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Deep Dive
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Deep Dive
Micro Creature Jar - Nano Tank Labs Adding Bag of Bugs - Phishy Experiments - The Friday 4 Ep. 20Added:
Welcome. My name's Tony >> and I'm Carara.
>> This is episode 20 of the Friday Four.
>> Yes.
>> We've got some killer topics today as usual.
>> Yes.
>> We're going to dive right in.
>> Dive right in, baby.
>> Number one, we're starting off with the benthic bulletin because we've got five or so new submissions since we did this last week. Yay. They're doing it.
They're doing it. So, number one's the Benthic bulletin. We're going to cover jar tank success, Asian clams and copapods, scud, happy environment, and I want all the bugs.
>> Number two.
>> Number two, fishy experiments.
>> Fishy experiments. What does that mean?
>> You're going to find out.
>> Yeah, >> that's something uh new that's coming your way.
>> Yes.
>> Number three, >> no local pickups.
>> No local pickups.
>> We'll dive into that. We'll dive into uh exactly what's going on and when to expect local pickups, but if you're waiting for it tomorrow, not going to happen.
>> If you're holding your breath, you might as well quit.
>> You start breathing because it's going to be a minute. For good reason, though.
>> It's all good.
>> Number four, thank you to Nanotank Labs.
So, we had a customer who made a really cool YouTube video and we want to say thanks and give you credit where credit is due.
>> Perfect. Right.
>> Yes.
>> Number one, the Benthic Bulletin. Let's dive right in. Tony was so excited.
>> I said, "Check the benthic bulletin submissions."
>> There's like five new ones.
>> And it was like five and I'm like, "Are those five new ones?"
>> He was so excited.
>> Good job, people. Again, >> it's probably one guy changing his name, >> putting in a different email address, asking some question.
How can I What can I >> It's probably [laughter] asking.
>> What kind of question can I ask?
[snorts] >> All right. So, our first submission is now, sorry, I've not seen any of these.
It looks like you have like three pages printed out.
>> Yikes. Four.
>> Oh, the last one's an email.
>> The last one's an email.
>> So, I've not seen these. So, you're getting the >> this live true response like the real Tony right now.
>> I better get some electrolytes.
>> You better hydrate cuz you're about to run a marathon. And >> we are not sponsored by Liquid IV, but we like Liquid IV. [laughter] We do. What's your favorite flavor?
>> Strawberry is the only good flavor. I mean, I'm sure they have other flavors.
I've only tried strawberry and I like it.
>> You Bomb Pops or something?
>> The Bomb Pop one. The uh lemon lime is really good.
>> You also have a thing for that raspberry one.
>> The blue raspberry one is really good.
Yeah, I would say those top three. All right, thanks for reeling me back in.
So, our first submission is by Saved by the Jar.
>> Like that name. That's cool.
>> Okay. Less of a question.
>> A jar of jelly in the fridge.
>> Maybe. Save.
>> Or are they talking about like a >> I think they're talking about a fish related jar.
>> Jar. Okay.
>> Like a onegon glass jar to be more specific.
>> All right. Less of a question, more of an Oh my gosh. Yes.
>> I have bought two bag of leaves from you. loved them.
>> Thank you.
>> Also bought a scud culture. Loved it.
Also, >> thank you.
>> I have a pea puffer tank, >> so they have never really been out and about, per se.
>> Yeah. So, um, just to clarify for anyone who doesn't know, >> scuds crawling around being all cool and awesome. If there's a predator like a juicy little pea puffer, those scuds are going to hide.
>> They're the cutest, >> but they're still there doing their thing.
>> Scuds are cute, but the pea puffer's cute. Um, carry on. I had an idea.
>> So, I had an idea when it was time to clean my intake filter and I started a resurrection jar by squeezing it into a onegon glass jar. I got a few scuds to come out and I see so much tiny life already.
>> Mhm.
>> So tiny that I have no idea what they are.
>> I added hornwart and leaves, etc. hoping some snails would come out tonight so I can add one in too. Uh, just wanted to share the small success and see if you had any tips for my new jar adventure.
Also curious if you might have an idea what these creatures are as I'm assuming my culture is basically the same as yours at this point.
>> Cheers.
>> Cheers.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> I like cheers. I like when someone says cheers instead of goodbye or something.
Cheers, mate.
>> I have one friend that every time she gets a drink set on the table, she has to cheers with you.
>> I saw that.
>> Yeah, I kind of love it.
>> Yeah, >> I think it's adorable.
>> Kind of.
>> Yeah, >> kind of.
>> I assume you're >> tips for onegon jars. Okay, here's some tips. Don't overdo it. Don't overdo it.
Don't overdo it. Don't overdo it.
What don't we want to overdo? Food. Food is the enemy of onegon jars. You can crash a onegon jar with a green bean.
Did you know that?
>> I did not.
>> Yeah, I do know that because I've done it.
Lots of stuff breaking down. lots of like if you had like an inch or two of leaf litter for a onegon jar would probably be a little too much unless the leaves have been in a system for a very very very long time and a lot of the nutrients has already been depleted out of them. If you just take a um the leaves that you get from us in like a bag of bugs are pretty fresh in a sense.
They've been in some systems, but they're they're not in our systems that have active like snails and scuds really tearing them down because they go too fast. Um, you know, if you've got a real big army, which is usually what we've got in our tubs, huge armies of creatures, they can chew up leaf litter within a week or so. And we want you to get kind of a fresh start. So, >> a lot of leaf litter in a onegon jar could be a mistake.
>> Okay. Aation is not necessary unless you're, you know, it can be necessary.
If you've got a ton of leaves or a ton of food in there, arration might be necessary. But, um, typically with jars, we're not using an an airstone of any kind.
