The aquarium hobby is such a vast place and can be overwhelming to find helpful information. So with this channel I hope to bring everything together in an entertaining educational formate for people to learn and enjoy the hobby in one spot!
European tropical fish keepers over the age of let's say 40 yrs+and more. Are trying too figure out the cost of a Boesmani in Australia its native land,when 40 years ago i paid £40 for 8 F1s here in the UK. Have they became endangered.! Do you breed Any Endangered species? That was my motivation in the hobby.
Hey Harlan, I want to throw in my two cents. I definitely agree with having a bigger tank for colony breeding swordtails. I think it's a must to have the space to allow the fry to be able to run for cover. My tank is a 3 footer, 40 gallon, and I've got a load of hornwort floating at and near the surface. I've also got a load of Vallisneria alond the back of the tank and the leaves are growing up and across the top of the tank. The fry can hide up in the hornwot as well as even hiding on top of the Vallisneria leave that are laying flat just below the water surface. I am still trying to figure out how the fry are are going to sex out. I remember you video where yuo were talking about temperature and pH meybe being determining factore wit the sex. My last batch of fry all turned out male. Hopefully this batch will be different! Anyway, thanks for a great experiment! Cheers! ~Ron
We used to have a blue tongue lizard that lived in our backyard - I have to say it's poo is still the worst thing I've ever smelt in my entire life - including off chicken, off fish and industrial waste! Hahaha
Great video! I wonder how strong his floors are; those 75g double racks are A LOT of weight in a small space. I'm jealous as I want to do the same thing (I'm part of his same club), but am terrified of dealing with the weight.
A live bearer breeding experiment plus a haircut! 😁 I suppose a much larger tub with stacks of hiding places would work better but then space becomes an issue.
Hi! Interesting video. My opinion is that you need a planted aquarium with a bunch of hiding place, this is my way now. The parents and the other adults doesnt eat all the babies. The other way is that you are mentioning with the small boxes and maybe the same version but the professional way is that you take a lot of adults in the top of a huge IBC or any bigger tank and you put a net under them where the babies can go to the bottom of the tank. This is a method that i heard from a professional breeder. Huge space for the adults, and put a net in the top section of the tank.
I've been breeding Black Mollies in a tank just by themselves. It has black substrate and plenty of long roots on the floating plants. I've noticed that if you put a few smaller fish in the tank (endler size) it gives the adult fish something to chase. They don't eat them. Also Swordtails are know for eating their own young. My breeding project for Red Swordtails are in a seperate tank with lots of plants and hiding spots. So far I've only seen one baby. Keep on experimenting.
@@arghdubliner4440 great question! I actually just undid that tank a few days ago and it had very little to no fish poo or molm underneath for the amount of time setup so I don’t imagine it would need to be cleaned very often. I would say it would last the longevity of the scape which for me is around 1 year or so. But again it’s all down to how you want to do it. For me it worked great barely ever did water changes and water stayed crystal clear.
I got a mystery snail last month from a pet store because I had one before but it was smaller and got on its back and I didn’t find it in time :( so I was going to get a different kind but then I saw basically full grown mystery snails and I had to try again. This one has been doing great in my tank but I just noticed there were tiny weird spots on the glass the other day but when I looked tonight I just realized they’re snails I have no idea if they’re mystery snail babies or some other type that got into my tank through plants. On a side note your experiment was really cool and that was sooo many mystery snails haha
Filter Juice 100% works. I am not sure why this isn't widly known/promoted. Most people are directed to bottled bacteria which I didn't get good results from.
First two methods yes, but aged or old water from another aquarium holds little to no beneficial bacteria at all. Bacteria colonizes on the surfaces of plants, decorations, substrate ect
G'day Harlan, very informative and well presented video. Another source for filter juice could be from your friendly LFS. And well as using matured aquarium water from another tank you could also add plants from existing tanks for extra bacteria. Looking forward to seeing your plans for the new rack.
I just copied and pasted my comment from Insatgram (then I edited it a bit): Yup! That’s what I’ll do too. Or I may even just use that sponge filter and put a new one in the tank it came from. The tank that sponge filter came from is already loaded with beneficial bacteria on everything in the tank - the glass, substrate, plants, etc. And then just for a bit of insurance I’ll add some beneficial bacteria once I drop in the fish to make sure there’s a food source for the new bacteria. I have used the "qiuick-start method" as well. In fact that's how I initally learned to cycle a tank watching MD FishTanks. We gotta start somewhere. 🙂 Also, I have used that method of using water from an existing tank. I works just fine for me. This is a great topic, Harlan. There are so many opinions out there - “if you’re not doing it my way, you’re not doing it right!” As always, Harlan, your video is spot-on! Cheers, Mate! ~Ron
Well done with the video and very informative. Only shows your real understanding of this stuff and shows your experience. I despise channels that just echo the same info over and over, let the tank cycle for 6 weeks blah blah blah before adding livestock. Not only that it over complicates aquarium fish keeping for absolute beginners, I'm sure it has turned off some people who really want to start with aquarium fish keeping but just cant wait that long or got intimidated. Go ahead and put a hardy livestock, a fish or two. Watch the ammonia, if it spikes, do the appropriate amount of water change. Keep doing the water change daily until the bacteria catches up with the bioload. Yes, ammonia is bad. But, it is not necessarily dangerous at extremely low amount for a few days till the bacteria stabilizes. Better yet, if you keep acidic water, ammonia molecules are even less potent simply because its converted to ammonium ions.
@HarlanFord - awesome video. Eric is a wealth of knowledge, so many years of staring into the glass and actually studying the fish. You can tell he really loves his trade, not many people can say they love going to work everyday. Honestly, I’m jealous in that sense. Anyway, Harlan I don’t believe I’m alone in having this opinion of you making another video of his fish room in its entirety. I know I would watch it. Thanks for the content
You made that look simple. One thing I might suggest i`d you raise the plugs off the floor. Even if it's just a few inches. Any water soliiage from the tank for filter would run strate into your multi socket.