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Help! How To Trap A Bird


PiyaDhammo Lim

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Hi there, Need some advise on how to catch/trap bettas eating birds. Have lost quite a numbers of my show quality bettas to the bloody dame birds. I have covered all my tanks with plywood but the birds some how open up the cover. This is not the first time it have happen. Every time, I try to set up a trap the birds will never goet near the tanks. Think I have been out smart by them. I have try putting glue around the tanks, put some posion foods on top of the cover but it will not eat it or goes near the foods. Pls help! I have come to the point of killing them or thought I hate to kill. Just to think of it, spent so much time getting the qualiy fish that I want.

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LOL! That would probably do it :) Marron farmers use food colouring from memory, but with bettas I'd be using tannin. Another option might be to add a fine floating plant like duckweed or such to give the fish more cover. Or maybe a combination of the two. With possibly some very fine netting over the top to finish things off. Depending on your tanks you can fit the netting to it by either tying it around the base, or holding it down with something heavy.

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Sometimes if you hang a life size black wooden cut out of an eagle or hawk shape in a tree nearby, they stay away... it depends whether they're used to being occasionally attacked by bigger birds. A black cut out of a cat might also work if you have wild cats nearby... or very fine chickenwire. But it sounds like we're talking about Ibis or something equally sneaky. They can knock lids off anything and get their long beaks through any kind of barrier. We have special Ibis rubbish bins in Melbourne that work on a lid with a curving funnel entrance so the Ibis beaks can't get to the rubbish... which forces them to attack unwary picnickers instead. :)

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by the way, what sort of birds are they?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

HI There, First I would like to thanks all of you for the advises and will try to ans .

to your questions.

1. Name of birds. It's know as Ruak-Ruak in Malaysia. or White-breasted Waterhen. It live near the river and eat frog, fishes etc that era found near the river.

2. Try covering it up with flooting plants etc. Since this birds live near river, this method does not help.

3. Dye. If this methods work for bird/animal then it will be a problem for us too.

too much trouble for us to see the bettas.

4. My set up and reasons for it. I have 3 level of tanks. and each tank is 4'[l]x1.5'[w]x 9"[h]. In the big tank,I can put in about 30 jars [9"[h}x4.5"[dia]. Fill up water in the tank is about 6-7" and I put in a heater in the center of the tank in order to keep water temp constant. I also cover up my tank with plywood of 1/4" and there is a gap of 1/2" between the cover and the tank.[for air circulation].

Put in 3-4 females to swimming in the tank {for the male to flare].

So pls comments on my set up and tks.

Regards.

p/s Will try to breed 2 pairs of super red hm by next wk.

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Ruak Ruak

Looks a bit like a plover-type thing.

Short beaks, so maybe if you made a lid for the tank out of chicken wire, something with a 1cm mesh, and then popped the plywood over that with a brick on it, it should be almost impossible for them to get to the fish. They look clever though. Is there a way to cover the whole fishtank area or is it just too big? could you put up bird netting or mesh sides, like a big birdcage?

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Is it possible for you to bring all your tanks inside or under cover where the birds would not consider going to look for food? Those birds look like the tall, red-beaked, blue-rumped black birds with the large feet that you often see wherever you see moorhens. I can't remember what they are called... cootes? marsh hens?

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Ruak Ruak are similar to our dusky moorhens from what I read. They are both medium sized birds found near water. Not easy to catch as proven by a moorhen that accidentailly ended up at my friend's house.

Colouring water will be of little use, you can see moorhens and related species fishing quite sucessfully at bicentennial park in very murky water.

The best solution is getting fine aviary mesh, no less then 100mmx100mm gaps and making lids for your tanks. Standard chicken wire won't work because the holes are too large and they'll get their heads through to catch the fish.

I'm not sure how sucessful pigeon spikes might be, the large feet of the bird should prevent it from getting a grip on the tanks. http://www.martleyelectronics.co.uk/images...geon_spikes.jpg

Although this solution might be difficult to apply, I'm not sure specifically what your setup looks like, it's just an alternative idea. Although netting the area is probably more practical.

I strongly advise against using poison and traps, there is a high probability that an animal not intended to be poisoned or trapped could be harmed not to mention the birds have their place in the environment. The idea is not to catch the birds but to deter them from hunting your fish.

Those birds look like the tall, red-beaked, blue-rumped black birds with the large feet that you often see wherever you see moorhens. I can't remember what they are called... cootes? marsh hens?

Purple swamphens (aka. Bald coot) beautiful bird similar to the moorhen but larger and with a much broader bill. You also get Eurasian coots which are almost identical in appearance to dusky moorhens except their tails point down and they have a white bill and billshield instead of red :drool: .

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Is it possible for you to bring all your tanks inside or under cover where the birds would not consider going to look for food?

Those birds look like the tall, red-beaked, blue-rumped  black birds with the large feet that you often see wherever you see moorhens. I can't remember what they are called... cootes? marsh hens?

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My problem is solve. Built a cage with some fishing net around my set up and at the same time I have a special bird glue place on top of one tank. At about 5.30pm, I found 2 birds glued on it. Have to travel 25km to set them free as I think we should not kill them even it eat my show bettas. Thanks all for all the advise and hope to heard from you soon. Will be back with my betta again. As I told you before that I'm still learning how to use the computer and the set up. Hope I can post some photos of my betta in the near futrue. If you want to see the photos now, pls e-mail me as I know how to attached the pictures there.

Thanks again.

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Bird Glue?

Does this get in the tanks? and does it harm the birds?

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Hi faewyn, To be frank, you do not put the bird glue inside the tank or it will kill all your fishes. I place them on top of my tank cover. I'm quite sure the glue will not hurt the birds. have to remove some glue from the legs and the lower part of the body with petrol before I set them free.

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Obviously you don't put the glue in the tank :) It would be so silly if someone thought of that :(

Does this get in the tanks?

i.e seep through cracks etc...

Glad you have a cover on the tank, maybe you don't need the glue for the birds then? It would be less invasive and risk of injury to the birds is minimal, not to mention the use of petrol on birds etc..

A proper fish tank hood with a latch would be a much safer option IMHO.

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Maybe vegetable oil would work better than petrol, only because the thought of birds grooming themselves and ending up with a beak full of petrol is a bit scary. Fingers crossed they don't try to fly home! Also glad to hear you have the tanks covered :) We should do a tutorial here on tank covers in case anyone else has featered fishermen :(

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I have to say, the idea of removing glue from birds with petrol disturbs me. You may not deliberately kill them, but if they are water birds the petrol will end up in the water, and if they are not, it will end up in the birds and THAT may kill them. what sort of birds are they? Surely there is a better way.

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I have to say, the idea of removing glue from birds with petrol disturbs me.  You may not deliberately kill them, but if they are water birds the petrol will end up in the water, and if they are not, it will end up in the birds and THAT may kill them.

what sort of birds are they?

Surely there is a better way.

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I was assuming the petrol was washed off thoroughly as petrol is really toxic to birds. I would imagine it could cause all sorts of nasty problems - especially if it was taken back to a nest of eggs or chicks, or ingested by the bird during preening.

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