Making A Spawning Mop
By Ivan M. Shaw (Zoban)

Here is a step by step method of making spawning mops for killifish and other egg laying fish. You'll need a skein of yarn from a craft store or the craft section of a department store. Be sure to get either the acrylic or other man-made type of yarn and not the natural wool type. Before you begin you need to get all your materials and tools together.

Materials:
-skein of yarn (color is your choice, But darker is better)
-pair of scissors
-medium sized book (I used a Sears Catalog for this one)

Step 1:

Start wrapping the yarn around your book as shown. Wrap about 50 times for a good thick mop.

Step 2:

Cut the free end of the yarn, and then cut another small piece to use to tightly tie off the yarn in the middle as shown.

Step 3:

Turn the book over and cut the yarn as shown.

Finished:

The finished product.

If you want your mops to float or stay near the top you can tie on a cork or even use a small pill bottle as a float. In the instance of the above mop I used the tie string and tucked it between the tank lid and the frame to keep it where I wanted it.

An after thought on making this was to boil the mop in the microwave for 1:30 to sterilize, check for running dye, and make them sink better much like is done with bogwood.