The Benthic Bulletin Submissions - Aquatic Creatures in Self Sustaining Tank - The Friday 4 Ep. 23

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Okay, so this is the Friday >> into the future and there are some good questions.

[00:00:06]>> Very good questions. Phillips Fish Works the Friday 4 episode 23 >> 23 >> last week um two came out >> or this week or I don't know how to say that. Anyways, this is going to be one of those like super jam-packed.

[00:00:23]>> Uh we're going to go over some benthic bulletin submissions. A lot of good questions in there. We're going to go over some YouTube comments. There was a lot of good questions in there. There was >> uh and we also have um >> we have four topics that we're going over that Tony is completely [laughter] putting out of order >> even though we put them in order.

[00:00:42]>> Let me tell you what all the topics are.

[00:00:44]So then we can tell you what all the topics are.

[00:00:49]>> I don't like the duckweed.

[00:00:51]>> Well, somehow it's getting into every single container we have.

[00:00:55]>> Number one, Cara. Is it Friday yet?

[00:00:57]Friday 4.

[00:01:00]>> Okay. Hey, one thing [laughter] before we get started. Is everyone enjoying those chapter things that you can like click on and navigate through the video?

[00:01:10]>> What a luxury.

[00:01:12]>> Yeah, >> what a luxury.

[00:01:15]>> Yeah, those are not automatically generated. Even though that is a feature on YouTube, they didn't want to generate it where I wanted them to generate it.

[00:01:22]So, I got to do them myself. Which means after we do all the editing and everything den and I got to watch it one more time.

[00:01:30]>> Well, you're doing a great job. We love the uh >> we love the timestamps, the chapters.

[00:01:36]>> Chapters. Yeah.

[00:01:37]>> Yeah. Number one.

[00:01:38]>> Great. Number one, Benthic bulletin submissions.

[00:01:42]>> Lots of good questions.

[00:01:44]>> Lots of questions from the deep >> and uh some familiar names.

[00:01:49]>> Some very familiar >> and some new ones. Yes. Number two, >> uh, best creatures for self- sustaining ecosystems.

[00:01:56]>> Ooh, the, uh, super sought after >> last week.

[00:02:00]>> Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, yes, this is a followup on a follow-up.

[00:02:05]Number three, >> yes, uh, we're going to dive into some YouTube comments.

[00:02:09]>> Yes, good, great, great questions there.

[00:02:11]>> Great question.

[00:02:12]>> And number four, >> David Betta, how's he doing? We're going to update you.

[00:02:16]>> Yes. How's David doing? and more more I mean the he as a fish is doing wonderful.

[00:02:23]>> He gets fed live fish food like every day.

[00:02:24]>> He does.

[00:02:26]>> Aside from that, I'm really wanting to show you the tank that little 10gon tank we put together. Give you an update on that and the algae situation that we were working on in there.

[00:02:35]>> Yes.

[00:02:36]>> We'll start with number four when it's time. Tony, right now it's time for number one. And number one is the benthic bulletin submissions.

[00:02:45]>> You want me to read or you want to read?

[00:02:46]I would love for you to take it away.

[00:02:48]>> Oh, [laughter] no. I thought you were going to read this. All right. This is from uh the dirt diggler again.

[00:02:54]>> Our bff.

[00:02:56]>> Yeah.

[00:02:57]>> The old dirt jiggler.

[00:03:02]>> Hey guys, I'm still so glad we grabbed a couple of leafy bug packs and the vinegar eel kit.

[00:03:07]>> Us too.

[00:03:08]>> The eels are always dirty dancing.

[00:03:10]>> They are.

[00:03:11]>> There's a ton of emojis in here that you guys can't see. Almost every other sentence has an emoji in it, which I love. I think some don't really uh do the emoji thing, but I like it. Um, >> Tonyy's a sucker for an emoji.

[00:03:24]>> And the leafy bugs keep me from doing grown-up things around the house. I can't recommend your products enough to anyone out there. Amateur tip to anyone contemplating building a tank for creature packs found at phipsfishworks.com.

[00:03:39]Thanks for the plug.

[00:03:42]Uh, the tip is [laughter] to use a black background so it's easier to see the little creatures. Critters is actually what you said.

[00:03:51]>> Yes, that's a good idea.

[00:03:52]>> Good idea. Have you had much experience using the soil capped with sand method?

[00:03:57]I guess I was hoping you could talk about the best substrates, soils to use, and maybe what to stay away from while setting up a self- sustaining tank housing only your creature packs. Also, if you found more success keeping the creatures in different substrate like lava, rock, pebbles, etc., do you think it's a dumb idea to grind up some algae wafers in a coffee grinder to maybe boost population?

[00:04:25]Okay, there's one more paragraph after this which we will do after, but I'm going to dive into this here. [laughter] >> Okay, cuz I I was laughing because the last paragraph is kind of silly, >> right? That's why I want to save it for the end.

[00:04:37]>> Yes. save the best thing for last, >> right? So, uh, one reason I wanted to read this is because this little middle section about the substrates.

[00:04:46]Yes, I have done a ton of soil and capped sand experiments from onegon jars, lots of 10gon tanks. Uh, my very first one was a 20 high. Uh, 55 75gallon tanks. I've done sand. uh all the way up to these 50gallon Rubbermaid commercial uh >> which you cannot see but we are surrounded by [laughter] >> the agricultural feeding troughs that I use uh for all of our things now mostly I've done a lot of dirted versions of those. So what have I learned quite a bit?

[00:05:29]Okay. So, the most important thing, especially as you shrink down to like a gallon jar, 10 gallon tank, 5 gallon tank, you want that soil layer, the general rule of thumb on a lot of tanks is like an inch of soil, 2 in of sand.

[00:05:44]But if you're in a jar or a 10 gallon tank, I do much less than an inch. I might do like a what I would call a spotty/ inch. So, if you got your 10gon tank and you're putting some soil down, I would not make it a solid 1 in layer across the whole bottom front to back.

[00:06:00]You could get away with that maybe if it was a very neutral soil or there wasn't a lot of nutrients in it. Uh, yeah, I think that would work. But generally, we're using things like worm castings in there or some kind of other nutrients in there, some kind of natural fertilizer even. I mean, there's a lot of concoctions online or recipes to go off of.

[00:06:26]>> Things to stay away from would be one, a very thick layer, >> okay?

[00:06:30]>> Two, adding lots of fertilizer into that layer. My very first venture with the soil uh and sand on top, I made seven tanks or so. I added tons of natural fertilizers like um it was like composted chicken manure, blood meal, um osmmaoteat, which was not a natural fertilizer. It was just like the fertilizer pellets in there. I loaded this dirt layer up with so much nutrients that the ammonia in that water was skyhigh for months. And I don't know, I guess it eventually would have come down. I ended up restarting because I had so much trouble just right off the rip. And I I was too impatient to let it simmer down. Maybe it would have in a you know 6 months or a year and I think I even told this very story maybe even the last time or it was like maybe an episode or two ago.

[00:07:23]So I have done a lot of it but really overdoing the nutrients in that soil.

