Looking for a fishtrap? Here's my opinion :D

[pecan2phat]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to give a shout out for Aquarium Specialty's custom Fish trap.
I was hunting for a fish trap to get my Goldflake and Emperator angel out of my SPS tank. After months of nipping, I had to tell myself that it was more than "picking at slime".
The few traps that looked promising was the UltraLife and the Aquamedic traps but then I came across Scott's website and his trap looked intriguing.
The difference with Scott's trap is that it utilizes two guillotine style trap doors on either end of the trap. What I found this to be effective was that the fish were much more comfortable with both doors open then just one. When one door was open, they would only swim partially to grab the food that I placed in there but with two doors open, they would swim into the trap to obtain the food. Of course it took a few days of leaving the trap open in the tank so that they would not view it as a threat.
Scott has great CS. I initially orded the standard sized trap from the website and found it too large for my use. I was able to send it back and Scott built me a smaller trap in about 3 days.
The larger trap IMO is great for fish that are over 4" and can trap larger fish with no problem. The trap was solid and built like a tank. I suggested to Scott to build future smaller trap also with the same thickness as the larger one. This would give it more umph and would also provide more weight to the trap and also speed up the door closure. I had to utilize a magnet to keep mine from rocking a bit due to the high flow in an SPS tank.
One note with this type of trap though. Because of the guillotine type doors, this trap will not hold water so you will need some working room near the top of the tank when you bring the trapped fish to the surface.
All in all, the trap was pricier than the others that I mentioned but it also worked like a charm and that's key

 

[heuerfan]

Better than my ghetto trap?

Where are the pics, can't find the website.

 

[Deanos]

AS Fish Traps

 

[heuerfan]

Thanks Dean, looks like a very nice trap. How do you pull the pins, via fishing line?

 

[jhale]

Do you think the small size would work to catch a pseudochromis and a damsel? I'll rent the trap from you if it can

 

[madhouse]

damn i wanna get a damsel outta my tank but 55$ is alot..

 

[heuerfan]

You can just make your own with a plastic container, fishing line and zipties. I use a magfloat to hold the plastic container down and drilled some holes so i can add mysis in the container to attract the fish. Fishing line attached to lid, when fish go in pull the line and your done. Caught every fish i've owned with this trap.

But i do like the one Warren got

 

[pecan2phat]

Heh, heh....

Steven, I went home and jerry rigged a trap very similiar to yours with an ARM media container and they (the fish) were having no part of that. They wouldn't even go in after I left it in for a week and placed food inside as well.

Like I had mentioned, Scott's traps are on the pricier side but the magic word is that it works.

Jonathan, you can borrow it anytime. The one I have is Scott's first prototype on the smaller trap but I called him and suggested some revisions to the sizing and material. The trap still works fine though.

What I did was place a Magfloat 150 between the container and the front glass. The magfloat was not meant to hold the trap up in midwater but just to keep it from moving at all from my 3000 gph closed loop current. It also served as a useful secondary purpose. I tied fishing line to the guilotine doors and held them in the open position by placing the fishing line under the outer magnet. After I place a cube of frozen food into an Oceans Nutritions screen clip, I set the trap back down and raise the doors while holding the fishing line in place with the magnet. When the perp goes in and you quickly pull the magnet away from the glass, both doors close down and wha-la.

 

[jhale]

okay cool, if i do not get the fish out when i aqauscape i'll be by to borrow the trap