Uh, a little bit of a plant action of some kind would be good. Even some like duckweed or salvinia on top would be great. So, treating it like a little tiny fish tank. sand in the bottom, some rocks, uh, a couple little plants, you know, something like that. So, jars are fun. I like the idea of, you know, squeezing out the little sponge into there. That's a good idea.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, you want to be careful about getting like too much. You know, you can do that for sure, but if you keep raining down m layer after mle layer, you know, maybe you can get a little too much of that.
But I think what you're doing is great.
I love the idea. I love the experiment.
Do I know what some of these creatures are? Yes. So, we're way overdue. Like way overdue for like a bug ID video. Bug ID video. Like what's the bugs? And I know these aren't bugs. I know most of them are crustaceians. A lot of different little aquatic life forms that wouldn't be really called bugs, but but uh everyone thinks they're bugs. And I think normalizing bugs in the aquarium is kind of the whole goal. Normalizing some of these little aquatic insects cuz if you search bugs in my aquarium, like the first thing that pops up is typically information like how to get rid of bugs in your aquarium. And you know, I'm trying to the whole reason we called it bag of bugs. Why didn't we call it, you know, biodiversity, uh, micro culture or something like that? Because that's too much. That's too un It's unrelatable.
>> Yeah. Bag of Bugs is catchy.
>> Bag of Bugs is fun. It's light. It's Everyone knows what little bugs are.
Little tiny tiny bugs. So that's what Bag of Bugs is. So yeah, we could identify some for sure. When you have your identification video, can I can I put in like one little um request for for such a video?
>> What was you giving me? The little >> just go.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. I want to I want to plug in a request for >> a request for the for the bug ID video.
The aquatic life for >> I want you to have on like a Sherlock Holmesesque get up.
>> Okay.
>> With like a gigantic magnifying glass.
>> Oh yeah, we can do that. Now, is this going to be like when we promised last week that you'd be in a pirate costume today for the 20th episode?
>> I forgot my pirate costume.
>> We were on our way here and she probably said, "Do you want me to turn around?"
And we were kind of already late and I'm like, "No, we we got to get >> we got to get to work on so maybe we'll just dress up like on the random." But I definitely I want I would love a Sherlock Holmes like today we're gonna dive into this bug and blah blah blah and you can like you know zoom in on it with your magnifying glass.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah, you could uh maybe work on a British accent.
>> Good day, mate. [laughter] >> That's Australian, but that's >> Y man. Y mate.
>> Let's Okay, never mind. We'll get rid of the uh >> I'm sure I'm insulting somebody.
Okay.
>> So, yeah, take it easy on food in little jars.
>> Yes.
>> They don't need a lot.
>> Uhhuh.
>> You know, if you put in a piece of food, >> don't crash >> and a couple things are chewing on it, but the next day it's still there, you're probably in trouble. Like, just remove it.
>> Good tips.
>> A little tiny bit goes a long way in one gallon of water. But please, please proceed.
Don't let me talk you out of anything.
Yeah.
>> Just understand that >> Yeah.
>> Sometimes a onegon jar overnight does weird things and you know you come in to a disaster.
>> Yeah.
>> At least that's happened to me before.
>> We love it. Say by the jar. Thanks for question. I hope I answered it well enough.
>> Yes. All right. Next we have a submission from Tubby.
>> Tubby.
>> Hey Tony. Here's a crazy idea I tinkered with. I tried twice to keep freshwater gold Asian clams in my tank.
>> Okay.
>> Do you have any experience I think >> with gold Asian clams? No. But proceed.
>> Okay. Uh no luck. They didn't survive even with the green water feeding. Of course, Scuds swarmed them after they died. And then my fish got their turn feeding on the exposed scuds.
Maybe you could do a deep dive on these by valves.
>> By valves? Yeah. Okay. The clams are called freshwater Asian clams. Watching them filter water with their siphons is oddly satisfying.
>> Yeah.
>> I feel like we should have like looked this up.
>> Yeah. Well, I mean, I could have looked up Asian clams and read a little bit about it and act like I knew something about it or I could just be honest.
>> Yeah. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna I would like to watch them uh filter water with their cycle.
>> Oh, you mean look up watching them filter?
>> Yeah. Because if it's oddly satisfying, I'd just like to see >> or what's oddly satisfying to some is not necessarily oddly satisfying to others. We know that, >> right?
>> As another idea for your YouTube channel, a deep dive into raising freshwater copapods only culture. Uh I give this I want to give this a try in the future and exclusively feed them green water with the eventual purpose of feeding them to my community aquarium. Uh from what I've read, they are very much easier to culture and less labor intensive compared to the boom and bust of moina culturing. A species of freshwater copapod uh have been cultivated and distributed in New Jersey during the summer months for mosquito control to residents in the past. That's interesting. I was thinking I could perhaps get a free sample from them if that program is still available. Please let me know what you think of these two particular specimens and if you might consider making future content. I think the viewers would find it fascinating.
Keep up the good work.
>> Well, Tubby, I really appreciate it. And you wrote that, not me. It feels weird calling someone Tubby for some reason. I [laughter] don't know why, but I like it.
>> There you [clears throat] go.
>> So, I'll just be honest. I've never worked with the clams. That is very interesting. And you know somewhere I'm going back in the recesses of my brain. A long time ago we had uh got some little wild specimens of some kind of clam and similar thing happened. I thought I could just feed them some green water and they would be like, "Oh yeah, cool."
>> We also at one point acquired a bunch of freshwater sponges that came in on a bunch of horn uh we got from a guy.
Remember the sponges?
>> I do.
>> Yeah. They were really cool and I was like squirting uh green water on them and stuff and they would actually kind of turn green for a little bit and it was very very I just thought, "Oh yeah, this is it now. We're going to we're going to be the sponge people."
