Stocking Stuffers and General fishy things to Consider

[nabokovfan87]

Hey hey Everyone!

I am one of those people that attempts to plan ahead and it's that shopping season time of year for the holidays.  I wanted to put together a brief list of my own ideas and ask the hivemind for some of your ideas!  What would you like to see in your fishy stocking or gift to fishy friends?

Here's mine, I was thinking about things might not be relatively fish specific, but always seem so useful!

• Fish shipping bags or heat packs
• Nature themed Art
• Command Brand Hooks, specifically these ones work well for me)
• A good pair of pinsettes or aquascaping tools of any kind
• Seachem Nets (I just really love these ones)
• moss thread
• bottle of plant fertilizers of some kind
• Aqueon Nutrinsect food! (specifically this one because of the whole shark conservation ties)
• Stainless Steel Tumbler / Cup for tool storage
• A "Tool" drying mat / Silicone Drying Mat (Oxo has great ones)
• Coral Feeder or Turkey Baster
• pipe cleaners, Impeller brushes, or tube cleaning brushes
• Hand towels or as Mark's Shrimp Tanks would call them.... Floor Towels
• A nice rug to sit on (Definitely wont fit in a stocking)
• Gift cards for a fish purchase (Looking at you Aquahuna and Dan's Fish!)
• A "coupon" for a future visit to the LFS that can be redeemed through the year (your friend gets to go with you sort of thing, useful if that person really doesn't want to go too often or enjoy the hobby)
• Lots of Coffee to sip while waking up to the fish.

[Odd Duck]

I want to find small, cheap, but fine mesh fish nets.  Cheap enough I don’t care about bending the handle but the mesh needs to be finer than average so plecos and cories (and duckweed) are less likely to stick.  Not brine shrimp fine, but finer than most nets.  I’ve got 2, a very small one that fits easily into specimen containers and the next size up that’s about 5.5” x 4”.  Both are older than most of the aquarists on here (probably from the 80’s).  The bigger one is just about perfect for nearly everything I’m trying to catch from my smaller tanks but the corners are getting frayed (one corner is really bad now) so fish can squirt out even after I have them trapped against the glass.

I have had no issues finding better quality, more durable handles but everything is coarser mesh or MUCH finer mesh that’s so fine it makes the net notably slower to swish through the water.  Sometimes you need a faster swish than that even when you mostly use your hand to coax fish into a still net.

I also want to have enough nets I can soak them between uses.  Plus keep at least 1 per level on each rack.  With my profession, I’m a bit more paranoid than average about disease transmission between tanks.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/9/2023 at 2:10 PM, Odd Duck said:

I have had no issues finding better quality, more durable handles but everything is coarser mesh or MUCH finer mesh that’s so fine it makes the net notably slower to swish through the water.  Sometimes you need a faster swish than that even when you mostly use your hand to coax fish into a still net.

Interesting!  I haven't had any issues with the fine mesh seachem ones.  I got one of the "telescoping shrimp nets" and it's not great in terms of handle quality or build quality.  That sort of material being "stiff" might be useful for what you do as well and giving them a cave to swim into.

[tolstoy21]

On 11/9/2023 at 5:18 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

  I got one of the "telescoping shrimp nets" and it's not great in terms of handle quality or build quality.  That sort of material being "stiff" might be useful for what you do as well and giving them a cave to swim into.

I find these "shrimp nets" to never be of great quality. I get a bunch so I always have a backup. They only last so long.  I like the ones that are stiff, since the better ones can hold a box shape while in the water. Great for catching shrimp! Also very useful for catching fish out of a catch cup and putting them in bags. But for netting fish out of a tank -- TERRIBLE!

Edited November 9, 2023 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

Stocking stuffers (and I'm truly thinking of things that will fit in a stocking and not take up the whole thing):

• Coop fish stickers
• Sera Micron
• Root tabs
• Apisto cave
• Small pleco cave from Pleco Ceramics (love pleco ceramics!)
• Ziss never clog air stones
• Fluval Bug bites
• Ziss Premium air valves
• Water test strips
• TDS pen
• If want to spend a tad more, a Ph pen from Milwaukee Instruments 

Guess that's about all I can think of that I would be elated to find in my stocking!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

or ACO multi strips! I gave these to a friend last year who never used strips! She had always used liquid tests for everything.

Also ACO little towel is a good gift

Edited November 10, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

Forgot to mention. The co-op measure is ridiculously useful. Especially if you feed frozen food, brine shrimp, use liquids, keep fish, etc.

[Guppysnail]

-plant weights- I order 5-10 packs with every ACO order. I order almost every month, 2 months at most for the past 2 1/2 years.  Somehow I run out by the next order.  This perplexes me.  I use them mostly to feed veggies but they vanish  I recently replaced all the gravel with sand in most of my tanks and thought I would find hundreds but did not.

-Ziss never clog airstones-  I order those every order as well  They go hang out with the MIA plant weights. 
 

-check valves and and airflow adjusters 

-a Mr. Spongee sticker. It made me absurdly happy when I seen someone post it  

 

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Dechlorinator. 💙

On 11/9/2023 at 5:18 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I got one of the "telescoping shrimp nets" and it's not great in terms of handle quality or build quality.  That sort of material being "stiff"

Yeah mine got bent at some point and now it doesn’t sit flat against the glass when I want to inspect a shrimp. Also the seams confuse shrimplets, the material holds a big air bubble, and the net wants to collapse.

[TeeJay]

On 11/9/2023 at 5:23 PM, tolstoy21 said:

I find these "shrimp nets" to never be of great quality. I get a bunch so I always have a backup. They only last so long.  I like the ones that are stiff, since the better ones can hold a box shape while in the water. Great for catching shrimp! Also very useful for catching fish out of a catch cup and putting them in bags. But for netting fish out of a tank -- TERRIBLE!

