Bamboo Fish Trap where to buy

[iammike]

Guys,

 I am looking for a Bamboo Fish trap, something like this. (see attachment)

BUT, I am looking for one with bigger holes so that it only catches the BIG Fish and not the smaller ones as the one in the picture catches everything

I have already asked around and they only have 1 size of these.

Anyone has a clue where to get one of these ?

We already drained the pond once (to catch the fish) but that brought too much stress on the fish that afterwards a lot of them (unnecessarily and unfortunately) died. So we are not going to try that one again

Edit: And before someone suggest Angling, we already tried that but no luck

[urleft]

I think you are SOL as Thai's like to catch all sizes of fish. 

As an interim measure you might try the following: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OVs6t2wEs

[Sofa_King]

Those fish traps are really suited to be placed in running water ,normally between rice paddy's or small streams where migrating  fish can me trapped, so are not really suited for ponds
What you need to do is learn how to use a Throw-net or get yourself a fishing rod to catch the bigger fish for the Table

[davureborn]

We drain the fish pond once a year after the rice harvest to get the fish and I don't recall ever losing any to stress. Otherwise I can get you a fish trap made to any size you want but as mentioned I doubt they would be any use for your purposes.

[gotlost]

Chong Chom market has a shyt load of them..

[urleft]

Here's another that doesn't too difficult to make, and you can adjust to the size you want as you make it. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2rTAy6_Eds

[Sofa_King]

We already drained the pond once (to catch the fish) but that brought too much stress on the fish that afterwards a lot of them (unnecessarily and unfortunately) died. So we are not going to try that one again

What happens is, when you drain the pond the sediment in the water becomes so great that it gets in their gills and kills them.The Pla Duk and Pla Chon should be fine as they are fairly tolerant to poor water quality. What fish do you have ?? .
The other option is to keep fish in pens.
I have a small pond in the garden ( about 1.3 meters x 1 meter x 1 meter deep ), the wife killed all my Goldfish and Koi by cleaning and refilling the pond with the Village Government water . The Village water has such a high Chlorine level that it killed the fish. I told the wife to use our well water....but would she listen 
Anyway I brought about 30-40 catfish ( Bla Duk ) and put them in the pond .They got fed daily with pellets and within 6-8 months some of them where over a Kilo . I would drain the pond every few weeks to clean it and weed out a few of the eating size fish each time .
If your were to build some pens, then you wouldn't have to drain the pond . If I can grow fish on in my small pond then you should have no problem with keeping fish in pens of a similar size to my pond as long as you feed them regularly.  Maybe an idea for the future

[iammike]

Those fish traps are really suited to be placed in running water ,normally between rice paddy's or small streams where migrating  fish can me trapped, so are not really suited for ponds
What you need to do is learn how to use a Throw-net or get yourself a fishing rod to catch the bigger fish for the Table

That is a perfect solution but will not work in our pond, we only have Plah Nin and TubTim fish in there. When we constructed the pond we made a terrible design failure in that comes to "haunt" us now.

@daveureborn

I don't know about your fish but we lost really a lot of fish after we drained the pond and it was a shame to see everyday afterwards a lot of "floaters".

The Main Problem now is that we have TOO many fish for the size of the pond in there, I talked to a guy who sells Plah Nin for a living near Lam Duan and he said the fish are very happy if it's not too crowded and he says the best would be around 5 fish per SQM.

Our is (best guess ) is around 30-50 per SQM   No natural enemies as we have the pond covered with netting.

No idea what to do and NO don''t want to let loose a Plah Duk or something like that as the question is then how to get rid of it

@Urleft

We only want to catch the Big Fish and leave the small ones in there .

[davureborn]

Those fish traps are really suited to be placed in running water ,normally between rice paddy's or small streams where migrating  fish can me trapped, so are not really suited for ponds
What you need to do is learn how to use a Throw-net or get yourself a fishing rod to catch the bigger fish for the Table

That is a perfect solution but will not work in our pond, we only have Plah Nin and TubTim fish in there. When we constructed the pond we made a terrible design failure in that comes to "haunt" us now.

@daveureborn

I don't know about your fish but we lost really a lot of fish after we drained the pond and it was a shame to see everyday afterwards a lot of "floaters".

The Main Problem now is that we have TOO many fish for the size of the pond in there, I talked to a guy who sells Plah Nin for a living near Lam Duan and he said the fish are very happy if it's not too crowded and he says the best would be around 5 fish per SQM.

Our is (best guess ) is around 30-50 per SQM   No natural enemies as we have the pond covered with netting.

No idea what to do and NO don''t want to let loose a Plah Duk or something like that as the question is then how to get rid of it

@Urleft

We only want to catch the Big Fish and leave the small ones in there .

Guessing, and going by unfortunate experiences with my Koi, leaving the fish for a long time in only a little water can kill them off quite effectively. (heat, resulting loss of oxygen). The son in law doesn't make too much of a fuss about leaving small fish or whether any die. They seem to replenish themselves well enough over the year. Last year we were not allowed to fill the pond again as the reservoir level was low, didn't seem to make much difference. Sounds a little hard hearted but that's subsistence farming for you.
The main balls acher when we go fishing is getting all the pond weed cleared away first. We have then been able to give fish to relations that have been taken to Chonburi and Lampang without loss.

