🔴FATHER FISH ON FRIDAY NIGHT

Can you hear me? I was muted. I'm assuming I'm not muted now. Maple syrup. Maple Street. Hey, Maple Street. Give me a heads up if you can hear me. There was no sound earlier and I had to go out and come back in. Good. Wonderful. I've already played tunes two times. It's very strange. I was up about five minutes ago, six, seven minutes ago, live for about four minutes. nobody came in so the signal for whatever reason was not going out so this is a brand new one those of you who have popped in are coming into a brand new stream well i'm delighted to be here and delighted to have you here goodness it's been a bit of a struggle getting this together and i'm still not settled on the time um i think i think we may need to either shift or ask Aqua New Grow to shift he's coming on at eight o'clock uh and he has a program i think i think all of us ought to be following so i'm going to talk with him and see if he'll either come on at 7:30 or 8:30 and then i'll take the slot to either side of him and see if we can do it that way anyway here we are let's see who's here kevin rosenberg uh aqua new grow i tell you what Let me bring up the... Oh, let's see who's here. Kevin Rook, XNAM, loud and clear. See, I can't go back. Aqua New Grow, IG. Nice to see you. Brad Hobbies, from the hospital to the YouTube. That's right. I was in the hospital this morning. I had two stents put in, and I'm feeling spry and sprightly. So I'm hoping it's going to make the difference And give me the stamina I've been lacking To just move around very much Because I need to get out and do some collecting And I frankly have not been in the physical condition To be able to do it So I'm hoping this is going to make the difference Hello Brad, welcome Adam West, hello Corn Dog, hi Corn Dog Lady Aquatics Jason C Kevin Rosenberg, Lady Diane, Maple Street Aquatics, nice to see you, Maple Street aquarium fish enthusiast, Brand Hobbies, I said Kevin, I said XNAM 5, George Sanchez, aquarium fish enthusiast let's see and it just jumped uh that uh that uh x Akira, Maple Street, setting you up, nice to have you here, X Akira, X Michael Gibson with lots and lots of little icons, cute Tam Shepherd, hello Tam Randy Roman, Kevin Rosenberg who I've already mentioned, Maple Street, and let's see if I can get to the bottom, here we go, a whitefish salad, hello so that's that's everybody is here, we got 31 in so far, how are we doing with the with the uh the thumbs up, we got eight, everybody hit the hit the thumbs up please when you come in or right now or whenever let's see if we can get that up to some number approximating how many people are in viewing well it has been a remarkable week. As those of you who watched my last video know, I did a little dramatis veritatis and came on with a newsflash. And I'll tell you frankly, in the aquarium hobby, it very much is a newsflash that there is fungus in our aquariums and more to the point that that fungus is fundamental to our ability to keep that aquarium healthy and balanced well who knew who knew well now we know and this is not something that's been around so it's the the scientific establishment such as it is given what it is is only just discovering the presence of fungus in the aquatic environment they've only identified a few types and are still researching its effects in fact if you will come on over to uh to to discord you'll find that there are a number of articles that have already been posted there and discussions that have already been going on about how this is very much cutting edge aquatic keeping. And I think, frankly, that's the way we need to look at what we're doing. The deep substrate is not only not popular, it is considered by many to be to be completely irresponsible that is the extent to which abject ignorance pervades the hobby i'm going to say that again and let me put it a different way the extent to which there is opposition to creating a deep sand bed a deep substrate a dirted tank to the extent to which there is opposition to that that opposition demonstrates a profound ignorance of the realities of keeping aquatic life in closed environments now why is that well i think really it's very simple it's because there's been no attempt really up to this point to create a genuinely balanced environment that is to say to create an environment that contains all of the micro fauna all of the microscopic life that thrives in water environments specifically in freshwater environments i must say that the saltwater industry the saltwater hobby, is far ahead of freshwater in this respect. And it's because there is such an absolute, what's a good word to describe it? Not just fascination, it's greater than that, with living corals. Living corals which require microscopic feeding. So it has been known and it has been practiced not by all by a long shot but by many in the saltwater aquatic field that maintaining a deep substrate that will generate create and support microscopic life is key to the health of many of the animals that they're trying to maintain i give you the mandarin goby the mandarin goby the mandarin goby cannot survive