I honestly don't know what sort of fish was meant to go in these things, but they're hopelessly inadequate. The small plastic Fry Trap. I've never had an adult fish last the night in one.

But, have found them incredibly handy for hatching my Cory fry. And they're generally ok for the first week or two, before larger accommodation is required. I think my biggest bug-bear with them, is the poor circulation, and subsequent build up of toxic elements.

So here is a step-by-step of my butchering a Floating Fry Trap.

1. First up, mark out where the new 'windows' are going. I've delibrately left a 15 mm 'lip' around the base, to prevent food from flushing out.

2. Now, if you don't have a power tool, you're in for a hell of a time. I used a Dremel fitted with a grinding disk, to cut along the lines. If you have a Drill, you could drill a long series of holes, but it'd take a while.



3. The grinding disk builds up a bit of molten plastic, but most of this will snap off with finger pressure. The rest of the rough edges can be smoothed with a Needle File. I was actually careful here not to scratch that lower lip with the file, as I foresaw the possiblity of photographing the Fry through it. I wanted that plastic nice and clear.

4. Next I used an abrasive tool, to roughen a 5mm border around each window. Some plastics don't bond well with Silicon, so this will prepare us for a later step. You could use Sandpaper to roughen these borders.

5. I now cut some wedding viel mesh to fit each window, ensuring it would overlap onto those roughened 5mm borders. This mesh is available from Fabric stores, and comes in varying gauges. I've used the finest, for newly hatched Fry.

6. Silicon time. Run a small amount along those rough 5mm borders. You don't need much. But don't leave any gaps that Fry may escape through later. In case you don't know, 'Aquarium Safe' Silicon is available.



7. Press the mesh over the windows, and into the silicon. The silicon will ooze up through the mesh. It's best to drop it carefully in place, and then use a screwdriver to press the mesh down. Use outward dragging movements to 'tighten' the mesh across the window. Try not to get your fingers in the Silicon, it won't hurt you, but it'd make this step messy and difficult.

8. Give the Silicon a couple of days to 'cure'. Then plop it in the tank, and fill it with eggs. All done!

I did this conversion on Sunday, and already have 20 Cory Fry, and 1 Guppy Fry in there (pushing the Silicon a bit, in a rush!). Cleaning is easy, just tip the Fry into a plastic container, scrub the trap with a tooth brush, rinse, replace in tank, tip Fry back in. Water changes are a flow-on, from those done on the tank.

For further reading, my Cory Topics in the Catfish section depict my Fry Traps in use.

cool. nicely done. i dont have a saw like urs but i think i can improvise and do something similar.

i bought a

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off ebay today. i'm not sure if it will work with the eggs and fry as i'm not sure how fine the mesh is but it will work nicely as a grow out container i recon

That should be fine, mesh wise. I have a couple the same.

I don't use them for new Fry though. The bottom will clag up with fine food debris.

I use them for growing out. I place a piece of clear perspex (plastic) sheet across the base. That makes feeding a bit easier, and cleaner.

good post on how to kana think maybe you should sticky it in the diy section

What a great design, I will be trying it out soon as my cories will start spawning soon.

Thanks

Thank you, Mars.

Although I've now gone off the idea of Silicon, to glue the mesh in place. I've found, that after a couple of cleaning's, it just peels straight off the plastic. And you may not notice it at first, until all the little buggers escape !

We have a product here called Selleys 'Kwik Grip'. It's a contact adhesive for laminates, metal, leather, and hardboard. We've always had it around, for gluing the soles back onto shoes.

Technically it's not aquarium safe, but you use very little of it, and once cured (takes a couple of days to fully cure), I doubt there's any risk. You could always drop it in boiled water to leach out contaminants anyway.