keeping garfish live

[ped cairns]

it blew up the other night and we went into reef to sleep and ended up netting some garfish and thought if i could keep alive to try for macks next morning it could be very good result but have been told they wont last long after being handled getting out of net
will they last in live bait tank or not for about 12 hours

[tailorboi99]

Did a lot of their slime and scales get whipped off?

Thanks Tom

[mattooty]

Large Styro box, try not to handle them. Constant water changes over the first 2 hours as this is when they will deficate the most.

[Noelm]

Garfish are very tricky to keep alive, they need to be in very good health before you even think about it, almost any caught in a net MAY be OK, but most will die quickly from minor damage. Another trap is if you have a recirculating system (bait tank) the skinny little buggers go out the over flow in a jiffy!