[00:07:28]You can't beat maybe some stuff right out of your backyard >> and as long as you're not treating your backyard with a lot of chemicals. I would not collect dirt from like an area where like automotive like a lot of cars are parked. You know, back in the day, I'm hoping people don't do this anymore, but I just hear stories from my dad and you know, his father, they would have some old gasoline or something they didn't need or some oil from the car and they would just dump it in the backyard somewhere. So, if there's an area like that, don't collect from those areas.

[00:08:00]>> Mhm.

[00:08:01]uh go out maybe in the woods, get a nice spot, clear away some of the leaf litter, and get you some good soil there. That I think would be a really good uh there are some companies out there that sell like additives to the soil. Maybe very worth trying. I I don't have a lot of experience with that, but that's definitely something you can take a look at into. And again, there's tons of recipes online of things you can add to the soil, like um people are adding like calcium carbonate. They're adding uh baking all kinds of crazy stuff that I again I don't have a lot of experience with because I was more like I'm gonna set it up and just go. Like I didn't want to necessarily try to measure out a bunch of stuff. Iron oxides, clays, uh Epson salt. I mean there's a just a whole lot of stuff. But um if you wanted to add a couple things, maybe like just a little bit of worm castings would be pretty um >> uh might be safe or or some mild mild compost, something that's been sitting around a long a long time. You want to avoid adding something like fresh manure that's a very hot hot uh composting ingredient or that's going to release a ton of nutrients. And again, that may not be bad, but long term, the amount of stuff that's leeching out of the soil can be a bad thing. Uh, you could use I've used in the past lots of different potting mixes that were pre-made, like uh, Miracle Grow Organic that was like in this black bag. I've used non-organic potting soils and I'd say with very mixed results. I generally felt like after a point that my gut was telling me there's lots of stuff leeching out of the soil over time gets up through the sand cap and that was giving me some high nutrient problems. In fact, I've got a tower of tubs. It's >> I think about 500 gallons total of water. It's a um 50 gallon tubs or so.

[00:10:00]Uh the bottom one might be 100 gallon and then some 50-gallon tubs on top of that. And they were all dirted in sand.

[00:10:07]And I have a lot of issues in this one particular tower with a lot of uh cyanobacteria. And I was equating that to like a high nutrients in the water.

[00:10:18]And this particular tower gets a fair amount of water changes. And I'm not sure where that high nutrients was coming from other than maybe leeching out of the soil over time. So, that is a potential issue with the soil uh capped with sand. But, please do not take this as don't try it. I think there are some huge benefits to having that soil under the sand. Mainly, if you're planting like jungle vow or some of these actually go down into the substrate, they're able to get to that soil. I think they very uh benefit crips, jungle vow, uh Amazon swords, uh even uh things like hornwart and guppy grass, which you're thinking of our water column feeders, they do benefit because I think that nutrients really does and there's a lot of different elements. It's not just um you know, when I'm saying like there's lots of nutrients in the water, well, in your soil, it's you know, that that's kind of a general term, but there's a plethora of micronutrients. uh all kinds of different minerals and things in the water that the plants can benefit from that might be missing from your fertilizer you're feeding your plants. So, I think there's some definite benefit to having that soil under there. Just avoid lots of fertilizer. If you're getting a pre-made potting mix and the potting mix is like feed your feed your plants for 2 years straight, you know, that's probably because there's a ton of fertilizer.

[00:11:43]Maybe it's slow release and some of those synthetic fertilizers may, you know, I I don't know what all they're made of. You know, maybe some of them are heavy metal based, maybe copper based, and that maybe could create some issues with your crustations later.

[00:11:57]Again, I don't know. Another thing, um, this David Betta's tank actually is a, uh, that you're going to see later on, it is a dirted, uh, tank. So, it's got a little soil in the bottom and then some sand. And what I use for the dirt in this particular and this is my first experiment with this um I use the soil that was created in a terrestrial isopod culture. So we also have the land isopods we sell on our website. Uh if you have a shoe box of those and you're feeding them lots of leaf litter and little twix twix sticks and twigs or twix if you've got um that leaf litter, they can over you know several months, 6 months or so make a pretty thick layer of soil and it's you could call it soil and that's what I used for his tank.

[00:12:48]>> So I've used the soil from the isopods, potting mixes, stuff from my own backyard. I've added stuff to it. This day and age, I don't tend to add anything to it at all. Maybe I would add a little bit of that when I would say that isopod bedding is kind of a very nutrientdense soil. So, again, just a little bit in the bottom.

[00:13:11]So, I don't know. I feel like that's pretty well sums that up.

[00:13:14]>> Um, just go easy is all I can say. Go for it, though. Experiment with it. uh other substrates, lava, rock, pebbles, like instead of the sand, I would say if you're putting soil on the bottom, you're going to want sand on top of that. As far as on top of the sand, things like lava rock or pebbles, awesome, awesome idea that provides lots of surface area, especially that lava rock. Um it really provides a lot of nooks and crannies for those micro creatures to live.

[00:13:45]>> Mhm. Do you think it's a dumb idea to grind up some algae wafers in a coffee grinder to maybe boost population? No, I think that's a great idea. Any kind of uh pellet what?

[00:13:56]>> Nothing. I just think of all the weird stuff that you've, you know, grind up in our various like smoothie machines and all this kind of stuff. I mean, just, you know, maybe double check with the wife.

[00:14:08]>> I always wash out the grinder, right? Or the smoothie machine.

[00:14:12]>> I'm just I'm just giving you a hard time.

[00:14:14]>> No, I think that's funny. made me laugh a little bit.

[00:14:16]>> Um, I had a an old pepper grinder that I could unscrew and put like um she had an old pepper grinder that I stole and I put >> uh fish pellets and I would grind them up and crack in >> grind it over like uh when I would feed the little baby fish uh the little guppies sometimes.

[00:14:37]>> That's a really easy way. So, grinding things up. Yeah, I think that's a great idea because it allows [laughter] it if let's say you've got an algae wafer and you you have a tank and the tank doesn't need a 100 algae wafers in there because that will be way too much, but you want to disperse that algae wafer, not just be one little. You have a tank with lots of little creatures in it. You throw an algae wafer in the bottom. Yes, those creatures will come to that algae wafer, but it's a lot of times a little pile of snails or a pile of shrimp and it's not as accessible to everything in the tank. So, if you were to grind that wafer up and sprinkle it in the tank, it would, you know, kind of rain down like snow.

[00:15:21]>> Mhm.

[00:15:22]>> That is probably a better way. And I tend to like to grind up or if I'm feeding um >> it's like this dried seaweed stuff we have. It's like sheets of dried green seaweed. I will put it in the tank and like, you know, >> right, >> squish it, you know, swish it around in the water to really disperse it in the water. So, >> grinder would be a good idea, though.

[00:15:44]>> Yeah.

[00:15:45]>> Little pepper grinder.

[00:15:46]>> Pepper grinder. Pepper grinder. Coffee grinder. Yeah, grind that stuff up. Um, you know, I wouldn't grind up too much of it way ahead because you've got this little pellet um or this algae wafer and exposure to air does break down some of the vitamins and nutrients in there. So, it's like >> um if that is in a pellet, the outer pellet, if you grind it up into powder, it's just a lot more surface area for oxygen to start to oxidize some of those minerals and things or the the vitamins and whatnot. So, you know, you you don't want to grind up a bunch way ahead, >> right?