I'm looking for a better shrimp ner myself. One like you said that holds it's shape better in the water while moving. Any brand suggestions?

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/9/2023 at 6:23 PM, TeeJay said:

Any brand suggestions?

I have an aquaneat one. Not recommended. Sera has one, dennerle as well. I would check those 2 out from all I've seen, but yeah.... Solid handle if you can find it.

[Guppysnail]

On 11/9/2023 at 9:23 PM, TeeJay said:

Any brand suggestions?

My go to when I need something finer than the coop net.  Fine, soft, bendable and very little drag. Comes in 2 inch to I think 12 inch. Amazon availability. 

[Stef]

• Super glue (my bottle is always clogged or dried up)

• pipettes

• mini razor blade scrapers

[TOtrees]

There’s a class of nets that is exactly what you’re all looking for, but price and availability are not ideal. Retail is $20-$30 CDN, before shipping. 

Do a web search for “shrimp net with carbon fibre handle”. Screen our all resulting hits relating to fishing and ponds. 

You’re looking for something like this: https://shrimpfever.com/product/short-handmade-shrimp-net-carbon-fiber-handle/. This site is a vendor that is reasonably local to me in the Toronto area, but they’re currently out of stock. 😞

I’m on my second of these nets after 6? years in the hobby and it’s INDISPENSIBLE. When my current one breaks (which it will due to how much it gets used) I absolutely will be getting another as a replacement, regardless of cost. They are great for things like netting individual shrimp or small fish, and sorting and counting out of specimen containers. They’re my go to net for everything up to about 1.5-2”  bristlenose size. They’re not great for open water swimmers, but anything that can be trapped against the glass, these things are gold. Given its small size, it’s also surprisingly good using the come-up-from-below method.

[smm333]

On 11/9/2023 at 6:23 PM, TeeJay said:

I'm looking for a better shrimp ner myself. One like you said that holds it's shape better in the water while moving. Any brand suggestions?

The ones from flip aquatics are amazing! I love them!

[Scapexghost]

If any of yall are parents/grandparents/uncles/aunts looking for gift ideas for the little nerms, i think its fsir to say what they want is another tank. One sizing larger than their current biggest. Buying tanks for adults isnt always a good idea but for kids theyll always appreaciate it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/11/2023 at 5:44 AM, Stef said:

Super glue (my bottle is always clogged or dried up)

I definitely had a lot of fun when I got the "12 pack" of superglue.  The tubes are 1/4 the size of any of the bottles and essentially are 1 use per tube.

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Glue-15185-12-Pack-07oz/dp/B004YEN37K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2W9779F2C4Y72&keywords=super+glue+gel+bulk&qid=1699753884&sprefix=super+glue+gel+bul%2Caps%2C301&sr=8-3

On 11/9/2023 at 6:23 PM, TeeJay said:

One like you said that holds it's shape better in the water while moving.

I forgot to ask and just realized.... can you show me what you mean with this?  I had the dumbest time when I first got my shrimp net because of the way the "pocket" in the mesh folds over on itself.  I ended up inverting it and those same edges that were folding now give the net it's structure.  It might be that same struggle I had?

[jwcarlson]

I don't think you can put them in a stocking necessarily, but I want some "red lip nerites" and I've made it known within the house multiple times.  😄

Photo stolen from Aqua Huna: https://aquahuna.com/products/red-lip-nerite-snail-2-pack?variant=39607665983563

[Stef]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:51 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The tubes are 1/4 the size of any of the bottles and essentially are 1 use per tube.

On my “nice list”. Thank you@nabokovfan87  I have some Buce that are starting to loosen from their rocks. 

[Tanked]

I don't have a need for shrimp nets yet,  but I have to ask:  Why not super glue some form of plastic stiffener such as the capillary tubes found on some aerosol products, to a good net? Sounds like a potential project for the 3D printer people.

• Someone in one of the forums suggested these graduated glass pipettes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BYSX15NH?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
• Any fish "snack food"
• Small parts cleaning brushes (tooth brushes don't work for everything)
• rubber suction cups. 
• Hardscape ie: rocks (no Coal)
• project sized super glue gel and accelerator.
• Plants!
• Replacement pads for Mag Floats
• filter sponge material
• Coffee is good, but something stronger to put in your Coop shot glass at the end of the day is better😴

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/12/2023 at 11:16 AM, Tanked said:

Coffee is good, but something stronger

You're right, gotta love a good espresso!! 😉

On 11/12/2023 at 11:16 AM, Tanked said:

Replacement pads for Mag Floats

This is a good one. Especially things like the blades or if you're using other methods, those bits as well. It's not like the algae is going anywhere.

To add a few....

-Magnetic hooks or magnet bars for items on metal stands

-zip ties and tie cutters

-things for CO2 tanks, o rings, and all the bits and bobs we use but never replace often enough.

-bucket lids (definitely don't try to fit that in a stocking)

-clips for holding hoses and things for acclimation or QT. (media with bags, botanicals, salt, etc.)

If you are someone who has the pieces, might be a nice gift to take the time to cut foams for someone too! Especially for people who don't have the ability or tools themselves.

Edited November 12, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Kit Craft]

- Containers (any and all that fit in a stocking) I am a container hoarder. 

- 5ml(ish) syringe. I get them at tractor supply. Great for water testing to get the correct amount every time. And for starting a vacuum to drip acclimate or do micro water changes on 3 gallon and under tanks (jars for me).

- Plastic canvas. I use it like micro egg crate. Dividers, tops, intake covers etc.