Fish Trap

[Stenopus Hispidus]

I have been reading a spate of posts about catching fishes lately. Everytime the net goes in, the fishes disappear. Need to get that bully out of the tank filled to the brim with LR and corals? Need to catch that bugger who suddenly develop a taste for your precious clams? Short of de-reefing your tank, here's a trap that works. I have used it to catch my tomato clown, bicolor cherub and flame angel all within a span of 1 week. Piece of cake.

All you need is to put the trap into your tank, get the trap door opened, drop in some frozen mysid/bs as bait into the trap from the opening above and wait. It took only a few seconds for my bold clown to take the bait and voila, first day and one fish is out. Bicolour cherub and flame angel were more weary of the intruding box…eyeing it with suspicion at a distance. Fine with me. Left the box there with trap door open for days 2 and 3 without event. Day 4, feed again. Hungry, the Flame angel made a dash in for a morsel. Morsel it got but freedom it lost. Open the top trap door, net it out and into my friend's tank it goes. The din left bicolour shocked and went into hiding. Day 5, trap remains dormant. Day 6, tried my luck again. Bicolour saw the mysid in the trap but was hesitating, eyeing slowly at the edges of the mouth into the trap while seductively ###### mysid floated around inside it. Somehow, something in him snap and he went for it and that was it. LFS it goes.

My mission accomplished, I took the trap out, washed it, dried it and stored it. Now my tank is as lonely as can be and I didn't break my back catching them.

A few things to note:

A. The trap is quite big. I am away from my tank now so I can't measure it but if memory serves me right, I think its 25X15X15cm. This implies that it:

- may not be able to fit a 2ft Nanos packed heavily with LR and corals.

- while it may be able to handle fishes 4" in size easily, bigger fishes may feel it too claustrophobic or rather too "trap like" to even bother entering it. Don't know about this bcos my fishes are considered small. Maybe those who have caught bigger fishes with this trap would like to comment on this.

B. Trap is effective if the fish you are trapping takes the food that you give. Otherwise, you will find cobwebs getting in between your fingers and the trapdoor. I guess part of the reason I had it easy was because my fishes are matured and have been with me for like…4 years+. Clown even takes food from my fingers and allow stroking.

Additionally, I have another method to catch fishes, ie, to turn on the lights of the tank after a couple of hours in complete darkness. In a while, you might see groggy low metabolic half sleeping fishes floating out of their crevices as if cyanide intoxicated. Zoom in steadily and net them there and then as they won't be as dextrous as they were in daytime. This method is not fail safe though. Depends on the target fish straying out of its sleep hole. I have ever caught some fishes in this way.

Finally, I like to urge everyone to consider humane methods in dealing with unwanted fishes.

Below are some pix of the trap described.

[Stenopus Hispidus]

One more.

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Last one

[kelstorm]

cool... how much is it?? me thinking of catching out my algae eating benny.. bit my PT!!! where can i get it?

[Achilles Tang]

Note: From my experience, you may need to put a piece of transparent plastic sheet (use an old plastic bag) to cut to size and lay at the bottom of the cage as the floor has many holes for circulation.

The smarter fishes will wait under the cage for food to slip thru the holes.

Kelstorm... can you post a pix of your algae eating blenny? Does it have sharp teeth and many spots like a leopard?

[Achilles Tang]

Good review, Steno!

[clowntrigger]

Note: From my experience, you may need to put a piece of transparent plastic sheet (use an old plastic bag) to cut to size and lay at the bottom of the cage as the floor has many holes for circulation.

The smarter fishes will wait under the cage for food to slip thru the holes.

Kelstorm... can you post a pix of your algae eating blenny? Does it have sharp teeth and many spots like a leopard?

AT, you are thinking it might be a fake lawnmover right? I have seen both of them, they sure does look alike.

[bawater]

kel, nearest to u is AMK central- the old hexagon shaped fish shop(the one with goldfishes)near coffeshop/POSB/baker/bra shop. $17-$19

otherwise TPY69 has them.

[KingFish]

dodo,

This might just be your solution to catch that 'damn-sel' of yours instead of him giving you the runaround with that lousy netting skill of yours.....

[jinners]

has anyone seen a smaller version of the gadget?

need my tomatoe clown out of my two feet.... <_<

[kelstorm]

AT,

here is the pic.. i doubt it is the false lawnmower... it bit my PT on the first day when i release it.. and my PT stopped disturbing it since.. left a circular mark on it with no serious damage.. more like a scratch.. since then, my PT had recovered.. with no signs of scars or that sort..

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Looks like a jewel blenny to me...

I used to have one...loves eating all my algae...my Blue tang used to chase it round...so when in fright...it will shit ou algae...and my blue tang will eat it

[Achilles Tang]

Ok that fish is fine... I thought for a moment it might be a leopard blenny.

[kelstorm]

yah i know.. i recalled seeing something like that when i bought it.. then b4 i release it, i went to check out on them first.. then the pic from my book confirm that it is the lawnmower.. hehehe.. at first, i was afraid that it was the leopard blenny...

[Achilles Tang]

Does yours chomp hair algae?

[Stenopus Hispidus]

Kelstorm,

If you wish to get the trap, go with Bawater's suggestion. I paid $23 for mine at Aquamart. Kena ketuk.

AT,

You are right. Food morsels does get through at the bottom. Good suggestion to put the transparent plastic cover. Never thought of it. Saw your trapped Leopard Blenny. Very cute.

Ah...yes another function of the trap is to use it as a quarantine to acclimatize a fish to the tank's water before releasing it into the main tank with the lifting of the trap door. Useful gadget.

Jinners,

I do not think there's a smaller one.

[harlequin]

Yep...that's the trap i've been using all the time to trap my fishes. And dump them away.

Now trying very hard to catch a YellowTang to grill him into ikan bakar !!

[Sinn]

why dont u give it to the forumers here?

[TanGo]

I was thinking about a fish trap too.. Fomulated it in my mind but yet to try out.. Actually wanted to use it to get my damsels out but I re-did my tank and took everything out.. So catching them no problem..

Here's my idea:

Take a mineral water bottle, cut it 1/3 of the way from the top, then modify the top until it looks somthing like a crown, spikie spike, just to allow your target fish to swim in. Turn the 'crown top' around and stuff it back to the bottom half of the bottle, leave it in your tank overnight.. See if it works.. Remember to take the labels out hor..

If anyone try out, let me know the results can? then I can go register for copyrights.. hehehe

[kelstorm]

Now trying very hard to catch a YellowTang to grill him into ikan bakar !!

[kelstorm]

Does yours chomp hair algae?

if those hair algae is like those in your refugium, i dun know.. coz i dun have them.. but i bet they do munch on them... they are very good cleaners.. cleaned up the back of my tank which i was unable to reached.. now almost spotless clean..

[kelstorm]

If you wish to get the trap, go with Bawater's suggestion. I paid $23 for mine at Aquamart. Kena ketuk.

well.. we all know the prices at aquamart...