[00:16:25]>> If that makes sense.

[00:16:26]>> Yeah, totally makes sense.

[00:16:27]>> Yeah, that will help boost the population. Don't overdo it, though. Not a dumb idea. Great idea. Don't overdo it.

[00:16:33]>> Yes.

[00:16:34]>> All right. Here's the funny part.

[00:16:36]>> Uh and you'll have to go back and uh listen to some of the past ones where we've talked to Mr. Der Jiggler for a lot of this.

[00:16:45]>> Bulletin talked about Yeah, he talked about skating. Anyway, >> skating to the library.

[00:16:51]>> Yeah, by the way, please don't get the wrong impression of me. I do have a car.

[00:16:55]I only I've only been roller skating around town because I took the tires off my 84 Fiero and set it in the backyard hoping raccoons would bring me some live fish food. I'll try this tip from Tony about these things. Uh the only problem is I think they are all too busy having fun and enjoying the great weather. and I truly hope you all do the same. Thanks you guys. So, a throwback to a This is a reference to two old Benthic bulletins.

[00:17:25]>> Back behind our shop, this is a the building I work out of is my dad's shop, Larry's Off-Road Center, >> which leads into the next [laughter] >> the next email, but we won't go too far.

[00:17:37]>> Yeah. Um >> the next vent. Sorry.

[00:17:40]>> No, right here. You're right. Um, behind the shop there were some old tires stacked up and there's some water in these tires. And one day when I was looking at them, because I was trying to eliminate mosquito larvae everywhere off the property, >> yes, >> there are seed shrimp in the water in those tires.

[00:17:59]>> There are.

[00:18:00]>> And last time we talked about them, it was winter and I went to go like try to get a little video of it and it was all frozen in there. So, none to be. Well, sure enough, spring comes, spring thaws, uh the sea shrimp are right back. So, those sea shrimp, even though the environment became totally frozen solid, um they have their ways and they're able to continue on next spring. So, there's a lot of creatures like Daphnneia, seed shrimp, many other creatures that are able to live in these ephemeral bodies of water. So, it's not always wet. And at different times in the summer, those tires are bone dry. So there's no water in them at all. And as soon as the water comes back, spring is here. The sea shrimp are back.

[00:18:46]>> And the raccoons >> and the raccoons originally. How do how how do you get seed shrimp into a body of water that was new in one of these original? We had this bucket in the backyard >> and it filled up with water from like runoff from this roof and all of a sudden there were these like big sea shrimp swimming around in it.

[00:19:04]>> Yeah. And we talked about how we thought maybe the raccoons got some on their paws >> on their paws and they were touching them in the >> they were in a stream and they got some sea shrimp on their paws and then they carried it around and was >> messing around in this bucket and the sea shrimp got in there. How else or a bird could have come off of a bird.

[00:19:23]>> But uh in the video we talk about raccoon >> ostricod fairy.

[00:19:27]>> Ostraod fairy who flies around and looks for a little water and goes >> just goes Look at me. I'm going to just sprinkle some goodness over here on this old tire.

[00:19:41]>> So, yes. 84 Fiero. I don't even know what that is.

[00:19:45]>> I don't know what that is. When you said Fiero, I thought of wicked.

[00:19:48]>> Right. So, I'll look that up. [laughter] We are enjoying the summer. The heat is here. I just kicked the air on cuz it was almost 80° in the fish room.

[00:19:57]>> Yeah.

[00:19:58]>> But hey, that's good.

[00:19:59]>> That is great.

[00:20:00]>> All right.

[00:20:01]>> All right. Our next >> Thank you so much. Yes, thank you so much, Dirt Digler. Love to hear from you again. All right, next we've got a submission from Tubby. Hey, I had a quick question. How come when I buy something on your website, it is build as Larry's Off-Road Center Incorporated?

[00:20:19]Is there something we should know?

[00:20:22]>> Yes. Um, and I have talked about this a couple times.

[00:20:24]>> There's still more, but we will dive into this part of >> I've talked about this a couple times.

[00:20:28]the I believe it's only when you purchase and pay with PayPal. So yes, um we are a subdivision of Larry's Off-Road. Larry's Off-Road Center is the parent company.

[00:20:40]And when you pay with a credit card, it would should say uh Philips Fish Works, but if you pay with PayPal, it's going to come up under Layers Off-Road Center because that is our parent company. Yes.

[00:20:51]>> And as of now, we cannot change that through PayPal.

[00:20:54]>> Right.

[00:20:55]>> Right.

[00:20:56]>> Maybe I can figure out a way. I don't know. But >> I don't know.

[00:20:59]>> So, that's what that's all about.

[00:21:00]>> All right. Also, in my community aquarium, I see these tiny jumping insect like creatures that stay exclusively on the surface of my water.

[00:21:10]Keep in mind, I have dwarf water lettuce. So, maybe these like to hide in between the surface vegetation. Could you speak more on this if you're knowledgeable on these tiny creatures jumping on the surface?

[00:21:25]>> Springtails. They are springtails. They have this little tiny springy mechanism underneath of them. And that's one way they can move around. They can crawl.

[00:21:34]And they also, they go springing. They release this little springy lever guy.

[00:21:40]>> It's like a spring on their tail. So that's why they call in their step.

[00:21:43]>> Pep in their step. And there's thousands and thousands of species all over the world. They inhabit um a lot of different soil environments. They're in your house a lot of times around drains.

[00:21:57]It's pretty common for people to have springtails on their drains sometimes.

[00:22:00]>> Learn something new.

[00:22:01]>> And there's different ones inhabit different environments. So there are many many different species of springtails that inhabit like your on top of fish tanks. So especially if you have any kind of vegetation, floating vegetation, duckweed, the water lettuce, you're going to have springtails if you buy them. That's very, very common.

[00:22:21]They're not a problem at all. They do stay on the surface. They don't, you know, they they don't breathe underwater. They have to be on that surface, bounce around on top of the surface water. They don't go under the water. Some fish will eat them. That's not uncommon. But yeah, they are no problem at all. Don't worry about them all. They do not they will not leave the aquarium and go inhabit other areas of your house. They they they need that high high humidity and moisture. They can't live in your carpet. They cannot live in your house like that. Um, there are different springtails that will inhabit drains and things and typically these won't, you know, these are very kind of specifically geared towards living in this aquatic environment with these floating plants. So, it's not something that's going to infest your house. Go in your backyard, dig around in some soil and dirt, any kind of like leaf litter or mulch or something like that. Moist areas flip flip over a rock and you will see all kinds of springy little things. So there are just again and they will be different than the ones on your thing if you really get in close and look at them. So um we definitely have them around here in different tanks and things. Again, they're they like those plants. Yeah.

[00:23:31]>> So springtails, look them up. They are very fascinating creatures. There's many different species like I've said 100 times here.

[00:23:38]>> Uh different ones will be in your aquarium versus dirt soil.

[00:23:42]>> Perfect.

