# How to catch the uncatchable-----><



## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

hey guys/Gals, im wondering
how the heck can i possibly get a darn group of bumblebee catfish out of a 125 without draining and removing all my plants 

is there like a fish trap or something??? help!:frusty:


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

yep.

how big are they?


If they are small, you can make one out of a 2L bottle.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

or get a large net and put it beneath the surface, and feed, your catfish should go up to eat and then lift the net. not my idea, but its been around. me, i just removed the biggest thing getting in my way and caught the fish in 10 seconds.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

YES!!! The bottle method is easy and cheap. Even a little water bottle will work. Just cut off the top, invert it and put their fav food inside. Sink the bottle and BAM, you got your caught fish (it may take a day or two to get them all).

I'll hunt down my old thread on this and post it here...

Well, I can't find it, but I found the thread that I used as reference back then.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/diy-aquarium-projects/52854-fish-trap.html

-Dave


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## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

davemonkey said:


> YES!!! The bottle method is easy and cheap. Even a little water bottle will work. Just cut off the top, invert it and put their fav food inside. Sink the bottle and BAM, you got your caught fish (it may take a day or two to get them all).
> 
> I'll hunt down my old thread on this and post it here...
> 
> -Dave


The bottle fish trap work for me all the time, just have patience.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I can't visualize the trap described there.
anyone got a photo link to share of this?


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

1st one I saw on a search that shows it off really well. its a paint drawing.


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

if they come to the surface to feed ..... just feed them and wait till they all get up there and get a huge net and you can get them all at one time. i caught all 25 of my tetras that way in one try. good luck


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

doubleott05 said:


> if they come to the surface to feed ..... just feed them and wait till they all get up there and get a huge net and you can get them all at one time. i caught all 25 of my tetras that way in one try. good luck


lol, in the last couple of months i have seen them like twice :flame:

i will try the bottle thing, sounds promising :fish2:


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

Bottle Trap:
Cut the top off of a bottle along the top edge of where the label would be. Invert the top so that it is inside of the bottle like a funnel. Use a couple staples to hold it in place (it will only be underwater a short while so they wont rust). Add some food. Sink it. Pull out the bottle when the fish goes inside. Remove the fish.
Its a great way to catch snails, too but they will crawl out when the food is gone.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

do you leave the bottle standing? i don't see too many fish tempted to go straight down a narrow bottle opening... how do they sense the food? sight alone? i'm not questioning its effectiveness but how it works eludes me.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

You lay it on its side. They smell the food and go into the bottle after it. Here is a really crappy illustration I found on google but you get the jist of it.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

a snail "trap" I discovered by accident;

rinse and cut a ripe avacado in half,
scoop out all of the flesh and pit,
drop the 2 skin shells in your tank,
they will quickly sink to the bottom,
and within hours be full of snails
you didn't even know you had


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

Franco said:


> You lay it on its side. They smell the food and go into the bottle after it. Here is a really crappy illustration I found on google but you get the jist of it.


love the pic!


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## ThoHell (Jan 9, 2011)

LOL, that really is an awesome drawing!


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

what if the fish gets stuck in the spout?  well you caught it anyways...


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

If it is big enough to get caught in the threaded end of the bottle, then you can cut that off to make the hole bigger.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

no no they are not that big. i saw one today


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## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

Hope you catch them! I've never used the bottle trap but have been tempted many times. It's the same idea that is used for minnow trips in oceans and lakes, except it's potentially much less harmful to the fish. Neilshieh, many fish have very adept smelling apparatus'. Ever watched a legally blind pleco or catfish hunt around on the bottom for an obvious algae wafer only to pass over it 3-4 times? Mine are blind as a bat but can "smell" the food from across the tank. Same thing applies to the bottle.


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## LVKSPlantlady (Oct 4, 2009)

I used a sandwich bag to caught young yoyo loaches out of a ten gallon tank! I chased them around for almost an hour once I got the bag out I had all 4 caught in less than 10 mins! they can't see the clear bag in the water just chase them in with the net... you'll have to put a few pieces of gravel to keep the bag from floating away!


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## hoplo (May 14, 2007)

The bottle trap will work, however from past experience I once needed to catch out a bunch of loach and used this method. I left the 1.5L soda bottle with some fish food in the tank and was gone for an hour. I came back and found about 5 of them had suffocated in the bottle.  felt really guilty after that. Alternatively you could try pvc pipes since bumblebee cats seem to like dark hidey holes.


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## flashbang009 (Aug 6, 2009)

Was there air in the bottle? I don't see why they would suffocate unless there was a pocket of air in the bottle.


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## Franco (Jun 25, 2010)

They shouldn't have suffocated but I guess you could poke holes in the bottle to let more water circulate through it. I've used the bottle method for fish, snails, and shrimp countless times and have never had any of them die even if I left them in it for 24 hours or more because I was busy.


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