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Aquarium progress

They are escape artist. If you put a eel in there and it disappears, check your filter. I had a 55 gal with about 15-20 eels for a little while. Awesome to watch and very aggressive. Every so often the tank would be bare. They were all in the 2 skimmer filters.
You are going to make me set up my tanks again.
 
Oh dang well looks like that's a double no for crayfish, particularly since one of the air tubes exits next to the filter so definitely a climbable exit point. I'm definitely at the wanting to put fish in it right away but knowing that's probably not the smartest decision stage. The kids are angling to go angling this weekend as well...
 
thedutchtouch said:
Oh dang well looks like that's a double no for crayfish, particularly since one of the air tubes exits next to the filter so definitely a climbable exit point. I'm definitely at the wanting to put fish in it right away but knowing that's probably not the smartest decision stage. The kids are angling to go angling this weekend as well...
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I wouldn’t hesitate to put fish in it this weekend. If you do catch some and bring them home this weekend dump them and the water you bring them home in into a gallon ziploc bag and let the bag of water and fish float around in your aquarium for 20 min or so to let the water temps equalize and your fish to slowly acclimate To the new temp.
 
True, and if they still want to go fishing this weekend it'll definitely be happening. Heck if they want to go tomorrow I'll take em, worst case I suppose I can freeze the dead ones as catfish bait. You're right, less thinking more doing. Will report back when there's some fish in there
 
I present the redneck express minnow trap: couldn't find my old trap and didn't have any 2 liter bottles to make an easy version, so I got to thinking, gathered 6 wire coat hangers, zip ties, wire, and an old laundry bag and they were combined to make this debacle/glorious creation. If it catches a few minnows/darters/anything tomorrow, well great. If not it was a fun 45 min/2 beer project from junk lol.

Started by bending two hangers into rectangles using the eye-crometer to measure:

Screenshot_20230613-234709.png

Then overlapped two hangers for each side and wound the hooks around the bottom of the mate to make sides (x2) (also featured here: my daughter's shoes that I asked her 3 times to take to her room, but remain with me downstairs instead)

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Then ziptied the 8 corners together and shoved the whole thing inside the old mesh laundry bag:

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Fashioned two small rectangles from wire (I think it's picture frame wire, not sure, found it in my crabbing supplies) and two small loops to hold them together. Then zip ties these to the inside of the mesh bag in a way that created a funnel (I zip ties the top of the bag mostly shut and cut a hole in the center of the bottom). I hope the pics do better than the words:

Screenshot_20230613-234748.png

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Finally I fished the hooks out of the top of each side of the bag and bent them into loops, and will attach a cord to each. Also zip ties a little of the excess to try to shape the funnels a bit better. Realized I needed a door so I cut a slit in the top and threaded some wire back and forth in the mesh to hold it closed but allow me to dump out any minnows I might catch.

Pretty sure I don't have a future in wonky trap building as a side gig, but if it catches one or two with some bread and dog food tomorrow I'll be super happy.
 
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Loopwing said:
Side note, crawfish are cool, but do not put them in with live plants. I learned that the hard way. The will clip them all off at gravel level.
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We did crayfish and they tend to jump out and you will keep finding them on the floor or they disappear, and you find the remains at some point.
 
I set up an aquarium for an octopus one time. There could not be any gaps larger than 1/16 of an inch, because of the escape factor. It was very time consuming and then my octopus guy fell through.
 
thedutchtouch said:
I present the redneck express minnow trap: couldn't find my old trap and didn't have any 2 liter bottles to make an easy version, so I got to thinking, gathered 6 wire coat hangers, zip ties, wire, and an old laundry bag and they were combined to make this debacle/glorious creation. If it catches a few minnows/darters/anything tomorrow, well great. If not it was a fun 45 min/2 beer project from junk lol.

Started by bending two hangers into rectangles using the eye-crometer to measure:

View attachment 86112

Then overlapped two hangers for each side and wound the hooks around the bottom of the mate to make sides (x2) (also featured here: my daughter's shoes that I asked her 3 times to take to her room, but remain with me downstairs instead)

View attachment 86113

Then ziptied the 8 corners together and shoved the whole thing inside the old mesh laundry bag:

View attachment 86114

Fashioned two small rectangles from wire (I think it's picture frame wire, not sure, found it in my crabbing supplies) and two small loops to hold them together. Then zip ties these to the inside of the mesh bag in a way that created a funnel (I zip ties the top of the bag mostly shut and cut a hole in the center of the bottom). I hope the pics do better than the words:

View attachment 86115

View attachment 86116

Finally I fished the hooks out of the top of each side of the bag and bent them into loops, and will attach a cord to each. Also zip ties a little of the excess to try to shape the funnels a bit better. Realized I needed a door so I cut a slit in the top and threaded some wire back and forth in the mesh to hold it closed but allow me to dump out any minnows I might catch.

