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Water Bottle Fish Trap


fewskillz

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Here is a quick DIY guide to making a water bottle fish trap. It works best if you can starve the tank for a day or three before hand.

 

You will need:

A bottle — I like 20 oz Dasani bottles

A razor blade or sharp scissors

Bait (regular food works if you've starved the fish, something extra tasty helps if you haven't)

and maybe some SuperGlue Gel

 

 

I like the Dasani bottle pictured below because of the two bulges in the bottle above the label. This way you don't need any super glue or have to wait for it to dry. Also, when (not if) you catch the wrong fish you can release him and put the trap back together immediately instead of waiting on the new glue to dry.

 

Dasani.jpg

 

Step one: Remove the cap and label.

 

Step two: Cut the bottle in two.

Dasani1.jpg

 

Step three: Flip over the top.

Dasani2.jpg

 

Step four: Insert the top into the bottom. The bulge of each piece fits together tight enough to hold the two together.

Dasani3.jpg

 

Step five: Insert the bait and fill the bottle with tank water.

 

Step six: Place the bottle in your tank near the favorite hiding spot of the fish you're trying to catch. Make sure its stable, if you have strong flow this part can be a PITA. Once it's in place be patient. Only touch the bottle if absolutely necessary. Some fish need longer than others to learn to trust the trap. (i.e. a dottyback vs a firefish)

 

The fish will peck at the food from the outside and eventually be guided down the cone and into the opening. Once inside the bottle its hard to get back out. It may take a couple days, but its always worked for me. It works best on small-medium sized aggressive fish like damsels, dottybacks, and wrasses, which are typically the fish people want to catch.

 

Have somewhere to put your captured fish ready to go. The first time I used the trap I didn't plan that far ahead. I caught the fish, removed the water bottle from the tank, THEN thought "now what?"

 

 

I'll try to update this thread with actual photos of a real bottle trap, but between the Paint pictures and the descriptions it should be pretty simple to figure out.

 

Happy Hunting!

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A couple additional comments.

One is you may need to cut the neck off an inch or two down to enlarge the entrance size for larger fish or crabs. Another is I poke a small hole in the bottle and tie a long piece of monofilament fishing line to it then sit across the room watching the fish enter the bottle so I don't spook them. I pull the bottle up when the one I want is in the bottle and it works well.

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I just finished making one and came across this,except i used a 2 liter coke bottle which also has the bulge in it.. :P

Now to go trap my Jewel damsel thats been bullying my pj cardinals...

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I've used this to capture freshwater shrimp and crays, it's great!!! Never thought to use it for fish......hopefully won't need too anytime soon!

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I caught my fourline wrasse this way! Bottle trap FTW!

 

 

+1 :D Sixline though but close enough! Had to starve it for about a week until it was hungry enough to go into the bottle...

 

Target feeding helps :)

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I once used this to catch some shrimp in a freshwater aquarium.

I check back the next day and I see 3 fish in there. No shrimp. I felt bad for those fish.

Oh, but I put it vertical.

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  • 11 months later...

You didn't include the part about removing the cap. That should be obvious, but I know there will be somebody that doesn't figure that part out.

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You didn't include the part about removing the cap. That should be obvious, but I know there will be somebody that doesn't figure that part out.

Yes I did! "Step one: Remove the cap and label"

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