Uncommon Fish Keeping Tools

[Tolak]

Other than a razor, does anybody know of good algae scrapers?

A 6" wallboard knife works good, just be careful around the seams. The same goes for wallpaper scrapers.

I use a potato chip bag clip with a paper towel folded up & clipped for wiping the bottoms of fry tanks.

You can make your own micro food for fry with an electric coffee grinder. It turns any flakes or pellets to an unbelievably fine powder.

 

[juanveldez]

don't use anything really that uncommon if I stick my hand in my tanks my fish tend to bite and can draw blood but if I do have to stick my hand in there I use an algae scrubber you know the kind with the soft ends that gives the fish something to attack while I do what ever it is I have to do in there.

 

[Ficious]

Razorblades, the yellow plastic eggs from inside kinder eggs ( to comfortably hold small amounts of live food while I'm feeding them ) Pippettes ( for feeding live foods ) oh, and those plastic punnet style containers you get stawberries and blueberries in, very useful if you have to separate a fish for some reason. I don't use that one often though. Also good for introducing any nervous new fish to the tank after release from the bag. I used that when I added my gourami.

holy crap this solves a problem i am having! except i dont have one! gah!

 

[Aussie_Dog]

Countless cups and glasses to defrost frozen food in
Turkey baster to feed the ADFs and 60gal fish
5ml syringe/dropper for the Bettas when they get frozen food
Old debit card to scrape away algae off tank walls
Forks to weigh down veggies
Cheap little containers from dollar stores (to store pellets and wafers)

 

[Night61]

i have been using paper clips to weight down food. I also use Styrofoam cups to serve as an incubator for mystery snail eggs.

 

[rdd1952]

Old debit card to scrape away algae off tank walls

That's one I forgot until I got ready to do water changes this morning. Credit cards work great.

 

[matchstickman47]

good idea

 

[Night61]

there are a lot of good ideas coming from people, please keep it up.
not only that some of these tools people are suggesting are cheap or recycling things around the house that would have been thrown out anyways.
who says fish keepers are not environmentally responsible.

as and alternative question to this topic is what other items have you recycled.
i recycle fish water in my plants?
i can imagine old filter media may also be used as plant fertilizer, anyone try it?

 

[matchstickman47]

i didnt know that the plant actualy use the fesces of fish like that , i wondered how they wer surviving lol

 

[StatMan]

5ml syringe for measuring water for testing
2L measuring jugs, 74p Tesco, for water transfer during changes
Gravy laddle (with chop stick attached with rubber band when needed) to catch fry that have spilled over into the heater area of the tank.
Stanley knife blade for lime scale removal (with vinegar water)
3 * stackable storage containers (£3.99 Tesco) for water changes, they hold 30l but ussually go for 20l, have marked 10 & 20 on the side


StatMan

 

[Honeythorn]

there are a lot of good ideas coming from people, please keep it up.
not only that some of these tools people are suggesting are cheap or recycling things around the house that would have been thrown out anyways.
who says fish keepers are not environmentally responsible.

as and alternative question to this topic is what other items have you recycled.
i recycle fish water in my plants?
i can imagine old filter media may also be used as plant fertilizer, anyone try it?

You could try it. Or just put it in a compost bin. I once had a small Aloe Vera in the bathroom that went BESERK when I started feeding it with fishtank water. It became enormous and produced a lot of babies that I actualy had to start throwing away because I had no one else to give them away to.

I also keep a spray bottle of old tank/filter water to spray on my mossaria.

 

[Night61]

i didnt know that the plant actualy use the fesces of fish like that , i wondered how they wer surviving lol

well cow dung is good for plants why not fish poo?

 

[rdd1952]

There's that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention. I'm sure a lot of these uses were discovered because people simply didn't have the tools they needed and improvised. I know I've scraped the ice off the windshield of my car on more than one occassion with a casette case (back before CDs). They would probably make good algae scrapers too.

 

[lyotim88]

i use a medicine dropper to fill the test tubes when testing my water

 

[Night61]

There's that old saying about necessity being the mother of invention. I'm sure a lot of these uses were discovered because people simply didn't have the tools they needed and improvised. I know I've scraped the ice off the windshield of my car on more than one occassion with a casette case (back before CDs). They would probably make good algae scrapers too.

i started using a turkey baster for my first Betta tank. when i first started off and thought a cup would make a good home (my god i have come a long way) the turkey baster was the ideal way to clean such a small cup. i started using tweezers because i didn't want to start touching the Betta food.
so your right necessity led to using both things.