[iammike]

@Davureborn

Thanks for your insights, but I think there is one major difference between your SIL's pond and our pond.

Namely our pond is made from Concrete (large surface area) and thus no need to drain it to get rid of weeds etc etc.

We only drained it (leaving 5 cm or so of water) because we thought it would be a good idea to could catch fish but that was a mistake, after we finished (less then 30 min orso), we immediately refilled it with water from our well which is good quality water (had it tested at RST).

We have drained it many times afterwards (but leaving 10-20cm or more of water) just to change the water (ammonia etc etc etc) and that never done any harm to the fish.

So my guess the stress on the fish (and killing a lot of them afterwards) was because of the hunt with scoop nets.

[urleft]

With a concrete pond you might consider a pond cleaner.  I use a Jebao PC-1 I picked up at the Bangkok Aquarium Market for 4500 baht.  I use it to support water changes for my fish fountain.   

[Sofa_King]

So my guess the stress on the fish (and killing a lot of them afterwards) was because of the hunt with scoop nets.

As I pointed out earlier , its because the sediment in the water becomes so great that it gets in their gills and kills them. Lowering the water and using nets will cause this and the fish will die
I've even had this in my concrete pond , so I always tried to remove the fish before the water got to low and coloured .Placing them in clean water until the pond was clean and ready for the fish to be returned .
As iammike can't do this then he should lower his stocking levels and expect some casualties when emptying his pond   , or think about stocking Catfish ( which will be more tolerant to poor water quality )  instead of Bla Nin and Pla TubTim as a future investment .

[iammike]

Guys,

I have good water filtration but inadequate as our pound is around 70-90 sqm, so once in a while we are draining the water (leaving around 10-20cm of water) and put in new water at the same time. This has never hurt the fish and most certainly hasn't killed them afterwards, they seem to thrive.

Yes I want to reduce stocking Levels and NO I will not Introduce CatFish (do you read my posts ??) as the problem with those is how to get rid of them when there is low level of fish left. Drain the Pond get rid of everything and start Over NO F..... WAY.

Again, I want to reduce stocking levels, that is why the question about the Bamboo Trap, but introducing Cat Fish or any other predator IS AGAIN NOT AN OPTION.

I also see that the Bamboo Trap will not work, I will ask my BIL's son if he would like to try angling one more time if not, I am out of options.

And 1 more thing, this is not an investment, this is just hobby. The Fish (if we can catch them) we don't even sell, we give them away.

[Sofa_King]

@iammike

In your OP you said ....

We already drained the pond once (to catch the fish) but that brought too much stress on the fish that afterwards a lot of them (unnecessarily and unfortunately) died. So we are not going to try that one again

Then you say ...which has puzzled me

I have good water filtration but inadequate as our pound is around 70-90 sqm, so once in a while we are draining the water (leaving around 10-20cm of water) and put in new water at the same time. This has never hurt the fish and most certainly hasn't killed them afterwards, they seem to thrive.

Surely if you want to remove some fish why don't you just lower the water to 10-20cm  as you have said  " This has never hurt the fish and most certainly hasn't killed them afterwards, they seem to thrive"
It should be easy to net out unwanted fish with a long handled net with a water level of 10-20 cm

You also say

I have good water filtration but inadequate as our pound is around 70-90 sqm

So it's not that good then  ... I guess by removing some of the stock your filtration system may be able to cope !

Tommynew has a pond and I have never had problems in catching the fish in it 
Before the recent drought his pond was stocked with many species of fish. The Pla Duk and Bla Chon  (which arrive on there own ) Bla Nin, BlaTubTim ,Pla Sawai,Pla Yissok , Pacu plus several species of Barb that all lived quite happily together .It does help on a bigger type pond to have fish like Bla Chon in the pond as they weed out the sick and unhealthy smaller fish.

You having Bla Nin and BlaTubTim in a smallish pond it should be like ....



for the more seasoned Angler 

[iammike]

When we tried to catch the fish (the 1st time) we lowered the water to really low levels (5cm orso that even the pumps starting having trouble), so people could get in with scoop nets, but the low water levels and the stress of the catching (and what you said because of the sediment) caused a LOT of Fish to die afterwards.

We tried one time to catch fish with levels of around 10-20 cm but couldn't catch any big ones, only smaller ones, they were just to fast Both occasions were with scoop nets. A long handled net will not really work in our pond because we placed a lot of Rocks and wood etc etc on the bottom of the pond to give the fish cover, so dragging a net is not possible I already said, we made a terrible mistake designing this.

The reason why I said the Filtration system was good, was because dirty water goes in and reasonably clean water comes out, but I am thinking of putting in (more) systems, but at the moment it's easier to drain the water and put in new water once a while but in the rainy season we don't have to do it that much, the only thing we have to regularly do now is turn on the pumps to get rid of the excess water.