I figured I would ask if anyone else knows about this, and perhaps could tell me how it works.

When I dropped off my plecos and pictus at the pet shop last week and the guy at the store did something I will never forget. He just reached into the tank, picked up the pleco with two fingers, and carried it to a holding tank. It didn't move a muscle.

Now, this was far different, and I can only assume considerably less stressful than my improvised tactic of going after them with a large measuring cup and having the thing thrash and splatter me with water all the way. I figured I would ask if anyone here knew how that particular trick works?

All my old fish are still doing fine btw. Also my pictus have apparently continued schooling together even though they are in with more of their kind.

im not sure if thats good. I only scoop my pond fish out andthey go straight in. Im not sure if the guy should have done that. Its probably less stressfu; they getting chased around by a net!

I have picked up fish with my bare hands (clean and wet hands) many times. Often times, it's easier with larger fish. I have not done so with plecos though because of their spines. I would think it would hurt! Injury is always a risk but that can said for nets as well. Plecos will get stuck in nets.

its very difficult to catch a pleco with a net. Its probably easier to catch it bare handed.

Yeah, I was ill prepared when I removed them from my tank. I had never even done a 100% water change with them before, so I had no experience with moving them.

Anyhow, I did not know about the net thing, and it is a good thing you told me as I might have tried using one with the one I intend to buy.

Eventually I noticed the thing swam away from my hand whenever it was near, so I just left the measuring cup in the general vicinity and let it take cover in it. Then I simply scooped him out. Unfortunately, it did a flip out onto my desktop and I had to pick it up by hand. Of course, it was out of water for only a few seconds, and the fall was a short one, so there were no problems.

Still, I just thought that if it was not detrimental to the fish, that would be a most effective trick for moving the things... especially when they get big.

yah you would want to get a net. Its less stressful for the fish, and its easier to catch them.

I already have a net.

I was talking about the plecos which I was just told get stuck in nets.

So, I think it would have been far more stressful for the fish to have gotten stuck.

smaller plecos 1-6 inche sprobably wont get stuck because there spines arent that large.

Large plecos in a lot of water probably will never be caught without a net, and they'll get stuck. Smaller plecos, it's best to chase them into a container like Matt did. To catch large plecos, it's best to drain the tank or pond down as far as possible and then corner them. They'll thrash like crazy and try to bash themselves silly but if done fast enough, you can pick them up with gloves on or try to get them into a bucket. Plecos can survive out of water for a long time as long as they're damp. I've found that despite the method, the faster it can be done (moving any large fish really), the better before they get hurt. I once had to chase a false SAE around so much in a tank with lowered water level that he eventually hurt himself enough that he perished. My site now has this tube catcher thing someone invented to catch that kind of fish without so much trauma (to the fish and person trying to catch them!).

some fish are just so hard to catch:)