- So here we can see the cage that we've built
in action and working.
So, it took a couple of weeks for the fry
to actually drop out here,
but you can see all the fry are on the outside.
And then all the adults, well not all, but three
of the adults we've put in
are still on the inside there,
and it allows the babies to be outside and graze
and you know, get eaten.
So you can also do it where the adults are on the outside
and the babies can rush to the inside
for cover,
but what makes this nice
is I could literally pull this whole cage up
out of the tank and drop it in the next tank
and raise these babies in this tank.
So it becomes modular, which is nice.
We're gonna use the work table
in the fish room 'cause it's definitely a fish room project.
I could use a studio and a controlled environment,
but I'm showing you how I do this,
even when I'm actually doing it.
So, you might hear some water flowing in the background.
Lots of stuff's going on in the background,
but this is the time when I would normally do this.
This is the perfect project to be doing
while you're waiting on something.
So...
Some things we're gonna need.
We're gonna need, and you've seen this in other videos
in the past, acrylic yarn.
I use green.
I figure algae's gonna grow.
But you want to use acrylic so it won't rot.
So, acrylic yarn.
And here I've got...
What do they call this thing?
Let's see, they call it a plastic canvas
made by Yarnology.
I call it the bottom to my breeding trap,
and this is what they do in commercial,
you know, in Thailand and things like that
where they're building these things.
They use maybe some bigger ones,
but this is the same concept they use
when they're making hundreds of thousands of guppies
and we're not gonna do it on the same level.
They tend to put 50 males and 250 females
in a circle disc like this, or they put the males
and the females on the outside and then let the fry go in.
But what we're gonna do essentially
is create a dome.
We basically want to create a dome here.
And what's gonna happen is fry can go in and out
of this as they wish.
Adults won't be able to it, so that's pretty helpful.
If we put adults inside, like let's say we just have
a couple of pregnant females.
But let's say we only have a trio of fish,
a male and two females.
You got them off AquaBid or whatever.
They have been shipped in, and you want the fry to make it.
You could put them inside and let fry go out,
or we can attach some things on the outside
to make it so fry want to hide inside.
But all we really have to do is knit,
er, not knit this up, but tie it up.
So I'm gonna show you a couple things here.
So this mesh that I'm using, if we put it in front of me,
we can see that yeah, you can relatively see me.
This is mesh number five, much bigger holes.
Okay?
Now, this here
is mesh number five.
So the smaller the mesh, the smaller the holes.
You can't see me nearly as well.
Smaller holes.
You're just gonna have to take my word for it.
They're definitely smaller when you compare the two.
I want to say that this is like 1/8 of an inch
and this is like 1/4 inch.
Also, they come in varying stiffnesses.
So, this one is ultra-stiff, and we're actually
gonna use this one for a different project,
so make sure you check out the video
on how to make a breeder box, something like that
for African cichlids.
But this one, really stiff.
It can stand up on its own.
This one, very floppy
and definitely wouldn't stand up on its own.
It's droopy.
That being said, it's gonna be real easy
to turn into a circle.
This one, while it can be done, not so much.
It wants to fold.
It's got a lot of spring to it.
And for the bottom.
Apparently they only make this one in seven mesh.
Do I have that backwards?
Let's see here.
Yeah, seven mesh.
So yeah, five mesh is the big one.
Seven.
So the bigger the number, the smaller it is.
The smaller the number, the larger the holes are.
This comes in a seven mesh as well.
It's gonna be the bottom.
So it's mostly gonna be sitting on the bottom.
It won't be as important, you know.
But if you were trying to keep very small fry in a cage,
we'd want to use something with smaller holes.
Like this isn't gonna hold neon tetra fry
or barbs and things like that,
but typically you're not keeping those
in the same tank anyway.
Once they get a little larger, sure you can keep them
in here, but this would work great for African cichlids
and things like that where you're gonna milk fry out.
I've built these to use them with
Simochromis and stuff like that before.
We'll show you that in another video,
how to make the rectangular boxes and much bigger boxes.
I've made them as big as this, where it literally
is most of the tank, and we can show you
how to do that too.
But for now, I'm just gonna talk as I work
and I will put the bits that seem important
together in the video for ya, so there'll be
time lapses in kind of how it jumps around,
but that way you'll spend the least amount of time watching
and getting the most useful information possible.
So, I got some
some needles
and these big plastic ones
are meant to be used,
well I don't know what they're meant to be used for.
I think this five mesh.