>> Yeah. And they all died out.
>> Some of these filter feeders it's trickier than okay well I'm providing green water and that should be adequate.
>> Okay. There's there's a lot going on.
And I have seen little buy valves, little clams for sale. And a lot of times in the descriptions it's like super easy, can't fail.
Filter your water with these clams. And a lot of times they're being sold and they're wild caught. So it's not even like they've got the clam recipe down.
>> Oh.
>> And they're like breeding them and they know how to really take care of them.
they've got um some wild source near them and they've just got a lot. I mean, in some of these wild areas, it's nothing for there to be hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of these clams in small areas. It's just like scuds and the aquatic isopods and everything else where they're happy in an an environment and it's a large system like a river or a pond or a lake or something, they're able to really have monster numbers. And when you take that out of wild And I'm not saying your Asian I'm [clears throat] not saying your Asian clams you bought were wild. I have no idea.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh I'm sure someone's cultivating them somewhere. Hopefully, possibly. I have no idea.
>> Yeah. but how they're doing it. Um, you know, there's just, in my experience, it's just not as simple as replacing what they would get in the wild food wise or in a very, very large system with just some green water.
>> Yeah.
>> And you have inspired me, Tubby. I'm going to I kind of will highlight or underline some things just to um make notes so later on I go back and go oh yeah this was a thing we were going to do and maybe okay here even better this is going to I'm going to write something on here fishy experiments so this this is a great experiment and there are some other little creatures we're going to be working with later on >> we got some nootes coming our way hopefully soon Yeah, >> some Italian crusted nootes, I think is what they are.
>> Those were cool looking cool suckers.
>> And I I don't know if that's going to pan out or not exactly, but I've got a customer who when they're ready, they're going to send send me some nootes, please. Uh so that's going to be cool.
And it would be great to learn something about these Asian clams. So >> Asian golden clam >> Asian golden clams. I'm going to look into them and maybe we'll acquire some.
Maybe we'll see if we have any luck.
Maybe just throwing them into a greenwater culture wouldn't be successful, but maybe they would do well in one of our established towers that have been around a while that we grow Daphne in that we feed green water to >> because there's >> Okay.
>> Yeah. I mean, there's a lot going on in in an environment.
>> Okay. And when you isolate and just have like a sterile environment that you start putting a bunch of green water into and you've got these clams in there or you've got uh Daphne in there or copaapods only in there. Sometimes they just don't they don't do as well as you think they're going to do.
>> Okay?
>> You spend a lot of time uh maybe you spend a lot of money setting all this up. You bought the green water. You get some going in a little greenwater machine. Then you finally all of it comes together and overnight it fails or you just don't have any um production and that can be a little sad.
>> I've seen you through a couple project projects like that.
>> Oh, you have a couple.
>> A couple.
>> A couple.
>> Just a couple.
>> So, another thing we got to talk about and then we're moving on. Man, we're really dragging these out, aren't we?
>> Um the copapods. So, Yeah. Um, so as far as the copapods go, a similar story.
They tend to do better for me in environments where I have kind of an established low ecosystem already going on. So, if I've got a tower that has um aquatic isopods in them, I'll have a little basket of the sweet gum seed pods and then when I strain that out, there's a lot of isopods, but there's also a ton of little copapods in there.
>> And those tanks, which also have Daphnneia in them, usually are getting a lot of green water.
>> Can you grow copapods in mass in greenwater cultures of some kind? Yes. I again that's another thing we need to maybe put a star by and experiment more with. I have I wouldn't say I gave it like my all effort but I have like set up jars of green water or had little separate jars and put a bunch of isolated a bunch of little copa pods put some green water in it and really it just didn't materialize into anything worth anything. But I have tons of environments that don't have fish with in them. no fish in these environments and when I'm gathering leaves out of them or um whatever I'm looking for, there's lots of copods around.
>> Okay.
>> So, they just kind of come along with everything else. Would it be good to isolate some and try to grow some isol?
Yeah, great. But yeah, working on it. We will let you know.
>> All right. Next, we've got the literary cat.
First, >> first, thanks very much for all you do.
I was one of those, "Oh no, Hydra, oh no, Scuds fish keepers until I came across your videos. I love the science behind keeping tanks and learning about all the different ecosystems you can keep in boxes of water."
>> Yep.
>> I just ordered a bag of bugs in a creature pack for a microorganism >> macro >> macroorganism and shrimp only tank.
15gallon deep substrate, coarse sand, various sized gravel, leaf litter, and started with some green water from my pond. So excited to watch what happens.
>> They're catching on, people.
>> That's so cool.
>> You listed all of the things. Perfect.
Great.
>> My question is in reference to a tank that I am still planning out. I have a 6 foot 150 galon. Uh it's going to have deep substrate with a plenum.
>> Yeah. And I'm going to build a background with pond safe spray foam, lots of driftwood, rocks, and plantable nooks and crannies. Uh, climbing up to some sort of paladarium top where I will be growing terrestrial plants.
>> Nice.
>> The problem I'm having is plants get pricey and I want to plant and fill it over time. Uh, starting with carpeting plants. This is a lot of words. I promise I'm getting to the creatures.
All right. I'd like to add a bag of bugs and maybe a scudp pack as soon as I start planting to help with algae and plant melt and start growing there the critters population.
>> Okay.
>> There will be roughly 30 gallons above the substrate water.
>> Is that the right idea?
>> Will they actually help with the plant melt and algae? But my biggest question is will it be a problem for the scuds and things if in a month if in a every month or so I add more plants and water will this be a shock to them or will they be happy to have even more territory? Anything I can do to make additions less stressful?
>> Okay, so I'm going to stop you there.
