Using a human child medicine spoon to capture pleco fry

[bekateen]

Hi All,

I found myself in a bind twice this week when I needed to capture individual baby plecos (very small ones) in my breeder baskets and move them to other baskets. I didn't want to use a regular net for fear of snagging a fin spine and injuring the fry and I don't own a shrimp net, so I used a (human) child medicine spoon. It worked great and I recommend it to anyone. I'm sure many of you have faced this challenge before me, so if you have other solutions, please share.

Cheers, Eric

P.S., yeah, I realized after I made the movie that I accidentally called it a dropper. It's a spoon. Sorry. LOL
Using a child medicine spoon to safely capture baby plecos

[YSR50]

I've always used a shrimp net, never had any issues

[bekateen]

I've always used a shrimp net, never had ant issues

Having never kept shrimp (for any length of time), I don't have experience with shrimp nets. But I can see how they would be very useful.

Thanks,
Eric

[Kenneth Wong]

I use a brine shrimp net.

[TwoTankAmin]

I have used brine shrimp nets for a long time to nab pleco fry. However, I almost never raise fry in a basket or fry trap. When I do have to do this, I use one of the Marina hang-on traps that circulate tank water thought them. Because this is a solid unit an not made of nets, it is pretty easy to nab fish out of either a specimen box or a Marina trap.

When I began with bristlenose I used to siphon them out using an airline. This worked great. So when I started spawning zebras, I figured of course it would work with them too. Wrong. Bristlenose shoot out the other end with ease. Zebras do not go through, they suck onto the inside of the airline and stop moving through. Getting them out was a PITA.

[Jobro]

Zebras do not go through, they suck onto the inside of the airline and stop moving through. Getting them out was a PITA.

I can see just the same happening with this spoon
Doesn't look like this item is a common thing over here so I don't really know, but from the looks of it, the plecos could sit into the shaft, right? How we gonna get them out of there again?

Thumps up for the video, Eric!

[bekateen]

I can see just the same happening with this spoon
Doesn't look like this item is a common thing over here so I don't really know, but from the looks of it, the plecos could sit into the shaft, right? How we gonna get them out of there again?

The babies I'm picking up might be too small to stretch their pectoral spines across the tube to lock themselves in the tube. Yes they could suck on the sides with their mouths, but most of the time they voluntarily slide right out. The particular individual in the video that stuck to the plastic was doing so with mouth suction, not spines.

I agree that if you tried this with larger babies, they could probably lock themselves in there.

This is a medicine spoon that many pharmacies will give out for free to customers that say they have a bottle of over-the-counter liquid children's medication that requires dosing.

Cheers, Eric

[TwoTankAmin]

My zebras just sucked onto the inside of the tube. I think maybe the big bend plecos with all the current they must navigate may suck more strongly than other plecos? Getting them out involved repeatedlysucking water in and then blowing it out. By repeating this process they seemed will to move a bit and after a while I got them out.

Initially I thought the first one was a unique thing so I kept siphoning. I may be slow, but I learned pretty fast

[bekateen]

I think maybe the big bend plecos with all the current they must navigate may suck more strongly than other plecos? Getting them out involved repeatedly sucking water in and then blowing it out. By repeating this process they seemed will to move a bit and after a while I got them out.

Initially I thought the first one was a unique thing so I kept siphoning. I may be slow, but I learned pretty fast

Maybe you're right. Maybe I got lucky with spastic Ancistrus and Panaqolus. .

Cheers, Eric

[YSR50]

I use one of the Marina hang-on traps that circulate tank water thought them...

When I began with bristlenose I used to siphon them out using an airline. This worked great. So when I started spawning zebras, I figured of course it would work with them too. Wrong. Bristlenose shoot out the other end with ease. Zebras do not go through, they suck onto the inside of the airline and stop moving through. Getting them out was a PITA.

Always did the same with L134 fry, thicker than an airline, but same process. Some would hang on mid tube, but it was still better than chasing them around with a net.

Never had much love for the Marina breeder box. Since I add leaves and a few floating plant stems it would always clog and the fry would overflow into the tank. I have some nice internal acrylic breeder boxes that work well, only downside is that they make it difficult to access the tank by simple lifting the lid. I have a Ziss on the way that I’m going to give a try. Been tempted to try a German ring also.

[pan]

I don't intend to spam. Just want to add that i got a german ring about a month ago, and i'm really satisfied. I used it for sturisomatichthys and corys and it's much better than any other breeder (net or plastic) I've used. More efficient and easy to keep up.

Greetings, Chris