[00:23:43]>> Yeah. Thank you so much, >> hubby. That was a good one. All right.

[00:23:47]Next we've got Jamie. Are there any other freshwater shrimp species you plan to work with aside from the neocaradina?

[00:23:55]I feel like more species could benefit from being bred for resilience in this hobby.

[00:24:02]>> Yes. Malawa. Malo shrimp. Malawa. Am I saying that right?

[00:24:06]>> I have no idea.

[00:24:07]>> Not a mono.

[00:24:07]>> I am your shrimp expert.

[00:24:10]>> So there are there are >> I'm allergic to shrimp.

[00:24:13]>> Yeah, me too. Uh yeah. Uh, that stinks.

[00:24:18]>> I mean, it doesn't like I feel like it would be a weird It's fine. Never mind.

[00:24:25]We're going We're going off topic. Back to the shrimp.

[00:24:28]>> Yes.

[00:24:29]>> In the tank.

[00:24:29]>> I want to I want to acquire a big group of Malawa shrimp. So, if you have Malawa Malawa shrimp out there, >> we want you.

[00:24:37]>> We want your Malawa shrimp.

[00:24:39]>> So, >> what's a Malawa shrimp?

[00:24:41]>> It's just a little freshwater shrimp.

[00:24:43]They're not a neocaradina shrimp.

[00:24:46]>> They do not have a huge variety of colors in the hobby. They are drastically underrated.

[00:24:52]>> Um, you know, the brightly colored neocarina and some other >> these Malawa shrimp, I want to learn more about them. I want to acquire some and I think they would be they're just a super hearty little, you know, they're not too big. I think they're about an inch long and they're very hearty and I really like the look of them. They've got some kind of little patterning on them. They're clearish, but they've got some dark patterning turning >> on them. Yeah.

[00:25:19]>> And uh they just do a super good job at uh cleaning up debris, taking care of the tank, doing that kind of stuff. And those are my unsung heroes.

[00:25:28]>> Um so I really really think Malawa is the next shrimp I want to acquire uh to do. And again, you know, they're already pretty resilient and hearty from my understanding. So, uh, but again, if you if you're getting into shrimp and the shrimp are cold to create certain, you know, they're line bred. The idea is as you line breed something, you're removing certain genetic traits, usually based upon color, but as you do that, you're breeding out >> uh other traits that maybe help with survivability. So, when they say I feel like more species could benefit from being bred for resilience in this hobby, that's my whole thing. Um, my neocaradina shrimp, I used to call them hearty cherry shrimp. Now I just call them hearty shrimp, I believe. Hardy neo shrimp. I don't know what they're saying on the website right now, but I took out cherry because I'm really trying to just kind of go away from that line bread uh color specific. I'm more I'm trying to get back to wild type. Are they there yet? Well, they're getting there finally.

[00:26:36]>> Not yet.

[00:26:37]>> Thank you so much, Jamie. I really appreciate the question. Look for that in the future, >> but not in the [laughter] >> Put a pin in it.

[00:26:45]>> Not like anytime soon future. Like they'll be like, "Hey, you said a month ago you were going to get Molly shrimp.

[00:26:50]Where are they at?

[00:26:51]>> Put it on your vision board, >> right? I mean, you know, you're talking getting some and to, you know, if I like I need a bunch, not just 12. If I get 12 and start with 12, you know, >> it's going to take us forever, >> right? Because people will want a bunch, you know, people want 12 from me and if I start with 12 >> and a month later I have >> start with nothing.

[00:27:14]>> Yeah. I don't know. Anyways, thank you.

[00:27:18]>> Thank you, Jamie.

[00:27:19]>> Go on. No name.

[00:27:20]>> No name.

[00:27:21]>> What does no name have to say? Which creatures do you find without a substrate? Looking for options for a bare bottom 10 plus gallon tank.

[00:27:31]>> Okay, >> tell us about it. [laughter] Um, when you say bare bottom, do you mean like there's nothing else in the tank or do you mean bare bottom like you'd have some baskets of gravel or some crushed coral or something or some plants somehow or you know how bare bottom we talking? If you just mean >> like some snail like I'm looking over here like >> these are Well, these are not bare bottom. These are bare bottom. Isn't that one's kind of There's just some snails.

[00:28:06]>> Actually, that is a bear bottom tank.

[00:28:07]So, to the left and right of me and Cara are some very bare bottom enclosures.

[00:28:15]>> And I am growing uh aquatic isopods, >> neocaradina shrimp, daphnneia, rams horn snails, kudum moina, >> but I'm also bare bottom in the sense that I don't have a substrate, but I do have some leaf litter in there. I do have some baskets of twigs. I do have some baskets of crushed coral in there. So, the bottom >> then with a tank smoothie.

[00:28:39]>> Yeah, we'll put some tank smoothie in there.

[00:28:42]>> Nice plug. It's catching on.

[00:28:43]>> You're welcome. You're welcome.

[00:28:46]>> And in the system itself, there's a 100gallon tub on the bottom that has a couple inches, maybe three or 4 inches of sand in it.

[00:28:53]>> And then the two tubs above it, they're 50-gallon tubs. Those are bare bottom.

[00:29:00]But again, that it's not totally bare.

[00:29:02]So, anything really does fine, but if there's nothing in there at all, no habitat, like if it's literally just an empty tank, you're going to struggle with uh lack of surface area and raising populations.

[00:29:18]So, I would recommend having some little baskets of something in there. If you just want to keep it bare bottom so you can suck all the crap out, you know, [clears throat] have some little baskets that you can remove, clean it up, then put them back in. That [snorts] makes sense.

[00:29:30]>> Yes. What about like um [clears throat] so we took David Betta out of his enclosure and put him in a little glass little thing for a brief period of time.

[00:29:41]I mean technically they could have like a beta in there and then just >> you know feed them.

[00:29:49]>> Yeah. Yeah, that could work. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:52]I mean I'm I'm not sure what direction like I see which which creatures do fine without a substrate. Like what's your goal? like what are you trying to accomplish? What uh are you trying to like mass grow a specific thing to be a feeder animal? Sometimes, you know, our moina cultures are bare bottom and the only thing in that 20 long is a little basket of crushed coral.

[00:30:15]>> Mhm.

[00:30:17]>> Which that's going to come up later too in the YouTube comments.

[00:30:21]>> So, >> okay.

[00:30:23]>> Uh I have some more questions about that. So, if you want to chime back in and send another submission to the Bit Think Bulletin, Mr. or Mrs. Noame, with some more details about what you're trying to accomplish, that'll help me maybe answer that better, but I think you get what I'm getting at.

[00:30:38]>> Picking up what you're putting down, >> right? And similarly to no name, this next one, anonymously, I mean, the name is similar.

[00:30:47]>> Anonymously.

[00:30:48]>> Yeah. Uh, it seems like a lot of people culture moina or daphnneia outside in large barrels or tubs. How would you make sure nothing gets in that would change the culture? Things like a mosquito bara.

[00:31:00]>> That's the challenge. That's why we're inside.