other than on live food it eats copepods it eats microscopically it eats the tiny little animals that are moving around swimming around crawling around on the substrate and the hardscape in in virtually all saltwater aquariums well there's that so what are we talking about here they need to try it first the law says it is really the only way to go well once you've trained right once you've tried it if you've been honest about it and if you if you if you had sincerely tried to do what is recommended you will not only succeed you will have the best aquarium of your aquarium keeping career absolutely guaranteed you will have an aquarium that thrives and i dare say there are not many freshwater enthusiasts freshwater hobbyists who know what a thriving aquatic community really is well that's what the next two and a half to three hours are all about Lucas has been here for a long time in this 9:30 time slot and he has been holding forth as a voice in the wilderness talking about aquariums with very little water changes with very little if any filtration with substrate that contains substantial life he's now as of tonight followed by Alex at 10:30 who is one of the masters of deep substrate aquatic systems who keeps an enormous variety of high quality high interest level fish and plants he's also quite the historian so you will get lectures not that kind of lecture but lectures on the history of fish keeping in all its varied aspects and here at 8:30 what you're going to get is Father Fish whatever that is and that usually is whatever pops up coming through the filter of a dirted tank so let's see what's popping up shall we let's get over and look at look at the comment section and see what's going on oh Lady Diane said you were over at Maple Street looking for me oh that's wonderful what time is Maple Street on somebody put that in because i think that i think the reality is that we've got um uh a traffic jam on friday nights and maybe we need to work on it a little bit uh let's see Kevin said hope you're feeling better well i'm on maple street ted i would stop straining at seven if you want to go then maybe that would work come on at seven i need to talk to aqua malik and see what he wants to do Well, I hope I'm feeling young again, too, with my stent-sleeping diet. So far, so good. I mean, you know, I haven't gotten around and moved around much because I'm not supposed to with this incision I've got. It's an arterial incision, so I'm required to be careful with it for the next few days to make sure it heals enough that it's not going to open up. But I'm very hopeful. if i can walk out to the car and back without getting totally winded then i will feel like it's working for me xanadu is here xanadu just put up a five dollar super sticker thank you xanadu deeply appreciate you xanadu's been with us kind of from the beginning for for a long long time let's see who else is here uh george sanchez aquarium fish enthusiast did i mention them i don't know i lost track uh ron kaiser just watched maple street all the fabled fabulous fish and folks cheers and much love from xanadu erin's garden and ganja it's a fish i hope you're doing good just coming to say hi well hi nice to have you with us monster fish gal hello hello hello delighted to have you here tori is here hello tori aquaphile tam shepherd t-law and it jumped again let's see aquaphile t-law tam shepherd j-rock j-rock does stuff hello people rad hobbies We've mentioned, Alec, the nice. What kind of dither fish do you like for hot water aquariums? Never heard it expressed quite that way. Dither fish for hot water aquariums. Oh, I don't know. Hot water dither fish. I don't know. Somebody say something. Dither fish for hot water aquariums. Not making fun of you, Alec. It's just that nothing is popping into the brain. I think it threw me off with the hot water, maybe. I don't know. Tetras, I love tetras. It depends entirely on what you're dithering with, I guess. You know, some fish require big, strong dithers. Others require tiny, little dithers. Some require dithers on the bottom. Others require dithers on the top. And there are those dithers that live in the middle. Now, what kind of dither do you choose to dither with? That's the key. If your dither is rather than your major but your minor, then there is another fish of which you are more interested. That's the key. What is it? What is it you're dithering with? Decide that, determine that, make that happen, and then you can look at an appropriate dither. Otherwise, why, Alec, it's just impossible to know. Paul C. Hello, Paul C. Michelle Gibson says, I put shreds of palm stem fibers that fall naturally and is gorgeous with molds on them. It creates a thriving shrimp tank. Now, if you get those palm stem shreds out of the water, if they're falling into a body of water, they're going to have a different micro fauna and a different fungus on them than those in the ground or laying laying on the ground the ones laying on the ground well they certainly have mycelium on them it may not survive in fresh water if it does then then you're ahead of the game then you don't need to uh