Nailed it again guys, thanks and keep up the great work. My glass boxes probably saved my life after losing my partne to cancer in March 22. We went from a busy and happy household with my Mrs, her daughter and dog, to just me living on my own after 6 months (rehomed dog due to work, step daughter moved in with her fella). I got a little 2ft tank from my brother, and 2 years later I have 2 4ft tanks and 3 slightly smaller tanks, and dabbling with breeding some of them. Have to put the brakes on tank buying for now, unless a sweet deal comes up on a 6ft or more tank comes up.
The real aquarium cicle: 1. You are stressed 2. You set a tank 3. You go buy fish 4. You dont quarantine your fish and get infected by multitank sindrome And them... 5. You became stressed
I find myself not deliberately with having multiple tanks. Start with one size not realizing that it was the wrong size and had to buy a bigger tank. Then 3 cories turned into 28 leading to upsizing the tank again. I find myself with 5 tanks, 2 empty and me saying to myself ‘I can use that for something’. Maintenance is my zen time. I schedule the time in my calendar but don’t touch my tanks if I’m stressed, pressed for time, or distracted
One thing I wish I understood early on that really helped me is that getting fish in the tank is not the beginning OR end goal of the aquarium. It doesn't start or stop with buying fish, at least for me. It's an ongoing process that needs to be tended, and with care it will be so rewarding.
Man, it's like you're speaking right at me. That's almost exactly what happened to Myles. He did smoke, so he wasn't the Greek God your partner was, but he was in pretty good shape and nearly a decade younger than your partner at 24 years old. He came in from the backe porch, went to the fridge to grab something, and dropped right there in the kitchen. His sister was right there, and started CPR right away, paramedics arrived and got his heart started a couple different times, but in the end, some undiagnosed heart glitch took my kid without so much as a single 💩 given. And yep, the "what could I have done different" questions IMMEDIATELY started to assault the inner workings of my mind.
I have 2 tanks and I’m setting up my third tank. I am really into nano tanks and nano fish and shrimp. I love aquarium plants and I love trying out new ones! Monday is my tank maintenance day and I listen to the podcast while I do it!
Not knowing why your fish died is hard on many levels because A, yeah, it sucks. But B, how do you know it isn't going to keep killing fish if you don't know the "why" of it?
Howdy John and Jason! Great podcast as usual! If anyone is ever unwilling to help watch your tanks while you’re away, offer them a plate of delicious char siu pork and roast duck. That is an offer most will not refuse, especially since a lot of your tanks are planted or have high nitrate uptake abilities (waldstad, uncle ka kakemoji method, gaspari valdalicci method) I have used this method twice in the past. Go to a good Chinese place and pick up a plate of half roast pork and half roast duck, with fried rice. Give it to someone you trust in trade for watching your tanks while you’re away Worked both times Goodluck! -WatermelonJiki 🍉
I just put a 180 gallon in my living room above my basement on an exterior wall. I reinforced the floor underneath from the basement and added a column right under it 🤷🏻♂️. Should be good lol
Currently I keep 6 fish tanks, all low-tech and with different level of maintenance needed. 714 l (189 gal), 160 l (40 gal) being the biggest, most demanding on maintenance. I keep several small and nano tanks set with easy maintenance in mind (one is wet paludarium, other has easy plants only, 12gallon with pothos growing into another room...). Thing is I spend about 1 hour a week on average doing maintenance: Usually it's removing floating plants, cutting stems and cleaning sponge pre-filters on the large tank, removing the hair algae popping in the 160l (40gal)... which should be done about once a week. Sometimes filter gets clogged and big filter takes about half an hour to clean, sometimes a water change is needed. I kept fish since childhood, with almost a pause during university... then nano-tanks and high-tech planted tanks became popular, so I tried my hand in nanos with injected CO_2. No injections at this time, but I may set some Iwagumi one day again or have a rock scape with African cichlids instead. Sometimes I want to try different things, but balance it all out. My large fish tank is a bit of compromise: I had an idea of a large tank, but there were different factors. Actually I wanted that tank being able to fit into an elevator, so it's 2 cm (0.8 inch) shorter than standard in length. Just last Sunday I had to stick some root tabs with my fingers, which would be hard with deeper tanks. Of course I was checking beforehand if my floor can handle the load (and spread the weight as much as I can, putting the stand in the best spot load-wise). Maybe I will have a house with a pool, a pond and a monster-size fish tank in the basement, but unless the tank has a maintenance of a flower pot, 3 - 5 is my limit.
Started planning my second box of water just the other day. 10 gal, dwarf sag carpet, cholla and mopani wood, Christmas moss, blue dream neocaridina colony, and eventually some nano fish.