[00:31:04]>> Uh, and when we go out to the greenhouse in the future, like when we make the greenhouse, not go out today, we would want to keep that pretty secure because these are indoor cultures. And the reason they're advertised as indoor cultures that's opposed to outdoor cultures because in outdoor Daphnneia cultures you do run into in fact one time long long ago when we first got the Daphnneia thing going and I had almost totally run out. I had ordered some Daphnneia off this guy off eBay guy or gal. [snorts] Um, and uh, it showed up completely dead, which is fine. But within that dead Daphnia culture, there were also dead mosquito larvae, uh, dead dragonfly larvae.

[00:31:47]>> NY, >> the little nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, and there was something else. There was a few snails, which I didn't mind the snails. Um, and some cool worms. I don't know what the exactly the worms were.

[00:31:58]>> That sounds disgusting, >> but it just was a lot of stuff. So, so if you have an outdoor body of water, you're guaranteed at some point mosquitoes are going to find it. At some point, dragonflies, they're going to find it. Like, that's their goal in life is to cruise around and find bodies of water to reproduce it.

[00:32:15]>> Plus a myriad of other things, >> like a raccoon.

[00:32:18]>> Raccoons will be dipping their paws in there.

[00:32:21]>> Uh, so you probably end up with seed shrimp and stuff, which isn't even bad.

[00:32:24]>> I mean, who even knows?

[00:32:26]>> So, my only recommendation is that has to be covered.

[00:32:28]>> Yeah. And it has to be covered with a very fine mesh of some kind. Maybe like some real fine screen, something that a mosquito can't get into. That's how you prevent. That's the only way to prevent it. I wouldn't recommend I can't say I wouldn't recommend this based off of experience because I don't have experience with this. There are some like those like mosquito dunk tablets. Okay.

[00:32:58]>> It's like a thing. Uh, and I have had other very reputable YouTube people recommend in like outdoor shrimp things. You could put these little like I think they're called mosquito dunks. Okay.

[00:33:11]>> And I just don't know a lot about it.

[00:33:13]Supposedly, it's a bacteria strain that prevents the mosquito larvae from maturing or or something like that. I I don't know all the details there. I've just something's always repelled me away from a product you put in that only somehow affects the mosquito larvae.

[00:33:30]I don't know. I just I thought maybe well somehow that's got to affect some of these other little micro creatures.

[00:33:35]Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I've wanted to put some of those little uh mosquito little tablets in some of the outdoor bodies of water that I can get rid of around here just to get rid of the mosquito larva that you know, we're not collecting anything from those though.

[00:33:49]>> No. Uh, but yeah, mosquito larva can be an issue in these. I would always recommend some kind of like real like mosquito netting, something pretty big.

[00:33:58]You could put some weights on it so when you put it over the thing, it's kind of held tight against the container. We're actually going to probably put some uh we got some of these IBC totes. We're going to put some outside and I don't think we're going to have a secured location yet for quite a while. So, I thought maybe I'd get some mosquito netting, some real flexible netting that I can then put a bunch of weights around the edge and the weights don't go all the way to the ground, so they're suspended there pulling that net really tight among the surface because it it is an issue. And um you will have those pest organisms and pest larvae in there, which again uh if you're feeding fish with your scuds or what? Oh, Daphnneia, >> sorry. Yeah, if you're feeding fish, the the the mosquito larvae are it's good food for the fish. Uh but you know, there'd be reasons you wouldn't necessarily want that in your napia culture. So, some kind of net's about the only way. Or maybe look into those mosquito dunk tablets. I just haven't done enough research to be comfortable with them, but they may be a great product, >> right?

[00:35:09]>> Yeah.

[00:35:10]>> Yeah, that was great. Benthic bulletin done. And there were a few other um benthic bulletin submissions uh that we did not read that I want to maybe in the future, maybe on the next go around.

[00:35:19]They were a little more involved and I just um you know didn't want to overdo it today. So >> correct.

[00:35:25]>> Yeah.

[00:35:26]>> Correct. Number two.

[00:35:28]>> Yes.

[00:35:29]>> Best creatures for self- sustaining ecosystem.

[00:35:33]>> This is a followup, isn't it?

[00:35:35]>> It is. Yes. What about what are we following up >> about Daphnneia and sustaining the ecosystem?

[00:35:46]>> Okay, that [laughter] was >> so flee.

[00:35:50]>> Yes, this is a followup >> whatever you just said.

[00:35:53]>> This is a followup uh to an email we had about uh and it was in last week where we talked about >> actually Wednesday. [laughter] >> It's fine. last Friday uh last >> last Friday 4 we released on Wednesday.

[00:36:07]It's fine.

[00:36:08]>> The question was, you know, can we have Daphnneia self- sustaining in a tank with fish? And no, you can't.

[00:36:16]>> You cannot >> because those fish are going to eat those Daphnneia and the Daphnneia don't really hide very well around.

[00:36:25]>> Yeah. The way they feed in the open water column. [laughter] You just went like exhausted.

[00:36:32]>> And they're It's like they're always flapping their little wings. They're not wings.

[00:36:37]>> They're just zooming around.

[00:36:38]>> Yeah. I mean, they never stop.

[00:36:40]>> We're looking at some right now.

[00:36:41]>> They got to be tired, man. Rest on. Take a rest on the bottom. Sometimes you see them on the bottom like twitching like this.

[00:36:47]>> Just chill, bro. It's fine. Okay, >> sis. They're all girls.

[00:36:54]>> Just chill, sis.

[00:36:55]>> Yeah, most. All right. So, the question >> a followup then to my answer to that >> followup. Yes. Um, Miss Brandy had was, "Would Scuds or anything else give me the ability to having a self- sustaining ecosystem?"

[00:37:10]>> Yes. And this is a a little bit of a deeper question than just are scuds.

[00:37:16]This is not a yes or no. I mean, it could be yes or no, but it's not.

[00:37:19]Actually, it's not maybe. Let's talk about one thing and then we're going to jump right back and and then we'll wrap it up. I want to try not to make this one of those like 20 minute answers to one little question.

[00:37:30]>> Okay.

[00:37:31]>> What is a self-sustaining ecosystem?

[00:37:34]>> Mhm.

[00:37:35]>> When we look at [clears throat] a pond, there are vast benthic zones. The benthic Hey, we were just talking about the benthic bulletin. But the benthic zone where lots of the little creatures are that we love is very deep.

[00:37:51]The benthic zone starts, you know, you're going down in the water. when you touch the the surface of the substrate.

[00:37:58]>> Mhm.

[00:37:59]>> That's the start of the benthic zone and that goes down pretty deep. So that benthic zone is very deep and the fish are up here in the water column and they can root around in there. But there's some depth to that benthic zone. And that deep benthic zone with lots of layers and lots going on creates uh a lot of habitat to grow a huge amount of little tiny organisms that feed the smaller fish which then feed the larger fish.

[00:38:28]>> [clears throat] >> So when you shrink down that whole concept into like an aquarium whether that's a onegon jar or a 100gallon tank they think well I'm not working out of a jar or a 10 gallon tank I've got a 100gallon tank surely I can create some kind of self sustaining ecosystem so I don't have to feed my fish or rarely have to feed my fish and I don't know if that's your goal >> uh but maybe it is so can I use scuds or what other creature can live in this aquarium in abundance, find uh enough food and resource to breed and populate.