to recreate that but there are there are lots of kinds of mycelium fungi that live on the land that do not live in water similarly the opposite is true there are some that thrive in both so maybe you're lucky and you found those that do but generally speaking you want to take the the the leaf litter uh they did the decaying uh detritus leafy plant matter out of the water and put that in your tank that's going to bring in all of the microfauna as well as the mycelium as well as bacteria that are appropriate to that environment which you are not going to be able to create nearly as effectively if you try to do it by simply putting dry leaves in your tank that'll get you there it'll get you They're a lot slower and with a lot less variety than you would otherwise have. So, bite the bullet on this one, guys. If you can do this, here's the deal. If you can go out into the wilds, the wilds, and collect some leaf mold, wet leaf litter from out of a body of water, a stream, a creek, a river, a pond, whatever. If you can pick that up and bring it back and put it in your tank, if you can do that, you have won the major battle that confronts everyone seeking to create a genuinely balanced, healthy, whole, living environment. So that's the challenge. And for some, there's a lot to get over. For some, that's not an easy thing to do at all. That's why we suggested way last Easter that you create a resurrection jar. Just put that muck in a jar, sit it on the windowsill and watch it. And watch what happens. It develops the kind of life that you really want in your aquarium. So the next step from that was dump it in your tank. Well, whatever the challenge is, try to find a way to bring it about. Try to find a way to do it that fits your sensitivities, your concerns and interests, and your ability to manage this little aquarium you've created. You may need to do something completely on the side. Do something totally experimental and work with that for a while and see how that goes. and then begin introducing into that environment some of the fish you enjoy keeping, some of the plants you enjoy keeping. Find a way to do it. That's the key. Find a way to do it. Ooh, let's see. Coming to get you, 64, I found you through an activist. Well, isn't that interesting? I think they've discovered us. we here we've been we've been hiding out for a year and a half and they found us oh what do we do now i don't know i i give up um found us through an aqua an activist could have said an aquarist an activist that's interesting good at caring good at caring aha well okay ryan harrison I would guess things like cardinals and rummynose for warm water. Well, again, Ryan, it depends on what you're dithering with. I mean, if you're dithering with Oscars, then cardinals and rummynose aren't going to work at all. They're going to become food. And that's really the issue. The dither fish, what is the role? Okay, let's get into it. What's the role of a dither fish? The role of a dither fish is to keep the primary fish calm, to keep it calm, to keep it from being frightened, to keep it from running around. Think of it this way. There are animals living in the forest that depend on living on the ground in the forest, foragers, other animals like monkeys in the tree, who depend on other animals as lookouts to determine whether there's danger entering their environment. So birds, for example, become perfect dithers because they're able to see far, able to look down, able to detect predators entering the environment, and more to the point, are able to give a warning. So, a dither fish. A dither fish swimming around in the top, if it's swimming gently, and loving itself, and loving the day, and having a wonderful time, and swimming around, all of the little, let's say, $200 to $500 Plecostomus that are on the bottom are, oh, okay, okay, it's pretty cool here. this is all right look at them they're happy well if they're happy i can be happy oh look food yum oh there's a cave get in that cave oh look at this I gotta find a girlfriend come on along here with me and we're gonna we're gonna have some fun oh i'd love this cave just like that just like that that's the role of a dinner fish they're a warning signal so find the one that's appropriate for uh what you're trying to protect and make feel at ease they're their ideas for discus well gee you know neons and ramirezi are not a bad choice I'll tell you what I like. I like rams. I like putting rams with discus, mainly because I like rams about as much as I like discus, and they go so well together. I mean, the rams are kind of a bottom fish, and the discus are kind of a mid-range fish, so they occupy slightly different territories, and they provide a calming influence on each other. Some people use angels Others swear you can't put angels with discus So, I don't know I don't get into it I do it sometimes I don't do it other times I frankly have never found a problem with it But that's just me Endler's guppies can live comfortably at 84 Yes, they can As can nearly every other tropical fish Live comfortably at 84 degrees Now, cold water fish will struggle with it. Some