple of seconds so have the container right next to the aquarium.
The net that you are using should be very soft as well as appropriately sized for the fish. Trying to catch a larger fish in a too small of net can make it hard to actually transfer the fish once they have swam into the net and this can end up hurting them or they could slip out. Make sure that you have all that you need ready to do what you need to do while your fish is removed from the aquarium. You do not want your saltwater fish in a bag or container for very long as the water quality will decrease rather quickly and the longer that they are out of the aquarium the more stressed they will become.
Since stress can cause a saltwater fish to become seriously ill it is important to minimize the amount of stress that your fish has from being caught in a net and being handled. Although you can not avoid stress completely when you are handling your fish you certainly can minimize the amount stress your saltwater fish has.