Getting the random mean one is something that hits pretty accurately for me right now. I have a large group of clown loaches and one of the large females killed some of the smaller ones I recently tried adding to the group. I kept finding them dead with a big gash on one side. It took forever to figure it out until I saw her hit one of the smaller new guys with one of her spines. It left the exact same make I had found on the others and ultimately killed that one as well.
Been in the hobby 5 minutes and my guppies have forced me to set up a plastic tote fish tank. 3 females turned into over 50 fry. I guess I will look on helplessly while it turns into a real community tank.
I have one tank and I’ve been in the hobby for about 5 years now. I did want everything at the beginning but I never actually got more tanks. I’m still super happy with my one and will probably never get more than 2 tanks.
When I bought mind two. Got then on market on Facebook. 200.00 each. And aqua clear 110. And others filters and light. And heaters ,and river gravel, dec
Not mention fish are starting to get expensive .Sometimes you can get fish cheap but that,s when some retailer has a fish closeout or when the store is closing out.🦈🦈🦈
I spend maybe 5 - 15 minutes a week on my 2 5 gallons which depends on if I'm doing a water change. And that's mostly pulling a little hair algae and excess Floaters
Not only do fish die but occasionally you have to be the one to make that decision. I had a mystery illness in my medaka colony that caused them to one by one, over a year’s time to develop dropsy. It would eventually affect their swim bladder, leaving them unable to keep upright. Obviously it’s the right decision to put the fish out of its misery when it is alive but floating belly up so that decision wasn’t all that difficult, having to be the one to actually preform the act of putting them down when needed was something I definitely wasn’t prepared for though. Luckily clove oil makes it painless for the fish, but it’s still not easy to intentionally kill something.
I love the content in this episode. Having 11 tanks I violated my lease but my landlord was sympathetic to the cause as a pet owner and we maintained our agreement. Jon _ I don't think you're right about golfers. They started lifting weights. And if you follow Trumps diatribes Arnold Palmer was in immaculate conditions back in the day. Probably too easy to buy a tank but that is true of any animal - terrestrial pets tend to invade your space more when their needs arent met.
How do you describe “set and forget”… I spend 6 to 8 months to get the tank settled in then it is pretty much done. Yes you do your basic maintenance, clean glass, clean filter etc but its not hard to do…and it does not take long and I do have plenty of tanks ….MTS………😂 As to your point as to landlords, I’ve always answered the question as to what I do do outside of work with, “fish, cats, and motorcycles”…. Clears the air..
Set It and FORGET It? I have a terrible time leaving mine alone. It's not just that I want more fish/inverts for me ... I want to buy goodies for them ... LIVE foods, different foods, spawning mops, hiding caves ... the urge to spend, never ends.
Number 10 could be there is no one type of person that keeps fish. When I go to buy things from people on Marketplace I'm always pleased to meet all different types of people. Everyone knows those stereotypical "dog people" or "cat people" but all different kinds of people keep fish for lots of different reasons, and I love that.
47:42 This was an interestion perspective. The question is, where do we draw the line? Of course you aren't going to go and kill a dog or a cat on purpose, but it is widely accepted that culling fishes when breeding is fine. Also, what about bugs? We easily and willingly kill them when they're animals too.
I don't know if this is bad, but i don't see fish in the same light as cats or dogs, but more like ants... I care enough to want to give them the best life and care possible, but when one dies i feel no loss, only a curiosity as to what killed it.... Of course i'm only dealing with guppies, tetras, shrimp, a dwarf frog and bettas right now, but still it's weird...
Shrimp are awesome. There’s a species for every water type.Soft? Caradina, Neutral to mid 7s? Neocaridina. Liquid rock? sulawesi. (Obviously do your due diligence and research) Get about 6-10 in a nicely planted tank, feed em good food and they will do exponential shrimp math. Always buzzing around and cleaning stuff.
Do you guys have a topic coming out on Fertilizers and how much is too much..? I really would be interested in that topic and maybe talk about the different brands and how well each one works... 😏👍
I always my met fish keeping hobby to something that I could always be in control of .I would like to go up to five tanks someday. But l,ll just to be happy with just one for now.🐸🐸🐸🐬🐬
I know that not everyone that keeps fish is going to go to the depths of research and effort that a lot of the people that are going to be watching this are, but just from a moral standpoint I can’t understand how people will let the condition of their aquariums go to shit. The fish don’t have any choice in being kept in your glass box, same way as your dog or your cat didn’t have any choice in being taken into your home. The least you can do is give them a good life.
