[odin]

I've been looking at these to catch the Opae ula larvae for easy transportation to another tank but i was thinking that it would also snag the adults lol, what do others think?

http://www.lightning-maroon-clownfish.com/?p=3401

[AdeDunn]

I've never had one of these, however so long as the mesh is small enough so adults can't fit through then the suction created by the air lift shouldn't be enough to pull larger shrimp through, much like an air driven sponge filter is so gentle shrimp can walk around on them and dine. That's my thinking anyway. The question I'd have would be if it would actually work. Or am I missing something? The camera angle aren't fantastic there, it could be it's skimming from the surface?

[odin]

The filter in the centre is the exit for the water pushed up and inwards, it follows this water flow pattern:

mKGtvbl.jpg (15.17 KiB) Viewed 16797 times

I guess if the adults just swim up they could probably just swim back out as there isnt anything to stop them entering in or out.

Here's a slightly different design:

tKVGybd.jpg (67.76 KiB) Viewed 16797 times

4MhzfGE.jpg (71.96 KiB) Viewed 16797 times

[AdeDunn]

Yeah, I'd agree that adults should be strong enough swimmers to swim against the current from the air lift.

[Vorteil]

Refresh my memory on why you want to go through these lengths to separate the larvae? Turkey baster is probably the easiest. I think there will be a point when you'll have too many in you main established tank to do this to.

[odin]

What I do is have a main breeding tank where all my adults live in a fully scaped tank with lots of lavarock substrate which seems to keep them happy and they seem to be reproducing pretty well. The issue is when the larvae turn into fully fledged shrimps they tend to hide and are difficult to catch. I'm going to be selling these new shrimp on my eBay store and I will need them to be easy to catch and readily available to net out. I also don't want to upset the main tank too much or accidental catch and sell any of my adults so this method of moving the larvae over to my larvae tank fixes all of this issues.

[ShrimpyShrimp]

Odin, did you ever try this trap. I am also interested in determining the best way to harvest the larvae and transferring them to a rearing tank.

[odin]

I didn't buy it yet, i've had success with a glass shrimp catcher catching and transferring the larvae from tank to tank.

[ShrimpyShrimp]

Something like this?

[odin]

exactly like that! You can suck them into it if you release your finger from the end when it is in the water and produces a small vacuum.