That being said, these smaller metal ones
are meant, they even say, "for use with
"seven-point mesh plastic canvas."
So, when I make the circle out of this one,
I'm gonna use this bigger needle
just 'cause I can and it's green, so why not?
I've got my needle.
You've seen this on other videos.
Grab a piece of yarn here.
And we're just gonna thread this through.
Make sure you leave a tail on it
so when you're pulling it through it doesn't just unravel.
But the reality is, all we're gonna do
is mate up these two sides for this part.
It shouldn't be too difficult.
And I'm gonna see what works easy.
If a zigzag works easy, I'm gonna do that.
If something else is easier, I don't know yet.
I've never made one of these round ones yet.
I had to buy...
Well, I've seen it done before
and I bought an expensive book
that kind of made me want to do it again.
But yeah, I've seen these used.
Never made one before that's round.
I've made them in squares, so...
So, to make this easier, I'm gonna use some binder clips.
I think I got these at the dollar store, or Staples.
I don't even know.
But this is gonna kind of hold it together for me
as I'm trying to pull this off,
which should make it a little easier, I think.
So right now I'm trying to keep it together.
And sew it together.
It has not proven to be the easiest.
So back to work here.
So as we get further and further down the road here,
it's holding its shape more and more,
which is makin' it easier.
So that's nice.
All right, so once you get to the end,
we need to tie it off.
Someone out there I'm sure knows some crazy good
fisherman's knot or something like that
to tie this thing off.
I don't.
I just make a bunch of knots.
It's only got to hold back some guppies
or swordtails or platies.
We're not holding back oscars or, you know,
bears or anything.
All right, to make this an extra, extra good spawning cave
thingy, you want to put some things
to attract fry to it, or protect fry should they leave it,
and that's where we thread a little bit of yarn here.
There we go.
And we're just gonna stick it to random places.
And your goal is just to get one side of the yarn through,
then come back like right above it.
Now the goal is, we're just gonna tie it, tie a knot.
And now, this becomes strings.
It's like making a spawning mop on the outside.
And you might say, "Well, not very much cover yet."
Yeah, exactly.
So if you spend a lot of time and make a lot of strings,
this is gonna be a lot of cover,
and it can be pretty darn cool.
So, we could also just make a spawning mop.
I don't know if you guys have ever seen that done,
but here's how you would do it.
You would normally just run it around a book
or something like that, over and over
and over and over again, which we'll do that here.
And let's say
that's enough.
We're gonna cut it.
And then while it's still...
Around what we wrapped it around,
whether it's a book, or I'm using this blinder clip package,
we're gonna tie a knot.
So now,
what we have is something that's useless.
Oh good.
But, we just cut the bottom.
And now...
I've got to tie my knot a little tighter here.
And now we have a spawning mop.
Look at that.
If this is hanging down, fish go,
"Ooh, I'd want to be spawning in there."
Now we can just attach this straight to our
cage that we've made.
So it turns out,
this is slightly buoyant in the water.
So, I've cut down
the bigger circle we had to a smaller circle.
I just kind of lined it up,
and I'm gonna call it close enough.
Now I've got to sew this onto the bottom of this thing
so that that way I can put some gravel
in the bottom of it, and it'll stay sunk for me.
Who would have thought?
So, that's what I'm doin'.
All right.
So I essentially have a bottom now.
Yay.
Let me just tie this off here.
So here we go.
We've got it installed it in the tank here.
This is just a 20 gallon.
You want the top of it to come out of the water
so that the fry or the parents,
whichever one, can just go between the two.
And you can see we've got some female guppies in there.
These are the full red super deltas,
and I've got three of them in there.
And when you initially put the mops in,
they're going to float,
and that's just 'cause they have a lot of air in them.
But yeah.
As you can see there, we have gravel in the bottom.
They're looking for a way out, but there's no way out.
And they can live there, and all the fry
are gonna be able to come out and,
you know, just do their thing.
So yes, I could lower the water level a little more
if I was worried about them jumping.
If that becomes an issue, I'll either build it taller
or I will lower the water level a little more.
But yeah.
Well, thanks for watching.
If you found this video on how to make this breeding trap
helpful, go ahead and give it a like.
Share it with your friends.
Not a lot of people know how to make this.
And subscribe to our channel
so you can watch our other videos.
We've got how I built a fish room on Thursdays.
We've got me and Lamont talkin' real fish talk on Sundays,
quick tip Tuesdays.
And if you're watching this, it'd be a Friday
so that's when we show you how to do things.
So thanks for watching.
We'll see you in the next video.