DIY Fish Trap

comatose

Active member
Well i needed to get a Flame Angel out of my tank, i would watch him pick at every coral in the tank day in and day out, he was impossible to catch, man they are smart too, i was beging to wonder who had the higher I.Q between us.

every since i bought him i have lost polyp extension from him picking so much.

anyway, it is a 10" long 6" round piece of leftover acrylic, i made slots for the door to slide up and down into, the other end is a piece glued in place and is squared off at the bottom to act as feet so it wouldn't roll, the white tube you see is 1/2" going thru with a uniseal so that while it's in the tank i can drop food in the tube and it will sink into the trap, it is just long enough to reach about an 1" out of the water.
I put it in the tank for a day or two so the Angel gets use to it then start adding food and Wait till he goes in and then release the trap door, which by the way is held up by 8lb test fishing line.
it worked perfectly in just two days,
this trap is not an automatic trap, you have to be there to release the door.
fishtrap1.jpg

fishtrap2.jpg


Now he is in the Refugium waiting till i go to the fish store.
 
Thanks,
taking rock out wasn't an option for me, took me about a half hour to build this, every one of my fish went in it before the flame angel, he was the only one that was real careful about entering.
 
I made a trap very simular a few years ago. I found that the acrylic trap door took WAY to long to sink. So I made a hinged guiliteine style door that uses a changable rubberband. Not it snaps shut.

I also work at a brick yard that sells tile, so I siliconed the whole thing to a slab of marble to keep it where I put it.

It's awsome to yank a fish out without disturbing the coral. Even better, never chase a damsel again.

Jason
 
thats funny, my door dropped like a brick.
i was just thinking how i did without this thing all these years, i disturbed so many nice rock walls to get a fish.
well now this thing goes on the shelf till i need it again. the good thing about the uniseal is that i can pull the pipe out for storage.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6945960#post6945960 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmkarcz
I made a trap very simular a few years ago. I found that the acrylic trap door took WAY to long to sink. So I made a hinged guiliteine style door that uses a changable rubberband. Not it snaps shut.

I also work at a brick yard that sells tile, so I siliconed the whole thing to a slab of marble to keep it where I put it.

It's awsome to yank a fish out without disturbing the coral. Even better, never chase a damsel again.

Jason

I'm in the process of making a trap, can you explain how you used the rubberband and hinges?

I've been looking for plastic hinges and can't find any.

pics would be helpful
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6948368#post6948368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kent E
I don't understand the pvc tube part.

its a tube with one open end, the part with the door is open, once a fish enters, they spring the trap door and wham you have your fish trapped.

the long tube coming out of the top is for feeding, to lure the fish inside.
 
ezhoops is right, the PVC tube goes from the trap to about 1" above the water surface when i want to lure a fish in the trap i put in any food that sinks into the top of the pvc tube and it sinks down to the trap.
It's just a better way to get food in the trap rather than scaring the fish when you try and put food directly into the trap with your hands. your hands never touch the water this way.
 
Nice job. How did you make the section the door slides up and down? I made a square trap with the same basic premise. I think it would be nicer if we used thicker material and routed out the track for the door to slide up and down.
 
Where I buy my acrylic, they sell acrylic hinges. I've got some but haven't used them yet, and don't know how long they'd last in saltwater. I can't remember if they have a metal pin or not.

For cheap hinges, you can use zip ties. I'm not sure what a rubberband would do, but MacGyver would. :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6991551#post6991551 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Airman
Comatose,

Your website is cool. A lot of good stuff there. :)

I agree. You should update the full tank pictures with something from this month, as it has been almost a year since that was updated.
 
Thanks guys, i've been working on the website this weekend and plan on updating all the pictures this week. I've been so busy building the calcium reactor II and a new canopy along with this fish trap, i'm starting to get caught up now. it's hard taking full tank shots of a 6' long tank and being able to see everything. but i will update everything, even growth pics buy the end of the month.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6992185#post6992185 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I agree. You should update the full tank pictures with something from this month, as it has been almost a year since that was updated.

Ok i updated two sections, one being the starboard section with what the bottom looks like after the first 14 months and the tank section with updated tank pics.
growth pics at the end of the month, i'm still working on some modification to the whole website. it's a slow process, i need to add the DIY fish trap section yet.
 
Good update on the starboard page. I don't see a lot of change in the display tank after a year's time though. The lighting (or picture at least) is less bright.
 
I know, for some reason the pictures just dont want to come out right with this camera. i just can't get the right coloring so that you can see all the frags and corals, believe it or not there are about 20-30 frags in that full tank shot that you just can't see. the pics just dont do the tank justice. thats another reason i hadn't posted in a year, maybe i'll try my daughters camera and see if hers helps.
 
I have made a series of fish traps before. Hinges just don't work well. They dont close quickly enough. The best door is GLASS sliding in a track. The glass slides well due to its weight.

I made my own out of left over tube but never quite got the track made well enough. The door never slid up and down smoothly and when it did move the trap moved alittle as well. That scared the fish. I eventually saw the AquaMedic trap which is acrylic with glass bottom to hold it still and beautiful sliding glass trap door. Another benefit of the glass bottom is the weight it provides contering the glass door when you raise it. You can actually raise and lower the door so quickly that even if you initially trap more than the intended fish, you can easily let the other fish out as they swim around. You use a little 8-10 pound fishing line connected to the door. It was only $40.00 so it was a no brainer after making several of my own. It also has an insertable tube for food to not disturb the trap.

P.S. I also use the trap in reverse to acclimate fish to the tank and the other fish. It has ventilation/circulation slots
 
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