will make it, some won't. I've got a tank here. Let me show you this. This has white cloud minnows in it. Lots of them. A whole big gang of white cloud minnows. Temperature in there is about 85. Not deliberately. There's no heater in there, I don't think. There it is. It's unplugged. But because the light and the solid top are keeping the temperature up. There seem to be no problems in the tank. In fact, it's so deep, I can't find the fish I've put in there. I've got about a dozen rams in there that I haven't seen in two days. So I'm hoping they're all hiding on the other side of the tank behind plants or whatnot, because I can't find them. It's not that big a tank, about a 40-gallon cube. So, yeah, temperature, you have to know the temperature restraints, constraints on the fish you're keeping. But certainly guppies can live in very warm water, tropically. Alec, the nice things are helping me figure that out. I loved it. That was fun to do, Alec. Cardinal Tetras make great dither fish for discus. Yes, they do, George. and george i'm going to give you a wrench because you're such a helpful guy you're now blue george monster fish gal dennis and barbs cardinal tetras rummy nose yep all good absolutely let's see rummy and cardinals interesting interplay yeah that's the other thing that's fun too is uh how the fish get along with each other you know you need to consider that because some fish don't get along with each other uh brad says rams are pistos keyholes i've got some keyholes in this tank here in fact i got a half a dozen one inch keyholes and i put them in my 55 along with about a dozen and a half pseudo mcgills and i can only find about a half dozen pseudo mcgills now they could be in there and i'm hoping they are in there but i took the keyholes out because i thought there was a possibility that they could be catching and eating the pseudo mcgill's and i don't want that i see some over there in the plants they're tiny they're less than an inch long so they're pretty little here's a fish that i catch your local is that it oh no it's not either no that's a shell dwelling i've got some um one of the darters in here that i only see occasionally and i thought that was one such occasion because he was he seemed to be bouncing along on the bottom but not so this what is that what are we looking at here oh there's your shell dweller there's suda miguel with the blue eyes shell dwellers suda miguel better suda miguel suda miguel you may be all in here another shell dweller They're also a pygmy sunfish in here. There's one, as a matter of fact. That's a female pygmy sunfish, I believe. It's to me like where she knows albino. A tank is coming into its own. I've been challenged to put better plants in it. I'm working on it. I'm doing it. And it's getting pretty nice. I don't know if you plant people saw what was in there, but it's coming along. So checkerboards, checkerboard cichlids, checkerboard tetras, flagfish. Flagfish can be aggressive. Again, it depends on what you're putting them with. Michelle Gibson says she's lucky to have a dam that all her water comes from. You know, that's a good point, Michelle. Wild water is much, much preferable to, shall we call it, domestic water, water out of your tap. And I would include in that well water. Well water is wild water. It's water, basically, that's not treated. So it contains whatever it contains. If it's coming out of a body of water, like a pond or a lake or a stream or a creek, then it is going to have living material in it that will be of special interest to you in maintaining your aquarium. So, yeah, absolutely. 857. If you gather from a pond, could you introduce parasites or bad bacteria? Ashley. All right. This is the boogeyman. The boogeyman says, oh, I can't do that because I'll bring things into my tank that'll kill my fish. Let me suggest to you that, how can I put it? Let's try this. That's racist Now what do we mean by that I mean you're creating A conflict where none exists You're creating a A Weltanschauung, a world view A position, a point of view That has no bearing In reality Obviously you're not going to bring water Into your tank that's foul Or that's filled with Dragonfly larvae I mean presumably you're not going to do that If you are so oblivious that you could do that, then you really need to sit in front of your tank and sit in front of a body of water in the wild and look at it and stare at it and think about it until you figure out the difference between naughty and nice. I mean, it's really pretty obvious once you kind of get into it. In general, and as a matter of principle, when you collect water or plants or other matter from the wild, unless you're collecting it from an area that is visibly, clearly, and obviously polluted in some way, you're not going to be creating a problem for yourself now if you want to check this out carefully if you want to uh to do it in steps then put that material in a separate container a bucket another tank something that will have aeration uh that'll be able to keep it going keep it thriving and watch it observe it and move those parts of it into your tank that you