Large isolation cage (supersized fry box)?

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Betta132

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 18, 2015
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I need to put together an isolation box that's basically a giant version of those little mesh boxes you hang inside the tank to put fry in. I have a baby sunfish that isn't growing as fast as I'd like in the tank it's currently in, so I want to put it in my main tank, since sunfish already grow fast in there. Trouble is, he's a bit over an inch long, and I have a warmouth sunfish that's about 5" long and will very happily devour him.
So I need a box of some sort that's at least a foot square, so the little guy has enough to move, and I need to have small enough mesh to keep the baby in without letting the (strong) big guy charge through it or break its seams and get at him. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can do that? Maybe some sort of thick plastic mesh and a bunch of zip ties? Doesn't have to be pretty, just has to keep the baby in and Jonah's Bane out.
 
Betta132 said:
I need to put together an isolation box that's basically a giant version of those little mesh boxes you hang inside the tank to put fry in. I have a baby sunfish that isn't growing as fast as I'd like in the tank it's currently in, so I want to put it in my main tank, since sunfish already grow fast in there. Trouble is, he's a bit over an inch long, and I have a warmouth sunfish that's about 5" long and will very happily devour him.
So I need a box of some sort that's at least a foot square, so the little guy has enough to move, and I need to have small enough mesh to keep the baby in without letting the (strong) big guy charge through it or break its seams and get at him. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can do that? Maybe some sort of thick plastic mesh and a bunch of zip ties? Doesn't have to be pretty, just has to keep the baby in and Jonah's Bane out.
Click to expand...

If he is big enough you can build a box from lighting egg crate. Cut to size and zip tie together. We used to use eggcrate boxes to keep octopuses where we could find them for resale.
 
Here's what I did last summer, when I was QT a baby datnoid and a much larger GT. I bought a plastic storage container form the local dollar store. I used an old soldering iron to melt a bunch of holes on all sides. I also cut a hole on the lid for feeding and O2 exchange. Just snap the lid back on and the container, which actually floats on its own due to the plastic. I wanted more buoyancy, so I cut two 1/2" pvc, slightly longer than the length of the container, sealed the ends with hot glue(or silicone) and attached it to opposing sides to the top of the container via zip ties. The pvc acts like pontoons and provide much greater buoyancy.20150723_192344.jpg
 
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