So, what I'm gathering is you're filling the tank slowly, like in groups. You're not even filling the whole thing up with water.
The first planting, you're going to plant some, put some water in it.
There'll be 30 gallons above the substrate. You said this is a big tank, 150 gallons or whatever.
>> Okay.
>> So, is it a problem for the Scuds to have a big influx of water and new plant? Not really. No, I think they would just be happy with more habitat and all of that. Will they actually help with algae and melt? Yes.
I mean, they're not going to stop stop the plants from melting, but they could and would chew up the melted plants for sure. Um, you know, that's a pretty big tank. That's a lot of surface area. A bag of bugs and maybe a Scud pack >> for sure. Um, >> you know, you might get like the 200 scud pack. I know that's a little more money than the 50 obviously, >> but if you're working with >> 150 gallons, like again, >> like the amount of Scuds in a bag of bugs doesn't go very far in a 6ft tank.
>> Yeah.
>> Um even if your water is not, you know, very high in there.
>> Still, >> it's just it's going to seem like not much when you put it in that big of a tank.
>> Um but yeah, they they will chew on algae. They will help with plant uh melting plants. They're going to chew on algae for sure. Yeah. I mean, that's what they like.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Well, and and before Go ahead. Yeah.
Yeah. Proceed.
>> Uh just a note, fish will not be added for months probably, but they will be fancy guppies, so I can eventually let their population turn this giant tank into a rainbow happy tank.
>> I like that. [clears throat] >> So, there won't be any predation for quite a while. Could I start with one or two bag of bugs? Thank you very much for your time and sorry for the word flood.
>> No problem. We like flooding words.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> I would say you'd want more than one to two bag of bugs.
>> Yeah. I mean, you could start with that.
You could start with more. I mean, I know you're not filling it up with water, but you could, you know, one to two bag of bugs. You could do that. That would get you some leaf litter. If you're not wanting a bunch more leaf litter, you could also do like some of the creature packs if you're not caring so much about >> like the sheer amount of leaves.
>> Um concern about, and you didn't even say this was a concern, but I'm just going to say it for you.
>> Any concerns about predation on the plants from the Scuds isn't really a concern at this point.
>> Yeah.
>> Um you know, there's going to be a lot going on in there. I would before you add the Scuds and things, >> maybe have it set up just for a little bit. It's not that you're trying to complete a cycle. You're just letting the tank kind of establish itself just a little bit before you start adding the live creatures in case there's any weird chemistry, water thingies.
>> Mhm.
>> Yeah. Going on. Any kind of weirdness that's going to create a hostile living environment. Um, Scuds have a reputation for being very tough. But, you know, if um the environment is toxic due to fluctuating water chemistry, >> Yes. Yes, they can die very easily.
>> Yeah.
>> Um I love this idea of a paladarium.
That's really really cool.
>> Yeah.
>> Might be good for some nootes.
>> Um I'm curious if you have any idea like if you're doing I know you're having uh like plants up there. I wonder if uh just out of curiosity if you have any other you know some people will do like some kind of frog or something. That's always interesting to me. Or if it's just you know plants that's very very cool too. Mhm.
>> Um, yeah, I'd say your idea is pretty good.
You could, uh, a couple bags of bugs, then maybe some scuds or something, or if you want to add some other creatures or some shrimp or something, that would be fine, too. Adding it before the fish is always a great idea.
>> Um, and kind of doing it how you're talking about, filling it as you go. I wouldn't see that being any problem at all. Make sure there's a little arration of some kind during all of this process is a good idea.
>> Yeah.
>> Um Yeah.
>> Perfect. Perfect.
>> So, you could if you're wanting a lot more leaf litter in the bottom, you could do more than just that bag of bug.
Two bag of bugs. But if also you've got some dry leaves or something you're doing already, that's great, too.
>> Good deal.
>> Yep.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. The literary cat.
Meow.
>> [snorts] >> All right. Next.
>> Next, we've got Cowgirl at Heart.
>> A name.
>> Yes.
>> Another uh >> I've purchased several products from you and I've been very impressed. My Scuds aren't producing enough to feed my 29 and 20 gallon community tanks. I think this may be due to only using 3 gallon buckets and 2.5 gallon buckets. So, I've decided to set up a 10gallon food with rubble tank and try again. It's dirted and capped with sand, some piles of rocks and pebbles, a heater and sponge filter. I use sand from my local Great.
>> So far, I just have rams horn snails residing in it uh for my puffers.
>> Okay.
>> Makes me want to get puffers. I already have a lot of leaf litter and sweet gumballs. I plan on purchasing more scuds to get them going. Which bio bag would provide the most to me include to include the microphone and the critters?
Would the copapods multiply without making it a greenwater tank? I want all the bugs.
>> All the bugs. Yeah, >> all the bugs.
>> So, copaapods do not need green water uh to multiply and be happy at all.
>> Okay. They have always kind of carried along in our systems when we start new systems and we're pulling material from old ones whether we do green water or not. We had copapods before we ever had green water >> and if the green water went away we'd still have them. Green water kind of benefits everything but it's really only necessary if you're trying to like grow Daphnneia and moina like separately in a separate container. Yeah, >> you might want to have some green water to feed that to have maybe a little bit better success.
>> Okay, >> but you know, you're not going to have to worry about, you know, sometimes if you're >> like the idea of having a a 10gon food rubble tank, great. That's that's that's the whole that's what I want. I want people to get onto this idea >> to have a separate tank. 10 gallons is great.
You don't need to also gear up and do green water and all of that if you're just wanting to start with this 10 gallon tank. Sometimes doing the green water and the Daphne and the mo it's I mean there's no way around it being some extra work and that extra work is very worth it but for some people it's not.