[00:39:06]So then the fish can cruise along and eat up the babies or eat up some of these creatures.

[00:39:11]>> Uh they can and other creatures possibly can. But really, long story short, >> fourth time I've said this. Long story short, we've cut a lot out of this.

[00:39:23]>> This is a really long story. We've cut it short a couple times.

[00:39:27]Long story short, can you please >> The habitat has to be extremely dense to be able to grow lots of creatures to feed your fish. So, uh, if you make a really dense habitat, you really aren't going to be able to feed large fish of any number. It's just not realistic. If you got a couple of tiny little fish in this super big tank, you probably could grow enough creatures in that tank on their own to sustain those fish.

[00:39:57]>> Now, if you got a couple little guppies and then over the course of time, you've got 20, 30 guppies and a 20-gon tank, that tank probably isn't going to be able to grow enough creatures to sustain those guppies very long. Those fish all day long while you're not looking at your tank are just covering every square inch of that tank looking for food because that's their nature and that's what they do. So you need lots of leaf litter, lots of little rocks, lots of nooks and crannies, tons of dense plants. Then you might be able to generate enough little micro creatures to create a self- sustaining ecosystem with fish. But my question would be self-sustaining what? Like are there fish you're really trying to sustain?

[00:40:39]You could have a little uh 10-gon creature tank that you're putting some leaf litter in and it's generating food and creating all this little habitat and lots of little creatures are growing. Uh maybe there's some shrimp in there.

[00:40:54]>> Is that what you're talking about sustaining? You put a fish in there or a couple fish in there, it's game over.

[00:40:59]So, David Betta, which we're going to look at momentarily, you know, as many scuds that were in his tank when I put in those thousands of scuds, he's not I mean, we still feed him live fish.

[00:41:12]>> We still feed him live fish food all the time.

[00:41:16]>> So, there is not a self-sustaining ecosystem going on in there. And you can see how dense this habitat is.

[00:41:22]>> Yeah.

[00:41:22]>> So, I don't know what your goals are with the self-sustaining ecosystem. So, maybe that would help me understand this a little bit better. But realistically, um, if your goal is to not feed fish, it's just really hard to get that self- sustaining ecosystem going. You have to have lots of dense habitat. Scuds, uh, yes, scuds are better than the mo and Daphnneia. If you've got fish in the tank, scuds work awesome. Um, the things that come with like, uh, the things that are in the bag of bugs, like the little seed shrimp or little copapods, those are little teeny tinies. You know, you get those established. There's lots of little microorganisms that come along with those leaf cultures that can benefit and help create that self- sustaining ecosystem. Uh and and I think scuds are very much part of that. So yes, scuds can play that role and the other creatures will play that role.

[00:42:13]Cherry shrimp or the neocarodina shrimp, the aquatic ice bods, they can fit that role too. It's just, you know, what are your expectations for the tank to produce uh to feed what is the question.

[00:42:26]So, >> hope that helps. Uh >> yeah, hope that helps.

[00:42:33]>> Number three.

[00:42:34]>> Number three, we've got YouTube comments.

[00:42:36]>> YouTube comments. Love it.

[00:42:37]>> I used to love to watch it was like a late night show where they like had the like artists read when people like were talking trash about them. I think that would be funny to do sometime, you know, just >> read the comments where people are trashing me. Yeah, that >> you would only have like one.

[00:42:56]>> No, there's >> especially >> there's plenty of people that are not happy with Tony.

[00:43:01]>> Well, there are plenty of people that love you.

[00:43:04]>> Send us the love all the time. All right, first person we have is William Avery 1758.

[00:43:14]I don't have a problem with scuds eating my Java moss or hornwart. Plus, the last critter pack I got my shrimp and they're having babies and the scuds haven't touched them at all. Um, I also put three electric blue aara fry in the tank. They're only 3 weeks old. I feed them baby brine shrimp every day. That little 10gon aquarium is thriving with life. Sounds like it. I feed them all microauna.

[00:43:45]Sorry. I feed all the microauna. Your tank smoothie, Tony. I put one piece in there.

[00:43:51]>> Another tank smoothie plug.

[00:43:53]>> I didn't I didn't even uh know that was coming. I'm right there with you, Mr. Avery. All right, let me get back to Okay, another great Friday 4. I look forward to watching them every week.

[00:44:04]I've learned so much from this channel.

[00:44:06]Tony and the misses have the best live stream on YouTube in my opinion. Boom.

[00:44:11]Thanks. Thank you.

[00:44:12]>> I appreciate that.

[00:44:14]>> Got so excited I smacked my microphone.

[00:44:17]>> Thank you so much. Uh this is a longtime customer. I recognize this name.

[00:44:21]>> We love it.

[00:44:22]>> And uh the little profile picture for sure. So thanks for Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for being pro Scud and for for telling the people they don't touch your shrimp or your >> Well, and over the years he's uh over the years uh he's sent me, you know, some little clips or pictures of a setup and he's got a lot of little tubs and things >> and um he's always been someone that's uh >> been uh very positive and talked very positively about what we're doing and I really appreciate that.

[00:44:52]>> Uh electric blue, those are such gorgeous. So, as they get a little bigger, send us some pictures. But I would love to show everyone what you've got going on.

[00:45:00]>> But um >> there was something I want to comment on this. So yeah, I don't have a problem with Scuds eating the Java moss and hornwart.

[00:45:07]>> Again, that's just one of those things.

[00:45:10]Um it's got to be in the right, you know, perfect storm situation, but there are lots of people out there. We've sent out literally thousands and thousands and thousands of Scuds at this point. Um thousands of orders of thousands of Scuds. So, like I just um yeah, there can be some issues if you get into this uh kind of wrong situation, but we've covered that so many so many so many times that I don't want to jump into that there cuz we are on a time crunch and we got to keep moving. But William Avery, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:45:40]>> Yes. All right. 1758 >> is uh at Lake Missoula Aquatics and Plants. Great information. They said uh I've been keeping Moina but haven't used crushed coral. My TDS is about 178.

[00:45:52]Should I add crush coral?

[00:45:54]>> Definitely. I think you should. Um, [clears throat] and this is a response to the last Friday for where we were showing the the Moa cultures.

[00:46:05]>> These are tying back.

[00:46:07]>> It's like I can see it sitting there when when that thing came up.

[00:46:09]>> That's wild.