like and feel are safe but i've i've been doing this for a lot of years and i must say i have never one time brought a disease into my aquarium that i could not control very easily either by raising the temperature putting a little garlic or salt in it or just pulling the sick fish out. It just doesn't happen. It is a worry without a target, you know. Don't get overwhelmed by that because it's not going to be an issue for you. I want to watch my time here because I don't want to run into Lucas. We're going to do another 10, 12 minutes, and then we'll back off at or just before 930. i'm assuming my clock is right what's this one say 9 13 yeah my clock's a minute ahead so we'll go by that let's see michael long yeah alex says i've seen the water treatment plant wild water is better you bet atkins nature aquariums i'm out of state working and i decided to stop by a fish store just because i was bored and i found some mosaic plant So I'm coming back for that and maybe some fish. Good job. That's the value of just stopping in the fish shop. You will always find something that you really want to have. The boogeyman is an old wives' tale to make children behave. That's right, Gene. Yes, it is. Ashley says, I had no idea. That's why I asked. Yeah, I'm sure that's true, Ashley. It is, however, something that I hear frequently from people who just don't have the emotional constitution to do anything in their aquarium that's going to actually create life. And it's odd to me. It's very odd. Oh, he put those on hold. Good job, Atkins. Robert Sharma, India. Nice to have you with us, RS Aquarium. So someone else is streaming after this. Yes. Could someone post Lucas's link and also Alex's link? Those of you who are with us, if you could just pop over to Lucas when we drop off. And then after Lucas will be on for an hour, Alex will be on for an hour. And if you don't know Alex, you need to get to know him. Both of these guys are wonderful. You're going to love them. Yeah, there are two more streams tonight. What else? Did I miss something worth discussing here? What's your thoughts on pothos on top of the tank with roots down in the water, Kevin, I really like it. It does however tend to take over, uh, so you may consider if it's going for a year or so you'll have nothing but roots in that tank and plants that would have grown 20 feet long so it can become a dominant characteristic of the tank If not, watch cope closely. Do the female pygmy sunfish have blue on them? I don't think so. I don't believe I've ever seen one that did. If it's got blue, it's a male. I would say that almost with absolute certainty. Can tetra fry survive outdoors in a large tub? with leaf matter without any feeding? It's been a struggle but progress with black skirt tetra fry Yes, they can. Of course, it's got to be pretty warm I mean you don't want to put them out in 50 degrees they will tolerate in a large body of water down to 65-70 but not really below that so you want to put them out in the summer. See who's on my notifications nobody let's see your thoughts on pothos tetra outdoors, pothos are constantly grazing on my botanicals and leaf litter as well as my cardinals and pencil fish, yes, pencil fish, especially pencil fish are another one of those fish that absolutely prefer live food, they have an extremely tiny mouth, they're always on the prowl always looking for for little tiny microscopic critters to eat so if you have pencils you really need to be doing wild leaf litter in your tank coming to get you so if i see father fish outside it is safe to go outside got it i don't know that's too clever by half coming to get you 64 too clever by half well see i think the lions and tigers and maybe i'm just too old i mean I'm kind of hoping that's true, actually, that I'm just too old for him to bother with. And it would look bad for him to put an 80-year-old feeble man in jail who can hardly walk and just loves fish and talks about fish all the time. It would be terrible to do that to somebody like that, wouldn't it? I'm hoping. But the madness about, with the madness about, who knows? uh alex says no 500 dollar pleco well they do exist they do exist do you think mountain stream microfauna would survive a two-hour trip down the mountain in a bucket i do i absolutely do i think that's that's um they would probably survive every night probably survive 24 hours now you don't want it to go from 40 degrees to 90 degrees that might be a problem the secret frequency to do how we doing 920 the fish really live in hot water my fish they said barb my fishroom tanks with rams are 82 along with tetras and corys corys glad you're feeling better father fish i am feeling better um and that's not hot water hot water i would say hot water is anything over 95 up to 95 is probably you can get away with it after that it's pretty tough there a lot of fish will not survive what that would that would be what i would call hot caroline or palm leaves safe in an aquarium what is safe to put in your aquarium is a leaf that is thoroughly dry that has no chlorophyll or any of the living matter left in it from when it lived on the