Pretty sure I don't have a future in wonky trap building as a side gig, but if it catches one or two with some bread and dog food tomorrow I'll be super happy.
Click to expand...
One of the best fishing purchases I've made has been a gee's minnow trap. Galvanized hardware cloth instead of expanded metal. Out-catches home made and other store bought traps consistently.

If you're gonna get into ditch fishing, they're awesome to have. Fish in small, clear creeks get extremely finicky. I've been out throwing live shiners and goldfish at bass and got blanked. Start freelining the local creek shiners and catch 5 fish on 5 casts.

And you catch cool stuff. I've caught tiny pickerel and American eels in my gees. Also doubles as a crawfish trap and snake trap.
 
Nutterbuster said:
One of the best fishing purchases I've made has been a gee's minnow trap. Galvanized hardware cloth instead of expanded metal. Out-catches home made and other store bought traps consistently.

If you're gonna get into ditch fishing, they're awesome to have. Fish in small, clear creeks get extremely finicky. I've been out throwing live shiners and goldfish at bass and got blanked. Start freelining the local creek shiners and catch 5 fish on 5 casts.

And you catch cool stuff. I've caught tiny pickerel and American eels in my gees. Also doubles as a crawfish trap and snake trap.
Click to expand...
Pretty sure I got rid of my old minnow trap because I bought one of the black coated wire versions thinking it would be more durable and it never caught much of anything. I have come to discover that the metal ones are much better for whatever reason, so will be grabbing one of those soon regardless of if this diy thing works or not.
 
Check out the nanfa (North American native fish association) forums for lots of good info on keeping native fish. I’ve had sunfish and darters but eventually the darters get eaten. I try to match mouth sizes of the fish in a tank. My best combo was a 5”green sunfish,3” largemouth, and a giant bluegill together in a 55 gallon.
 
You have to have something creating ammonia in order to start the nitrogen cycle. Some people throw some fish food in the tank which will breakdown into ammonia or you can use fish ( one or 2).
 
Nutterbuster said:
One of the best fishing purchases I've made has been a gee's minnow trap. Galvanized hardware cloth instead of expanded metal. Out-catches home made and other store bought traps consistently.

If you're gonna get into ditch fishing, they're awesome to have. Fish in small, clear creeks get extremely finicky. I've been out throwing live shiners and goldfish at bass and got blanked. Start freelining the local creek shiners and catch 5 fish on 5 casts.

And you catch cool stuff. I've caught tiny pickerel and American eels in my gees. Also doubles as a crawfish trap and snake trap.
Click to expand...
You been watching the fishing machine?
 
Jimdude said:
You have to have something creating ammonia in order to start the nitrogen cycle. Some people throw some fish food in the tank which will breakdown into ammonia or you can use fish ( one or 2).
Click to expand...
I started it with some fish food but hoping to actually start it with a few bluegill this afternoon as long as the AM rain doesn't dampen my co-anglers interest.
 
gcr0003 said:
You been watching the fishing machine?
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Does he have something on minnow traps?

All I know is I had a frabill brand, rubber-coated expanded metal trap. It performed poorly. Complained about it to a friend who recommended a gees. Instantly started catching catching. Same creek. Same location. Same bait.

No clue why, but galvanized wire is the way to go. And bread/crackers will sometimes kill your minnows. Dry dogwood won't. Traps do better under something too. Brushy limb, plywood, under a dock, etc
 
Fishing trip was a great success, we caught a dozen in about a hour, I wasn't able to successfully leave enough behind so we wound up with 4 bluegill and 1 long eared sunfish. The sunfish is a bit big but I couldn't resist adding a bit more color to the tank. If I can find a pumpkinseed or something else more colorful I'll likely take a bluegill or two out

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Oh and I scooped up two little darters (I think?) that may keep the bottom cleaner, may get eaten
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My trap was a total fail. Part because it was only in the water for 30 min, part because... It likely wouldnt work anyway
 
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