For some people they don't want to mess with it. So and we're going to talk about that green water and Daphnneia here very soon uh or shortly later on.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah. So, copaapods will multiply without the green water for sure.
>> Which uh which >> I'm trying to which bag if you've already got the leaf litter and all of that, I wouldn't worry about buying like a bag of bugs or leafy bugs or anything like that. If you want to get like um on the website underneath the crustaceians tab where you can look at scuds and the aquatic ice pods and all that there are the creature pack section >> and the creature packs are little combo packs. So there's the ultimate creature pack which comes with the snails, the scuds, the little uh hearty shrimp, aquatic isopods and daphnneia. So it's like five different creatures in one.
that could be a really good option.
Uh or you know some of these other creature packs are have a little more quantity of the individual items but not as many different ones. So I would take a look at those. That would probably be your best bet.
>> What does the bag of bugs and leafy bugs and all of that come with that this creature pack does not? Well, it comes with the leaf litter and the seed pods and all that. It also comes with the black dust. And the black dust is a little thing I've talked about it before. It's kind of like when we're siving out some of these um scud balls and different things, some of the little seed pods and leaves to flush the creatures out to collect them. It's a lot of little fine debris which then we strain out and siv out into like a really small uh or [clears throat] we run it through saves to where it's just this really fine black powder looking. It's um in water.
It looks like black dust is why we call it black dust. But within that are little tiny little tiny creatures, some little microscopic worms, some little uh seed shrimp, sometimes copaapods. So that comes with the bag of bugs, leafy bugs, and we're not putting that in the creature packs. So that is kind of a different little creature profile. Some smaller stuff that you can't see real well with your naked eye. Mhm.
>> Um, but if you're looking just to add some visible creatures, macro creatures as I would call it, uh, the creature packs are definitely what you need to be looking at.
>> Perfect.
>> Did I get them all?
>> I think you touched on all of it.
>> Cowgirl at heart. Love the name. I love these names today. Lit literary literary cat. Cowgirl at heart. Save by the jar.
Tubby.
>> We're not done. And lastly, >> our pal, the dirt digler.
>> And the dirt diggler.
[laughter] >> Okay.
>> Hey guys.
>> All right. And this is the last uh benthic bulletin submission.
>> Yes. Yes.
Um proceed. I love this. Okay.
>> Carry on.
>> Hey guys. Hey guys. I took some time to go back and watch some of your older videos and really dig into what you're laying down. You guys always crack me up and are very helpful explaining my new expanding hobby. The disco queen and I just received our two bags of scudf-free leafy bugs and vinegar eel kit and we are thrilled. I thought I would ask I thought I'm sorry. [snorts] I thought I would ask what your firsthand knowledge is on the behavior of these little guys.
Uh, I built and cycled a 10gon for six weeks with only your leafy bugs, snails, and shrimp in mind, so there's no fish.
I do have some open swim area, and my top water red root is still trying to get through.
Um, most of the movement is in the upper third of the tank. Is it normal for these guys to swim around, take advantage of no fish? Is it a good thing that they are around the top or should they be in the leaves? Will they settle in time? Are they looking for food? I keep reading that these little guys can live in all types of parameters and temperatures, so I'm not overly worried there. Uh, it's my first time caring for these guys, so I'm probably overthinking things, but I would love your thoughts on signs of stress or problems by the way they act, if that's possible.
It would sure save me from roller skating to the library every day.
[snorts] Thanks you two. Boogie on.
>> Roller skating to the library. Man, >> that's so cool. Yeah, >> we live near a library and uh I could not think of roller skating.
>> I would love to see you roller skate to the library.
>> No, I will not roller skate to the library. I can't. I'm sorry. It's like it's like the one thing that I didn't learn as a child.
>> That's the one thing you didn't learn was roller skating. [laughter] >> All right, Mr. Digler disappoints in the disco queen.
>> I love the names. I do. I love the names, too.
>> I'm thinking these guys are groovy. I mean, look, they mentioned roller skating. Uh, there's a little emoji of a guy dancing with some music notes.
>> Dirt Digler, the disco queen.
>> Yeah, >> I like these people.
>> I do too. They're so cool.
>> Okay, >> boogie on.
>> Disco Queen just received our two Scudf-free leafy bugs and the vinegar eels, the vinegar eel kit, and you're thrilled. I thought I would ask what the firsthand knowledge on the behavior of these little guys. I built a cycle 10gon six weeks ago with only your leafy bug, snails, and shrimp in mind.
So, okay. So, no fish. So, my question to you, Mr. Diggler, or the disco queen, whoever really is wanting the information, I don't know who's leading this project.
Are you talking about the behavior of a leafy bugs, snails, and shrimp, or behavior of scud-free leafy bugs?
Because the scud-free leafy bugs, the main large creatures in there that you're seeing are probably the Daphnneia and Moina. Daphne and Moina would be in that Scudfree culture. There would also be like copapods.
Those creatures are going to be up in the top. They're not going to be down in the bottom. If you're talking about a leafy bugs and snails and shrimp, >> those would be more down in the bottom.
But scuds without predators definitely are going to do a thing where they're swimming around in the water column some. Especially if you just put them in, they're kind of got the zooies. I think they like are one like zoom around. Shrimp also can do the same if you have the shrimp. But I'm not sure and I and I don't have your order history in front of me or have looked into that. So I don't know if you're planning on buying the leafy bug snails and shrimp for this tank or if you've already got them in there and that's what you're looking at. If it's moa and daphnneia, they're going to definitely be up in the water column. And the moa and daphnneia, I I include them with a bunch of our cultures, >> but long term they do best >> elsewhere usually. So a lot of times if you put them into a tank, the fish are going to eat them right away. if you have fish in there. If you don't have fish in there, they're going to be around and they might be around for a while, but if you're not feeding them something like green water or there's not something suspended in the water column like a bacteria bloom or some dry yeast you're putting in there, they're not going to really be there long term.