[00:46:10]>> Uh, TDS 178. Uh, yeah, that could be a lot higher and and not be a problem. One thing I want to mention is TDS, total dissolved solids. that is measuring all kinds of things that are dissolved into the water. So, if your salt's really high, if your magnesium's really high, if your calcium's really high, if uh your nitrates are really high, let's say you dumped a bunch of who knows what into the tank and that got, you know, that can raise that TDS. So, the TDS number itself, while yes, it can be a very useful tool, uh especially if you're measuring TDS over long periods of time and you see a big spike, that can uh trigger you to go, "Huh, what did that?" But, uh, a TDS is not specifically measuring like water hardness in relation to specific mineralization, specific minerals in the water. Um, but if your TDS is very low, then you know your water's not hard. So, it can be an indicator of water hardness for sure. Just wanted to throw that out there. I always like to add a little crush coral because you've got green water, lots of green water in there, or if you're feeding something else, that's fine, too. Uh, but you also have lots of cycles of creatures that are growing and then they die and then they're decaying in that decomposition process. Um, the uh I'm pointing at the mo right now. uh the green water breaking down all of that breakdown process is lowering the hardness in the water. So having some crushed coral in there rule of thumb would be like a pound per 10 gallons. Uh you could also if you wanted it a little more like let's say you had a 20- gallallon tank um and you didn't want it super hard water, you could do like a pound for 20 gallons or something and so on. So that's just a rough rule of thumb. Crushed coral works great. You could actually use coral chunks. Uh so yeah, uh could be coarse, could be fine, could be chunks of of coral. Uh one caution before we move on is if you go to like a a pet store that's selling old like live rock or something and it's uh big chunks of coral that came out of saltwater aquariums. Something to think could possibly happen would be if this was a big chunk of coral that came out of a saltwater aquarium and it was a fish tank. Uh it was not like a it wasn't like a reef tank and it was just like saltwater fish in it only. And that saltwater tank was treated with lots of um like uh some of these different fish treatments for illness are copper base and that copper could have could be in or whatever other medications could be in that porous live rock and you take that live rock that was being sold to you. Maybe it's dried out, you know, and again, this is just kind of being paranoid, but let's say you've got that crush or that big chunk of coral, you're putting it into your tank now. Chemicals could leech out of that if it came from some old saltwater aquarium that had chemicals in it. That may be hyper paranoid, but I got into a little rabbit hole once where I was using a lot of big coral chunks that I had acquired from all kind all over the place. And at one point, I was having some issues and I went down that rabbit hole. Maybe there's some copper or some kind of like copper based medication leaking out of this live rock that could be uh again paranoia or maybe looking too far into something. But it's just I try >> on to something.

[00:49:33]>> I try to really dive down and investigate. Um so that's why I like using like new crushed coral organite sand out of a bag is I don't have to maybe worry about those contaminations.

[00:49:44]Not that there could not be contaminations from the original source.

[00:49:47]I don't know. I mean, who knows? Hey, you got to at some point just move on and do it.

[00:49:51]>> Yeah, that was a good idea.

[00:49:52]>> Good idea. Put a little crush coral in there. It doesn't need to be a ton, but I would definitely recommend it.

[00:49:57]>> Yes. All right. Wendyh said, "I hope you're still monitoring comments here. I've just set up a 1.8galon nano aquarium just for some riverside swimmer scuds that hitched a ride home on some rocks I collected. Uh they've all gone into hiding in the roots of the plants or under the mossy limestone I added. I can only see one or two uh if I agitate the plants when I'm trying to clean out some of the dead vegetation and they are all very small.

[00:50:29]The adult-sized ones didn't survive. I need to add something else to clean up the detritus. I'm not sure I want to bother them with a snail and risk of having a million snails. Should I add shrimp? Uh, I'm thinking if the side swimmers ever get going in the tank that I might need to add fish. I don't want to end up needing additional tanks or having to try to give away excess animals if the tank becomes overpop populated.

[00:50:58]>> Cool. Uh, yeah, there are a variety of Scuds out there. Uh, side swimmers is another name for a Scud.

[00:51:05]>> Um, I have not >> ever I have hardly ever heard anyone say that. This is the first time I've ever heard someone actually refer to them as side swimmers in the wild. You know what I mean? Like >> in the wild.

[00:51:16]>> You know, I usually hear side swimmers when you get like that generic Scud video of someone who's like, "We're going to make a video about Scuds because >> we got to keep making videos and I had a Scud take once." Uh, and the common names are side swimmer blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Mhm.

[00:51:34]>> Anyways, uh yeah, it's common to get hitchhiker scuds. Um they may or may not adapt well to your environment. It is very common that uh when you introduce any creatures into a new environment, like if they're from the wild, that the adult ones uh don't adapt very well and they usually die out pretty quick. I need to add something else as a cleanup crew for the dritus. I mean, shrimp shrimp work good, you know.

[00:52:03]Uh I I think snails might even be better. I know you're afraid of millions of snails, and you should be afraid of millions of snails if you're feeding a lot of food. Okay?

[00:52:13]>> So, if you're putting a ton of food in there all the time, those snails are going to breed like crazy. Um even if there's not a ton of food in there, when you first introduce snails into a snailless environment, there typically is a lot of bofilm, especially if there's not a ton of other creatures in there. There will be a ton of excess excessive food. Snails be introduced into a new environment. The snails immediately start reproducing like crazy. You have this huge bloom of snails. And just because you see a hundred little baby snails does not mean you're going to have a 100 adult snails because the environment will only grow as many snails as it can support. And if the food supply is not growing with this growing population, the population can't keep growing. So what you'll find is the babies will blow up in population. Tons of babies, they're cruising around, eating up all this stuff. All of a sudden, the food goes down in supply because you're not adding a ton of food in, unless you are. And then um the babies can't survive and a bunch of the babies die off and you'll have just a few survive. So the snail population depending on the type of snail also but rams horn snails, bladder snails, the common snails like that they do not they cannot sustain large populations unless they have a large food source. Now sometimes we don't understand what that food source is. So if there's a lot of leaf litter in there, we may get a little bloom um and not know that they are going to eat on that leaf litter.

[00:53:46]Also, they're probably eating the little microscopic organisms that they're like lawnmowers, man. Uh, this whole delicious bed of microscopic goop will form slime on the leaf litter and it's eating in the life litter. The leaf litter is breaking down. Those snails just they mow that down. They love it.

[00:54:06]>> Okay, >> so, um, cherry shrimp could work possibly or like some kind of shrimp could also dig through that and be a good cleanup crew. Um, so yeah, I think I think uh any of that would be great. Um, I wouldn't worry about millions of snails unless you're going to give them millions of snails worth of food. Thank you so much for all those comments. There were a million more. We didn't get to all the ones we wanted to >> and uh please comment. We hardly respond to comments. Shame on us.

[00:54:39]>> But uh we do read all of them.

[00:54:40]>> We do. And I really appreciate there's some regulars that have regularly commented over and over again and occasionally I try to say hey thanks uh but I don't near enough uh but we see them and we appreciate them and we love them and it probably helps out the video in mysterious YouTube ways.

[00:54:59]>> Number four.

[00:55:01]>> Number four. We are going to update you on our BFF David.

[00:55:05]>> David Betta. He's doing great. Uh getting lots of live fish food. Mainly what I wanted to look at was the aquarium itself. You know, we did that little experiment where we took David out for a week or two and put like literally a couple thousand scuds in there >> to clean up all this hair algae or filamentous algae that was absolutely everywhere. They made very short work of that. I think we left them. Was it a week? Only a week? Maybe it was two weeks.

[00:55:30]>> I think it was two at the most. But anyways, they they the bulk of the hair algae was cleaned up in like 3 4 days.

[00:55:36]>> It was wild. Uh go back and look at those if you want to.

[00:55:39]>> Yeah.