I’ll admit. I have lied about having fish tanks for 14 years. We will be buying our first home in California soon, shocking right, they only cost 100 million a piece 🤣 but as long as you are smart, respectful I think it’s fine to omit if it’s not in the lease. And you’d be surprised how many don’t specifically say no aquariums. Second floor first apartment. Stick to 10 gallons or 20 gallons. Old home, if you’re not a PhD yourself like me, have a structural engineer or a friend advise you on how much weight it can hold, always go perpendicular to your floor supports. Maybe keep it to max mini grand piano weight and yes. Always have at least $25k in renters insurance. Maybe it’s cause I’m a California and we can say it’s for mental wellness and it’s therefore illegal to ban Pets with a doctors note.
Fish are not decorations, they are not pets…..they are members of your family. Or they are here…some of my plecs with live longer than me…I’m 52, some of my plecs are only 5-10yrs.
Cares fish will eventually come out - the main issue is it’s mostly goodieds, that are brown and tan so most people don’t want to keep them. The others are Lake Victorian cichlids and have amazing color, but are very aggressive so people don’t want to keep them either.
Yeah, bought a 5 dollar angel a few months ago, five hundred in new tank so far. Been in hobby since 1980. Fell for it again. Think I have 19 or so now, tanks a lot.
Nailed it again guys, thanks and keep up the great work.
My glass boxes probably saved my life after losing my partne to cancer in March 22. We went from a busy and happy household with my Mrs, her daughter and dog, to just me living on my own after 6 months (rehomed dog due to work, step daughter moved in with her fella). I got a little 2ft tank from my brother, and 2 years later I have 2 4ft tanks and 3 slightly smaller tanks, and dabbling with breeding some of them. Have to put the brakes on tank buying for now, unless a sweet deal comes up on a 6ft or more tank comes up.
The real aquarium cicle:
1. You are stressed
2. You set a tank
3. You go buy fish
4. You dont quarantine your fish and get infected by multitank sindrome
And them...
5. You became stressed
Haha that's literally the cycle
I find myself not deliberately with having multiple tanks. Start with one size not realizing that it was the wrong size and had to buy a bigger tank. Then 3 cories turned into 28 leading to upsizing the tank again. I find myself with 5 tanks, 2 empty and me saying to myself ‘I can use that for something’. Maintenance is my zen time. I schedule the time in my calendar but don’t touch my tanks if I’m stressed, pressed for time, or distracted
One thing I wish I understood early on that really helped me is that getting fish in the tank is not the beginning OR end goal of the aquarium. It doesn't start or stop with buying fish, at least for me. It's an ongoing process that needs to be tended, and with care it will be so rewarding.
Yes! This hobby is therapeutic ❤ it’s no different than gardening, there’s just more water. I always tell people they’re my zen gardens.
Man, it's like you're speaking right at me. That's almost exactly what happened to Myles. He did smoke, so he wasn't the Greek God your partner was, but he was in pretty good shape and nearly a decade younger than your partner at 24 years old. He came in from the backe porch, went to the fridge to grab something, and dropped right there in the kitchen. His sister was right there, and started CPR right away, paramedics arrived and got his heart started a couple different times, but in the end, some undiagnosed heart glitch took my kid without so much as a single 💩 given. And yep, the "what could I have done different" questions IMMEDIATELY started to assault the inner workings of my mind.
I have 2 tanks and I’m setting up my third tank. I am really into nano tanks and nano fish and shrimp. I love aquarium plants and I love trying out new ones! Monday is my tank maintenance day and I listen to the podcast while I do it!
Not knowing why your fish died is hard on many levels because A, yeah, it sucks. But B, how do you know it isn't going to keep killing fish if you don't know the "why" of it?
Howdy John and Jason! Great podcast as usual!
If anyone is ever unwilling to help watch your tanks while you’re away, offer them a plate of delicious char siu pork and roast duck.
That is an offer most will not refuse, especially since a lot of your tanks are planted or have high nitrate uptake abilities (waldstad, uncle ka kakemoji method, gaspari valdalicci method)
I have used this method twice in the past.
Go to a good Chinese place and pick up a plate of half roast pork and half roast duck, with fried rice.
Give it to someone you trust in trade for watching your tanks while you’re away
Worked both times
Goodluck!
-WatermelonJiki 🍉
I want my fish to be part of my life, not as a support hobby, but I understand how it very well can be, and bless those who it saves a life.
I love watching your channel. I have 19 tanks in my fish room. It takes about one hour a day to keep them running.
😂 you got it
You guys can never talk enough. I love watching your videos. ❤
Thank you!
Fishkeeping helped me keep santy during the Pandemic.🙀🙀
6 tanks is my limit. Of course I have 7 now.
Yes, that's correct. The only thing stopping me from having 10+ aquariums is the crawl space that my floors are built on.
