
Regarding "Frugal Fishkeeping"...
#1
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
Posted 01 September 2006 - 05:25 PM
#2
Guest_sandtiger_*
Posted 01 September 2006 - 06:05 PM
#3
Guest_dsmith73_*
Posted 01 September 2006 - 07:13 PM
#4
Guest_teleost_*
Posted 04 September 2006 - 10:16 AM
This will be very nice for holding fish (too big for a 5 gallon bucket) prior to photos.
Thanks
#5
Guest_Skipjack_*
Posted 09 September 2006 - 07:23 PM
#6
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
Posted 10 September 2006 - 12:33 AM
#7
Guest_Skipjack_*
Posted 10 September 2006 - 10:41 AM
Attached Files
#8
Guest_chad55_*
Posted 05 November 2006 - 12:19 AM
Chad
#9
Guest_Skipjack_*
Posted 05 November 2006 - 12:21 AM
#10
Guest_julnj2_*
Posted 11 December 2006 - 01:46 PM
#11
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
Posted 08 September 2007 - 08:12 PM
#12
Guest_flamingo_*
Posted 08 September 2007 - 10:53 PM
#13
Guest_critterguy_*
Posted 03 October 2007 - 10:35 PM
After reading about this on NANFA a few months ago, I used it to collect fish. I didn't get anything other than large shiners or darters, but it did work.
This is awesome! If I find one it will most definetly be purchased.
#14
Guest_uniseine_*
Posted 04 October 2007 - 12:19 PM
I have never tried it but I hear that you can use a bicycle wheel tube to power and airstone for a couple of hours at a time. All you do is fill up the innertube and attach the airline to the outlet on the innertube and it will slowly release air into the bucket/container. Great for power failures too...
Chad
Or use your spare tire. A fraction of a century ago, the Germans used tires for their home tanks. Old VW Beetles used the spare tire to make the windshield washer fluid work.
#15
Guest_jase_*
Posted 04 March 2008 - 06:45 PM
In the latest issue of American Currents I was erroneously credited with generating the laundry basket idea. IIRC, it was Ray Wolfe who first put the notion forth - I just took a picture of it.
I think I might be able to lay claim to this idea, or perhaps someone else and I both came up with it independently... Here's my post from the mailing list back in 2006, including a few other ideas. I'll add a separate post with the ideas some other members contributed in that thread.
I'd love to see a "Frugal Fishkeeping" subforum show up at some point...
-Jase
Re: NANFA-L-- Frugal fish transporting and keeping - cheap
Jase Roberts (nanfa_list-in-jaseroberts.net)
Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:44:36 -0400
Aha, this brings up a topic I wanted to start a while back -- fish keeping on the cheap. Maybe folks could offer suggestions and we can put together a compilation? Sure, some stuff you need to get from aquarium stores or other retailers. But a lot of supplies can be picked up *way* cheaper if they aren't specifically marketed as aquarium supplies.
I'll start with some examples:
- 4' fluorescent lights (to be used over a glass aquarium top) usually run $80-100 at aquarium stores. These are virtually identical to 4' "shop lights" that can be had for $8-12 at various discount stores.
- The filter pads that come with cheapo "over-the-side" filters are basically just polyster batting sewn in a rectangle. That batting runs about $2-3/yard at Jo-Anne or other fabric stores. Spend an hour or so with needle-and-thread (or try hot glue to do it much quicker), and you can make up enough to last a long time
- Dollar stores have all sorts of things that can be useful -- packs of suction cups for positioning air lines, kitchen basters for sucking up live foods. One that I've found to be particularly cool is a collapsible mesh laundry hamper that makes a great free-standing "corral" for fish while you're collecting.
- For aquariums where I don't have hoods, I've purchased "foam core" posterboard at dollar stores and cut it to fit. Give it a couple coats of spray paint, and it's waterproof.
Where else have folks found stuff that's useful to fishkeeping, but not specifically marketed as "aquarium supplies" (with the associated markup)?
-Jase
#16
Guest_jase_*
Posted 04 March 2008 - 06:53 PM
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Re: NANFA-L-- Frugal fish transporting and keeping - cheap
Peter Unmack (peter.lists-in-)
Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:02:57 -0500 (CDT)
On Sun, 27 Aug 2006, Jase Roberts wrote:
> Aha, this brings up a topic I wanted to start a while back -- fish
> keeping on the cheap.
The cheapest fish keepers I know are killifish people! Not that they are
cheap per se, but usually if I find those guys are most most knowledgable
about all kinds of good little tricks and stuff. I always search the
killfish email list archives for stuff I have questions about.