[00:55:40]>> Um but long story short, >> long story short, [laughter] >> uh you know, it's been how long since that? Several weeks. Um a month or so.

[00:55:52]>> We're ready to do an update.

[00:55:54]>> You know, there's not a ton of filaments algae everywhere. So, you know, they knocked it back and it does take a while to really grow back. The scuds won't get it all. And uh for as many scuds as we put in there, >> he made some he really knocked their population back. He did.

[00:56:09]>> The plants are growing like crazy. The jungle vows like crazy. So, let's just take a look instead of me describing it all then describing it all again while showing you. Let's just go take a field trip.

[00:56:19]>> Whoa. We're going to spin this time instead of like here.

[00:56:21]>> Jesus. Do we have room?

[00:56:23]>> No.

[00:56:25][laughter] >> Let's try it together one more time.

[00:56:30]>> All right. There's David back there.

[00:56:36]He's doing great. He does have a couple of tank mates. Well, the snails and whatnot and the shrimp he's destroyed in the skies. There's this little male guppy. I don't even remember why I threw him in there. Uh I don't know if they like each other or not. They don't spend a lot of time hanging out. But yeah, the tank is doing great. You can see the little dusting of filamentous algae on the rocks has not really grown back in any significant amount.

[00:57:04]Uh, a little bit of debris, some empty snail shells. The seed pods are decaying nicely. There's some acorn caps.

[00:57:13]Couple of old alder cones right there.

[00:57:15]Some less old alder cones.

[00:57:19]Oh, there he is. Let's get him a minute.

[00:57:23]Oh, big guy. Yeah, I think he's doing great. I think he's loving the live fish food. That's all he ever gets. No pellets and nothing wrong with some pellets. But, you know, I think that live fish food is just great on him.

[00:57:37]Another thing I wanted to show you is this jungle vow. Remember when I planted that big uh jungle vow in the middle and I said, "Man, I don't know why I do this." Well, look. It is just traveled and spoon spoon spoon popping up everywhere, you know, and that thing like I don't know. I'm trying to get the back shot here, but we've got jungle valon here. We've got guppy grass. We've got that uh star duckweed which is out here in front. And then um regular some duckweed on top. That's duckweed on top is looking a little rough.

[00:58:11]Uh that over there is looking a little better, but this stuff's kind of breaking up and dying out.

[00:58:18]Got some snails. I think in here is mostly bladder snails. There are a few rams hoarding as well, but there it is.

[00:58:23]He's doing good. But there you can see that little runner jumping over from the one piece of jungle valve to the other.

[00:58:35]So over here, you know, there is a little more uh maybe over here by the filter. Uh you see where those rams horn snails are. This is probably the worst of the filaments algae kind of in this section. So it's been many months at this point. Um and you know, I figured it would come back a lot faster and it just really hasn't.

[00:59:16]But yeah, you don't see any scuds cruising around in here because they're all hiding. Like hiding hiding. David is a crazy hunter. If you were to dig around in the gravel, you could find something, I'm sure. But there were so many scuds in here. So many Scuds in here. And the fact that you can't see a one is just remarkable. Uh, one that their hiding abilities to avoid the predators. And two, David's hunting skills to keep them suppressed. If this was a guppy tank, you could probably see more Scuds. But the fact that uh it's got a beta in there, he's just a a monster when it comes to consuming the little micro creatures and uh things like scuds and and whatnot. And he loves it. Look at him. He's looking right now.

[01:00:06]So, a neat thing about it is if you've got a little jungle tank like this or a little rubble tank and you've got a beta or some other fish in there, you will see them rooting around looking for the live food. uh more so than if they're just used to eating pellets all day every day.

[01:00:26]So, but yeah, the algae is uh taking its time and not coming back super fast, which I love. And you've got a nice little some debris here, but it's not too much. It's not unsightly in my opinion. This little debris on the bottom is adequate habitat for all kinds of little creatures that do matter and do help this tank thrive overall. And people want to hate on snails so much. I don't feel like this tank is overpop populated with snails. Yeah, there's a fair amount of snails in here, but look, I don't do anything to this tank. I don't do any maintenance as far as I wish I didn't have so much glare right now, but I've never ever ever scraped algae off of this glass. I simply feed David more like fish food. I've never vacuumed up the debris. Now, where I have the leaf litter and the seed pods, there is some debris down there. But I don't vacuum it up. I don't do anything.

[01:01:21]I I I haven't even really water changed this at all. I've simply topped it off when evaporation when it's, you know, I could use a little bit more, I guess, but when that gets down a little bit, I'll add some water. Otherwise, this is it. So, this is a very very Oh.

[01:01:42]Oh, [laughter] there was a a gnat on the outside. I thought, is that a scud swimming? So, it's a little more yellow than I personally like. Nothing wrong with it at all. There's a bunch of plants. It's kind of a jungle mess. That's how I like it. I like this jungle vow coming up. I like all the rocks uh and leaf litter and debris. But again, what do I do to this tank? I just feed David. I just feed him. I haven't. You could every once in a while take this sponge out and squeeze the gunk out of it. I haven't even done that. I haven't really even done any water changes. Although, you could every once in a while. The only reason I do lots of water changes on my big systems is because I'm feeding those big systems a lot of food because I need a big output because, you know, they're production systems because I'm trying to grow creatures to, you know, make make a living. So, this is more like your at home aquarium where, you know, I'm not pumping tons of food. And here I feed David a lot of live food. But feeding live food is different than feeding lots of pellets. Lots of pellets. There's things in those pellets that build up in the system. Um, you know, kind of a a waste or filler material. There's also, you know, even if it's a high quality pellet, a lot of times that's very concentrated and people are overfeeding them.

[01:03:01]So, hope you like this little update.

[01:03:03]Let's jump back and we will continue on.

[01:03:07]>> Man, what an exciting update that was.

[01:03:10]>> What a field trip. What a field trip.

[01:03:12]>> What a field trip that was. I'm sure you all are like, "Oh, that is ridiculous."

[01:03:18]>> David's good. As you can see, >> thank you so much >> for another stimulating episode of The Friday Four. Cara, my lovely host. Oh, >> where do they need to go to learn more about us?

[01:03:32]>> phipsfishworks.com.

[01:03:33]>> phipsfishworks.com. There's information.

[01:03:36]There's things you can get. If you're interested in what we are doing here and you want some of these little creepy crawies yourself, go on and check them out. We ship out Monday through Wednesday. And everything comes in an insulated, eco-friendly insulated box with uh this time of year ice pack. In the winter, it's heat packs.

[01:03:54]>> Yeah.

[01:03:54]>> So, >> thank you so much. Thank you so much.

[01:03:58]See you next week.

[01:04:00]>> Bye >> bye.

[01:04:01]>> Up [music] to be a [singing] good day.

[01:04:04]Wake up.

[01:04:08]It's >> that cookies I was talking about earlier.

[01:04:11]>> Yeah, that I'm sure you promptly went in and ate when I was not here.

[01:04:14]>> No, I was the cook the cookies from this morning. Not the cookies from this afternoon. And I didn't eat any this afternoon because I finished the chips ahoy from this morning. Oh, >> that story about the chipso in the creamer was from this [laughter]