Fish Trap

**Cliff** · 01-29-2011, 04:53 AM

I don’t know if anyone has used some thing like this before, this is the first time I’ve used a fish trap to catch a fish in a tank

Recently, I had to remove two shrimp from my reef tank. I tried catching the shrimp with nets, but these guys are too smart and too fast for that. With all of the rock and coral in the tank, the shrimp could easily find a hiding spot. Short of tanking the down, there was nothing that I could do about it. The only thing I managed to accomplish was to stress out the shrimp and fish. When explaining this to the guys at our SW LFS, they showed me their fish trap that they rent for just this purpose.

I put the trap in the tank and just let it sit there for 2 days so the fish could get used to it. Then we started putting the food in the trap and letting the fish and shrimp get used to eating in there. Then (when we were ready), we skipped feeding one day and used the trap the following day to catch the shrimp we wanted to take back to the store. Had to do this twice, but it really worked great

It was real easy to use. Just set the trap by sliding the door up and putting the plunger in the hole. Drop some food into the trap through the white PVC fitting on the top and wait. When the shrimp went into the trap to eat the food, you pull on the string attached to the plunger, removing the end of the plunger from the door and allowing the door to fall. Works great when you can’t use a net.

**Alasse** · 01-29-2011, 04:58 AM

What an excellent idea!

**hockeyhead019** · 01-29-2011, 05:47 AM

Simple, safe, brilliant lol

**vegas2k** · 01-29-2011, 07:27 AM

that looks very useful! classic type of trap but for underwater :) I'd love to use something like this for fish...since my cichlids are so damn fast and are very good at avoiding my net. They love to eat, so should not be hard to put food in there and get them to eat. they will all swim in there lol

I may try making one out of a 2L bottle some time like you see here :

**Cliff** · 01-29-2011, 01:08 PM

That DIY fish trap looks interesting. My only concern would be about getting the fish out of it after you have caught them

**CassieLEO** · 01-29-2011, 01:42 PM

See, aother part ive never heard of LMAO!

**Cliff** · 01-29-2011, 10:16 PM

Actually I beleave this was made by someone who used to work at the SW LFS making sumps for customer orders. I think he just wanted something to build with the scraps

**vegas2k** · 01-29-2011, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by Cliff

That DIY fish trap looks interesting. My only concern would be about getting the fish out of it after you have caught them

yeah I thought about that too. What I would do is maybe wrap around the cap some rubber bands overlapping to create a cheapo O-ring type seal so I can snugly put it into the bottle without gluing it. then when the fish is in the bottle to pull the top out. maybe attach a string to the top so it can be pulled out with ease.