tree so a fall leaf you want to collect no earlier than the spring give it a winter and if it's in the water so much better collect leaves that are old leaves that are you know last year's leaves i'll put it that way we're we're in the beginning of summer now so leaves that fell off the tree last fall that that still comprise some of the litter laying around those are good leaves to use Don't pick leaves off the tree and throw them in the tank What it'll do is it'll foul It'll rot the tank You'll have a mess on your hands Don't do that If you gather from a pond Yeah, we did that Ashley, thank you, Ashley Ashley, for being gutsy I'm going to give you a wrench And welcome you to the show Nice to have you with us okay i think i've gotten back coming to get you 64 says interesting indeed all right 10 22 a few more minutes here what do we got whoopie do can i do a Nova underground system with a deep substrate if all you're talking about doing is putting a plenum in then yeah that's fine that's not going to hurt anything but if you're going to put an under gravel filter in and pump water through the substrate no it's not going to work primarily because you're going to get all of the nutrients in the water that are in the substrate and that's the opposite of what you want to do so plant them fine under gravel filter not fine um just make sure whatever it is it's got two inches of sand on top of it so you won't get in trouble and you're fine put cat litter in there See if I care. Actually, it's terrific for your tank because it contains lots of minerals. It's nitrate-reducing function for a while. But after a while, it's like any other rosin. It gets clogged. It gets filled up, and it can't hold anymore. And you can't recharge it. And you wouldn't even want to anyway. So Nova's doing something totally different. Totally different. hit that stinking button somebody says what's the button look like 46 55 in we're at 55 with 46 clicks that ain't too bad we're doing all right here to learn from the best well you've come to the right place drift and hang in there for the next two hours and you're gonna get the best i'm just delighted to be uh hanging out with them fishing tank dicks hello hello have a wonderful blessed evening you too herb diversity good to see you susan hi susan jordan fish tanks who else is here mike mckay no water changes for six months with my all natural organic tank thanks father fish you betcha mike anybody can do it what do you think about adding isopods to your tanks uh corn dog says i think it's fine they're probably going to get eaten up pretty quickly uh but they certainly you're not going to create a problem they're just good food if you can get them going um they'll do a lot to break down the leaf litter they're a good uh what's the word shredder they're a shredder they break down the leaves into little tiny pieces that tinier animals can take. Elaine said, you're pretty pathetic if you can't control a poppy's plant. I don't know. I don't know, Elaine. They got so bad out of control in my shop. I had them on the top row. I didn't keep any fish in these tanks, so I just kind of let them go. And they turned into this massive plant structure. Two different times. I hired people to come in and help clean tanks. They ripped them all out and threw them in the trash. Twice that happened. I was livid both times. Livid, I told you. Livid. I probably turned purple. I was that livid. Made him put them back, but it didn't work. It wasn't the same. You can't put them back. Monster Fish Gal, Laurie, has posted the Secret Histories link and also LRB's link. Thank you. very much rohan says it's like saying if you leave your home for work every day you'd have a hard chance of dying just comparing it to bringing bad stuff from the water outdoors but you can't thrive living in your bubble well rohan that's well put that's really very well put and that's kind of the issue we take risks in life don't we we try to be reasonable about it try to be careful about it Some of us are bigger risk takers than others, but we all do it. We can't live in a bubble, and that aquarium can become a bubble. And it will reduce the satisfaction and the joy that you derive from it. So consider this if you haven't. Consider it very seriously. Bring life into your tank. Bring joy into your tank. Make of your aquarium a living, thriving, growing environment. with life going on that you can't even see, that forms the foundation of the life in that aquarium. Do it. Just do it. Do it. Do it. Let's find some music. I want to see if I can get over to my main man here. I think I can do this. Scrolling down to the music of Father Fish. Here we got him. I'm going to back it up because I've been using it. And John Lornay. All right. Let's talk about fish, baby. Let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about all the good things and the bad things. Let's talk about fish. Let's talk about fish. Good to be with you this evening. Great time. Hope you did too. We'll talk again next Friday. We'll get this worked out so we can kind of mesh in with everybody. Hang in there. Get over there right now.