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Re: Fish Trap & Backgrounds



My mail server was screwed up this morning, so if any of this is
redundant, please ignore.

Cliff Lundberg wrote:
 
> I have to catch a bunch of fast little fish in a big densely
> planted tank. Is there some kind of trap I could rig up that
> would corral them?

You can make a trap out of a clear plastic soda bottle (1 pint or
thereabouts). Remove the cap. Cut off the top just below the shoulder,
so it looks like a funnel. Invert this "funnel" back into the bottle (so
the neck is inside the bottle), use a hot ice pick or nail to make 3
holes through both layers of plastic, be careful and don't make the
holes too large. Insert pieces of toothpicks through the holes to hold 
the 2 pieces together. Drop a few bits of food into the bottle and 
submerge. You can attach fishing floats if you want to catch surface 
feeders, set it on top of plants to catch mid level feeders, or place 
it on the bottom to catch bottom feeders. Don't feed the fish awhile 
before using.

"Kudzu" wrote: 

> Thanks to everyone that responded with background ideas. Thanks Augie for
> the photo of your rock background. I like what I see here, but I have a
> question that has been bothering me.
> 
> What do you do about algae building up and hiding your nice looking rocks? I
> know if you use a smooth rock that plecos and others will keep them fairly
> clean. However several of you suggested sandstone. I found some purple rocks
> in an abandon quarry that appear to be sandstone and have about the same
> texture. I put some of these in my tanks and none of my algae eating fish would
> keep them clean. I assume because of the rough texture. After a while I had
> to pull them out and clean them, because they looked really bad, and were no
> longer purple.
> 
> Also has anyone used smooth round river stones to make a background? I was
> thinking that these might make a really attractive background.

I've never had this happen. In all of my tanks, algae has disappeared
after about 3 months of setup. The last tank I did has been set up for
about 6 weeks, algae is going nuts, but there is very little on the
rocks. Just a nice faint green patina effect. I've also noted my Flags
picking at it constantly.

Most of the rock backgrounds I've done, _have_ been sandstone.

Been thinking about the river rock, should look good, however it _might_
look like cobblestones. But then, that will probably look good too. What
do I know. 

Augie
Green Cove Springs, Fl     Where It finally rained last night. (Ok, so
                           it was only for 10 minutes, it was still
                           wet).