My cheap contributions are tubing for airlines, syphons and gravel from
Home Depot (the latter tends to be pretty dirty, but a couple days soaking
makes it easier to clean). Aquarium silicone is another (the GE Type I
stuff is what you use). We already discussed sodium thiosulphate for
chloromine removal. Fixing broken tanks is another. I'm always amazed at
what people are unwilling to easily fix. The standard filtration I used
is a goldfish bowl undergravel filter (<$3) in a gallon tub from Home
Depot or Walmart filled with gravel. Not very pretty, but cheap and very
efficient! I always scrounge the paint screw up bin for good colors for
painting fish tanks with (I like to paint the bottom, back and one side of
relatively bare tanks, the fish are much happier I find).
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Re: NANFA-L-- Frugal fish transporting and keeping - cheap
Derek Parr (derekparr-in-earthlink.net)
Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:52:29 -0400
my turn ;]
My favorite bigtime money saver is using a layer of red clay from the
yard instead of laterite covered with sand/gravel from a nearby creek
(heavily rinsed and hosed off) for all my tank's substrate. It is free,
isn't that much trouble to rinse and works really well. And as a bonus,
I occasionally get some asian clams crawling around afterwords. For the
one or two tanks I have that aren't planted I leave out the clay. I
prefer using fertilization instead of a soil layer.
Of course, one can't exagerate the importance of supporting your local
fish club. I get a lot of great stuff for very little by donating to
the club at the monthly raffles. And all of the stuff is completely
free in my mind, since I want to support my club anyways.
As for filter media for those cheap hang on the side filters, I just jam
nearly any porous non-toxic material into them.. bio balls, filter
floss, sponges, etc. maybe strip the old padding off the plastic of the
filter pad that came with it and tie the floss/sponge on to it to keep
it from flowing in to the tank.
Also, battery operated air pumps for fish transport are much cheaper at
bait stores than at aquarium stores.
Of course, I don't see the point of buying driftwood... I mean, shoot,
the stuff grows on trees! ;]
The rest of my little tricks that I can think of are pretty common or
have already been mentioned.
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RE: NANFA-L-- Frugal fish transporting and keeping - cheap
Irate Mormon (archimedes-in-bayspringstel.net)
Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:32:23 -0500
I scavenge stuff all the time. Recently at my store we had a lighting
upgrade - I appropriated all the old ballasts for future use (I build my
own light hoods). Too bad they weren't MH! I've come across boxes of
plate glass in my wanderings too. Sand and rocks are easily obtainable
at some of my collecting sites. Plants? Available in the wild.
Water pumps are a different story. I don't skimp on those - it isn't
worth it.
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RE: NANFA-L-- Frugal fish transporting and keeping - cheap
Nick Zarlinga (travis.c.haas-in-lawrence.edu)
Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:46:17 -0500
Building your own aquariums is cheaper than buying them
new if you can't seem to find used tanks, and also a heck
of a lot of fun. I've pilfered scraps of countertop from
the dumpster behind a local cabinets and counters business
- the formica surface is waterproof and occasionally
pleasing as a tank background; I use the scraps in the
same way people build plywood tanks. Building all-glass
tanks from new glass isn't cost effective. The best
source of cheap thick plateglass comes in the form of the
tops of old coffee tables, frequently set on the curb for
the garbage man or at thrift stores.
Travis Haas
Fox River and Lake Winnebago
Apppleton, WI
#17
Guest_Irate Mormon_*
Posted 05 March 2008 - 07:37 PM
I think I might be able to lay claim to this idea,
Yeah, OK, looks like you're right. Maybe you can get your name in A/C!
#18
Guest_critterguy_*
Posted 06 March 2008 - 02:58 AM
Perhaps some juvenile fish that cannot jump are in order if I break it out this year. I did keep a few blind cave tetras in it with success.
<a href="http://smg.photobuck...t=DSCN1653.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobuck...h/DSCN1653.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

http://img.photobuck...sh/DSCN1653.jpg
Edited by critterguy, 06 March 2008 - 03:00 AM.
#19
Guest_scottefontay_*
Posted 06 March 2008 - 08:57 AM
#20
Guest_scottefontay_*
Posted 08 March 2008 - 09:28 AM
1) swept up enough of the dirty gravel on the asphalt shoulder (between the white line and the edge of pavement) to fill the container shown below.
2) used a planting tray (black one that flowers came on from the nursery) and lined the inside with vinyl windo screening and sifted all of it.
3) saved the larger aggregate (moslty a fine gravel), thoroughly rinsed it and got enough to fill 1/2 of a 55 gal to 5 inches.
4) Rinsed the fines that passed throught the screening (took a while) and got rougly the same volume of coarse sand.
This all took me one hour and one beer.
pic 1: container I filled with swept-up gravel and the sieve I used
pic 2: washed fine gravel
pic 3: washed coarse sand (wet on left, dry on right)
Attached Files
Edited by scottefontay, 08 March 2008 - 09:30 AM.
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