And you honestly don't even want them there long term so much.
It's not that you don't want them there long term, but if you're actively growing their population by feeding them a ton, pretty soon there's just going to be it's going to be really dark. It's like lots of green water in there or there's going to be just a million Daphnneia in there and that kind of kills your tank for other reasons. So, I put the Daphne in there because people uh before I did that, I would get email after email, hey bag of bugs, where's the Daphnneia? There's no Daphnne in here. And at that time I wasn't putting Daphnneia in there and I didn't say there was Daphnneia in there but their assumption was they wanted Daphnneia in this kit because they felt like Daphneia were part of that conversation when we were always talking about it. So >> sorry that's a lot and maybe that isn't clear but I'm curious at which things you're seeing swim around. If it's the little things bobbing around the Daphnneia, yeah, they're going to be kind of more up. they're not going to be down in the bottom so much.
>> Uh scuds and things can swim around.
Shrimp occasionally shrimp be chilling and then all of a sudden all the shrimp are swimming around like crazy because there's a female in mol or there's a female and she's like releasing pherommones because it's time for her to have a boyfriend and all the males are swimming around like crazy trying to find her.
>> Okay.
>> That's a thing they do.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
Good times, right?
>> All right. Yeah. So, what are we looking out for? Like, things have gone ary.
Everything's trying to get out of the water. All the Scuds are at the very, not just swimming around towards the top, but they're actually climbing out like they're trying to climb out of the water. All the snails are at the top.
Now, it's ah, >> ouch, Charlie.
That got me right in the bunny bone.
M [sighs and gasps] got this, Tony. Be professional.
>> Be profession.
>> What was I saying?
>> Okay. Snails will sometimes come to the surface and actually get out of the water for a little bit. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about all the snails. All the snails are trying to escape. All the scuds are trying to escape. If everything's trying to leave the water, >> that's a bad sign because they're little aquatic creatures. So, if the water's that bad to where it's killing them, they're going to try to leave and get to somewhere else.
>> So, swimming around near the top is not an issue. If there were plants or something in the top hanging out in there, that's not an issue. It's when they're actually all trying to come up out of it, that's when it's a problem.
That's an indicator that the water um needs changed or something's fouled or um you know putting too much food in the environment. And hey, thank you so much for the repeated support, the continued support. I really appreciate that. And I do remember that box going out with the jar and the two scudfree leafy bugs. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. The vinegar eels are like my new favorite little thing.
Vinegar ales are so cool.
>> Yeah. I mean, I think they're they're not too exciting in a lot of ways, but they're also something like, "Oh, wow. I didn't do anything with them for like the last 6 months. I hope they're okay."
Oh, yeah. They're fine. They're still in there.
>> They're fine.
>> Need to put some more vinegar in there perhaps. But thank you. I hope that answers your question. And uh I'm digging this whole vibe. Are you dirt diggling it?
>> Digging.
>> I'm digging the whole vibe. We're done.
Yes.
>> Boogie on. Love it.
>> Boogie on. There's another one. I mean, this is got to be from a different era that we aren't living in today.
>> This is such a cool dude. I love it.
>> That was the end of the Benthic bulletin. Go to the website. Go to the Benthic Bulletin page. You find it on there. Go to the homepage. Go to the tabs. It's there. You can submit a question and I'll ramble on way too long about it here.
There you go.
>> Um, we've got an email I want to answer super quick before we go on to topic number two. Oh, >> okay.
>> And, um, the thing about the next couple topics is they're all pretty short. The next three things of the four Friday, four topics. So, you know, we spent a lot of time up front >> with the hard one.
>> Yeah.
>> Right out of the gate. So, um, okay. So, this >> read me the question. I'm ready to I'm all ears, girl.
Hi, I ordered a microphonic culture a month ago and my scuds were doing great until I got my betetta fish four days ago. There weren't like a crazy amount of them in the tank. Maybe four or five that I could see, but I just assume the rest were hiding under the substrate.
Yeah, >> though I haven't been able to see them.
>> Did my beta eat my scuds or are there more hiding around the tank? Thanks.
>> The scuds were doing great until you got your beta.
So, the Scuds were there. If you ordered it a month ago, if the Scuds were still alive, uh, yeah, there were more in there than just a couple. Um, >> and really to get a big established population going to where you're seeing a lot, that can take 3 to 6 months, just to be honest. Okay.
>> So, but a month later, if they're still alive, they're happy enough and they haven't died out, then no doubt they were on their way. And I'm sure there were some little babies in there somewhere as well. But there would have been adults hiding as well.
>> Um, when you put Mr. Beta in there, yeah, it's not game over for the Scuds, but it definitely >> sudden death.
>> Sudden [clears throat] death. It changes the game completely. You're not going to see your Scuds anymore because a shark has entered the arena.
>> Yes.
>> And betettas are wonderful at cleaning out scuds. And scuds are wonderful food for betettas, assuming your habitat is dense enough.
uh meaning there's lots of places for the Scuds to hide. You you can't get rid of the Scuds. They're they're still hiding. They will continue to grow their population, albeit a little slower, but it will still happen. And if you down the road in another 6 months remove that beta for a couple weeks, bam, you will see your Scuds coming back out.
>> And that would be one way you would know if hey, did they survive that? So, at home, we had a little 10gon tank. It was just full of shrimp and scuds and a whole bunch of little creepy crawies. It was awesome. We had that blue bed and what did we name him?
>> Bruce.
>> Bruce. We put old Brucey in there.
>> And man, he really cleaned out that tank and he he loved it. And he >> um >> at glance, you know, now it's very dense. lots of, you know, rocks to hide in, lots of leaf litter, lots of plants, and and uh Bruce made quick work.
Everything was hiding. Uh he just ate like a pig for days.
>> And then you'd look in there and it's like, whoa, man, there's nothing left, >> right?
>> And that was when I learned, you know, I didn't realize a betetta would like eat an adult shrimp, but man, I looked in there and there was like a shrimp tail sticking out of his mouth and he was just swimming around like, "Oh, that was a little much." But >> he got it down.
>> I'm full. So it nothing in there. Then I'm like, whoa, nothing in there. Now we kind of had a little breeding project going on and we moved him on to somewhere else and that tank sat empty and a few weeks later and a month later, oh wow, the shrimp are still here, the Scuds are still here. And you know, >> they their populations rebounded very quickly with uh the beta gone. And then at that point, it's a flourishing little microa tank again. Then you can put some more fish back in there and um play that little game over and over again.
So, no, they're not all gone.
He didn't eat them all. I'm sure he ate a few, but that's kind of the point. Um, will they be behind the scenes growing a population as long as the habitat's dense enough? Yes. So, they're still doing their job. What could you do differently next time? Uh, I mean, I think what you did was fine. Could you wait a little bit longer to actually see that, okay, a population did establish, right? But a lot of people don't want to wait, you know, they're setting up this tank. I'm going to >> I'm setting up this tank for uh beta, >> right?
>> And um I got to wait 6 months before I actually get Nobody wants >> No one wants to do that. And I can understand that.
>> Yeah. So, if you've got room and you had a couple tanks going, you could have some really growing up and like move the like play what musical tanks with the beta and keep moving them around. So, it's like he's got a fresh new little >> Yeah.
>> little thing to devour. No, I don't know. I mean, yeah, people do that kind of stuff. So, yeah. So, what what you're seeing is normal. They're still there, but man, when there's a shark in the water, the fish hide, right?
>> The prey hide and the guys are the prey.
>> Yes.
>> So, thank you so much. Hope that kind of cleared that up.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. A quick little wardrobe change.
>> Yeah.
>> The next day.
>> It is the next day.
>> Okay. Number two.
>> Number two. Fishy experiments.
>> This is very exciting. And I think Cara's even more excited than me. So, I'm going to kind of let her take the reigns of what >> Oh, good.
>> Fishy experiments is.
>> Um, so it's a new series for us. Um what we're going to do is kind of dive deeper into the um experiments that like you guys would be conducting at home and do it here in our setting but kind of like with the materials and and whatnot that you um would use at home. So like uh our first one is going to be with uh the green water and the Daphnneia. So we are going to show you how to um make green water using our green water machine. uh kind of the maintenance that needs to be done, what you need to do with the upkeep, um feeding the Daphnneia, taking care of the Daphnneia. Um are we doing like a 10gon tank for the >> DA? So, >> okay, >> this whole kind of idea stems from customers emailing us with lots of questions about green water, Daphnneia, and it's all about the timing. I mean, we can tell you, here's how you make green water.
>> Here's Daphnneia, here's an environment for Daphnneia. what you feed them, >> but like how does all that really work out cycle after cycle after cycle? And we're always talking about this balancing act and how there can be difficult. So, we kind of want to set up like one shelf space dedicated to growing green water and Daphnneia as if you had this maybe at your house with the materials you use. And Cara thought it would be great >> if you kind of sent in like some of you out there are having success with green [clears throat] water and Daphnneia kind of cycle after cycle or you've got a little rhythm down and uh we've been sent pictures in the past but we would love for you to send pictures to our email >> uh [email protected].
>> Perfect. uh send us some pictures of your greenwater setup, your Daphnia setup and how you're kind of using that and we can use that to get some ideas about, you know, kind of what what would be good or what people are using now.
Um, definitely have a couple in my mind on our on our shelf. Maybe making some green water with the green water machine cuz that's what a lot of you guys are buying.
>> And then also have some 10gon tanks to grow out some of these Daphnneia. And just watch how, >> you know, it would be something to where, >> you know, this shelf is dedicated to the project >> and we're going to run some experiments and whatever happens happens and we'll document it along the way. It's kind of a >> show and tell as it goes more than okay, we did this for six months and here's the one video about it. It's more like updates as we go. So you can see, okay, well >> and I'm not going to use the resources we have here to back it up. It's more like >> here's what it started. I've started the Daphnneia or I started the green water and if I ran out I'm going to pull from my five gallon bucket. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to treat it like how you guys are, you know, working through some of these >> right out the way >> processes.
>> Yeah, I like that idea. I think that's good.
>> Yeah. And there will be other experiments as time goes on.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and it will be like a I'm not sure if it'll be weekly, legitimately weekly, like the Friday 4 comes out every Friday.
>> Um but this is going to be a separate series that will have a kind of a different format than the Friday 4. It's not just an update within the Friday 4.
its own video series which will take deep dives into the projects and experiments we have going on here.
>> Yeah.
>> When you're emailing us about, you know, with pictures of your setups, you know, just throw something in the subject like, you know, my green water setup or >> water at home.
>> We want, you know, use this in your video, guys, or whatever. And if you've got other ideas of experiments, you can always throw that out. Um we have I mean we got so many in the pipeline but um you know there's always room for oh yeah that'd be a great idea or you know 10 people said we need to do this let's do this.
>> Let's try it. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> So anything else >> on that topic?
>> I think that's it. Send in your picture.
Maybe if you want your name mentioned like a little handle or what name you want mentioned. Our our assumption is if you're, you know, emailing us for video content, we can, you know, we're going to probably say your name. So, if you don't want us to, let us know.
>> Let us know that. Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Number three.
>> Number three.
No.
>> Uh, no local pickups. So, on and off through this whole journey of starting this business and growing this business, I have had local pickups available and then not available. and I've talked about how we're going to make it available in x number of weeks or we're going to figure that out.
>> And to be honest, it has not worked out like I thought it would. And we simply, the way our business is set up and designed, it's, you know, we don't have a counter. We don't have I mean my dad has a Volkswagen car parts counter where he has customers coming in but it's I don't know how the best way to say this other than to just be totally transparent like this is not like the our business design and how we operate is not set up for people to come in and browse and and just look around right >> at all. But even the whole like you order something and then you're going to come swing by at a certain time to pick it up, then you're here. Like unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know. I think part of our success is our low staff.
>> Um >> because that allows us to keep moving and and making money. uh is we're not paying someone to sit and kind of man the front counter with customers coming in and looking around or customers calling and setting up pickup times.
Then we even run it out like >> um it's a pretty tight schedule and there's no downtime. Like we don't even have like an hour lunch type of deal. We just kind of uh my parents literally live next door and we'll run over make something quick and run dash or you know they'll bring some food out or we just snack around briefly. We're not >> it's just not like that. It's more like, okay, if you've got >> uh 20 extra minutes here or there, like you've got to be doing a certain task and there's a thousand things every week that don't get done that need done usually, >> right? Well, and when it's shipping day, it's like all hands are on deck to get our orders out and that kind of thing.
So, there's not really like that extra time. And then as soon as you're done with shipping, it's like, let's bust into maintenance. Let's clean up our mess. and the whole shipping process and the process of filling bags and putting cultures together and orders. Nothing is sitting on the shelf ready to go because it's live and perishable. So on a random Thursday when we might have time because we're not shipping um well we're doing other things so we don't have time but to get all this stuff out and hook up everything to then start making orders to throw together two bag of bugs to you know someone coming to pick up >> it's just not it's just not feasible right now. But >> that's the negative side of it or the bad news. The good news is what we are building is towards a future where that is possible. Yes, >> because we want to kind of make this place, the whole property. You know, we've got the shop. My parents house is next door. There's a chunk of land.
There's uh, you know, my brother's got a chunk of land next door. And so, there's all this potential future of a destination. you know, someplace where we could in the future, you know, do club meetings or a workshop or um, you know, be in a place where we have someone on staff that kind of manages different things and they can also manage people coming in and picking up products. So, that is very much on the horizon. But when in the past when I've talked about, >> yeah, you know, we're going to get back from vacation and we're going to figure out how to do these local pickups. Well, we never figured it out because it really doesn't fit what we have going on now because if it did, we would just do it. If if there was an easy, >> you know, we're not lazy. All we do is work, right?
>> So, it's it's not like >> Yeah.
>> You know, and I hate turning people away. So, long story short, >> if you um because there are several customers that I've talked to several times through emails and they're like, "Hey man, we're you know, you said you were doing the local pickup thing. Did that ever happen?" and I'd say, "Yeah, I need let me blahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah blah blah figure it out next."
>> And I just did not. And I'm sorry for that. And instead of like continuing that >> like thing on, I'm sorry for now. It's just not >> it's not >> it's just not happening. So, um, apologies.
>> Number four, >> our final topic.
We wanted to say, um, a huge thank you to NanoTank Labs. Yes.
>> Uh the young man's name is Chris.
>> Chris from Nanotank Labs. Thank you so much.
>> Yes. He sent us an extremely awesome video that he had uploaded on YouTube um featuring our bag of bugs.
>> Yes. And um we've had some email correspondence back and forth, but I didn't even know he was really doing this. I guess he had mentioned it.
And you know, sometimes over the years, again, a lot of people have reached out wanting to get involved. We've had people make videos before >> and um people reaching out wanting us to do little writeups in magazines. All kinds of stuff has happened and really it's not that I'm neglecting that on purpose. Yeah.
>> It's just that again things get a little crazy and I've got kind of my own dream and you know vision of where we're going. So a lot of times that kind of stuff just falls to the wayside. Um, but he had shot us an email with the link and I checked it out and I was just really impressed and I'd say check out Nanotank Labs. Um, honestly I've not seen much of his content other than that. I just I I just saw the >> he's got some videos and >> I just saw the video he had sent us like the other day. So I just hadn't spent a lot of time checking everything out yet.
>> But I would say Chris, thanks. I really appreciate it. Like it was a well done video. It really shows you like what a bag of bugs looks like right now because over the years they've gone through a couple different iterations.
>> And um a leafy bugs or a bag of leaves is going to be the same just minus the horn wart and a few different things with the leaves. But our living leaf cultures, what this video represents is what one of our living leaf cultures would represent.
>> Yeah.
>> So check that out. Um, we're going to link the video in the description.
>> Uhhuh.
>> Uh, and again, thanks Chris. I really appreciate it. So, >> thank you.
>> Um, anyone else in the future, if you make a video or something showcasing one of our products or you want to work with us on something, email us and maybe we can work something out.
>> That would be great.
Very cool. All right.
>> All right, guys. Thank you so much for watching. Check out philipsfishworks.com.
There you can learn more about what we do.
>> Yes, you can shop our products section.
>> Shop our products. Submit a question to the Benthic Bulletin.
>> If you've got uh any pictures or other emails, you could even submit >> your greenwater pictures to the Benthic Bulletin. There's a place where you can like download pictures right there or you could email us at info@ phipsfishworks.com.
>> Yeah, we're excited, guys.
>> Yep.
>> Yay.
>> Bye. See you next time.
>> Bye.
Wake up. Today's going to be [music] a good day. Wake up. Today's going to be a good day.
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