I just put a 180 gallon in my living room above my basement on an exterior wall. I reinforced the floor underneath from the basement and added a column right under it 🤷🏻♂️. Should be good lol
Love this podcast reminds me of gardening and homesteading as fars as keeping you out of trouble and addicting
So true! 😀
Currently I keep 6 fish tanks, all low-tech and with different level of maintenance needed. 714 l (189 gal), 160 l (40 gal) being the biggest, most demanding on maintenance. I keep several small and nano tanks set with easy maintenance in mind (one is wet paludarium, other has easy plants only, 12gallon with pothos growing into another room...). Thing is I spend about 1 hour a week on average doing maintenance: Usually it's removing floating plants, cutting stems and cleaning sponge pre-filters on the large tank, removing the hair algae popping in the 160l (40gal)... which should be done about once a week. Sometimes filter gets clogged and big filter takes about half an hour to clean, sometimes a water change is needed.
I kept fish since childhood, with almost a pause during university... then nano-tanks and high-tech planted tanks became popular, so I tried my hand in nanos with injected CO_2. No injections at this time, but I may set some Iwagumi one day again or have a rock scape with African cichlids instead. Sometimes I want to try different things, but balance it all out. My large fish tank is a bit of compromise: I had an idea of a large tank, but there were different factors. Actually I wanted that tank being able to fit into an elevator, so it's 2 cm (0.8 inch) shorter than standard in length. Just last Sunday I had to stick some root tabs with my fingers, which would be hard with deeper tanks. Of course I was checking beforehand if my floor can handle the load (and spread the weight as much as I can, putting the stand in the best spot load-wise).
Maybe I will have a house with a pool, a pond and a monster-size fish tank in the basement, but unless the tank has a maintenance of a flower pot, 3 - 5 is my limit.
John l love the fact that you share your personal experience with the rest of the World.People like me learn alot if things from you and Jason.😝😝😝😝👺
Love watching you guys!!! Thank you for the weekly education / entertainment.
Started planning my second box of water just the other day. 10 gal, dwarf sag carpet, cholla and mopani wood, Christmas moss, blue dream neocaridina colony, and eventually some nano fish.
This community is real❤
Getting the random mean one is something that hits pretty accurately for me right now. I have a large group of clown loaches and one of the large females killed some of the smaller ones I recently tried adding to the group. I kept finding them dead with a big gash on one side. It took forever to figure it out until I saw her hit one of the smaller new guys with one of her spines. It left the exact same make I had found on the others and ultimately killed that one as well.
Always enjoy listening to your podcasts much good advice.
Yes I would say if you like it enough you will have success at it eventually. And if you have success at it you will like it. 😊
Been in the hobby 5 minutes and my guppies have forced me to set up a plastic tote fish tank. 3 females turned into over 50 fry. I guess I will look on helplessly while it turns into a real community tank.
I have one tank and I’ve been in the hobby for about 5 years now. I did want everything at the beginning but I never actually got more tanks. I’m still super happy with my one and will probably never get more than 2 tanks.
When I bought mind two. Got then on market on Facebook. 200.00 each. And aqua clear 110. And others filters and light. And heaters ,and river gravel, dec
We all need this live stream❤
Not mention fish are starting to get expensive .Sometimes you can get fish cheap but that,s when some retailer has a fish closeout or when the store is closing out.🦈🦈🦈
I spend maybe 5 - 15 minutes a week on my 2 5 gallons which depends on if I'm doing a water change. And that's mostly pulling a little hair algae and excess Floaters
Not only do fish die but occasionally you have to be the one to make that decision. I had a mystery illness in my medaka colony that caused them to one by one, over a year’s time to develop dropsy. It would eventually affect their swim bladder, leaving them unable to keep upright. Obviously it’s the right decision to put the fish out of its misery when it is alive but floating belly up so that decision wasn’t all that difficult, having to be the one to actually preform the act of putting them down when needed was something I definitely wasn’t prepared for though. Luckily clove oil makes it painless for the fish, but it’s still not easy to intentionally kill something.
I love the content in this episode. Having 11 tanks I violated my lease but my landlord was sympathetic to the cause as a pet owner and we maintained our agreement. Jon _ I don't think you're right about golfers. They started lifting weights. And if you follow Trumps diatribes Arnold Palmer was in immaculate conditions back in the day. Probably too easy to buy a tank but that is true of any animal - terrestrial pets tend to invade your space more when their needs arent met.
I reduced from 4 to 1 and kept my biggest 3 to 4 years ago. Im starting to get the itch for another one now though 🤦♂️
Small world. I've heard about the story of the guy passing before from family members that worked in DC
How do you describe “set and forget”… I spend 6 to 8 months to get the tank settled in then it is pretty much done. Yes you do your basic maintenance, clean glass, clean filter etc but its not hard to do…and it does not take long and I do have plenty of tanks ….MTS………😂
As to your point as to landlords, I’ve always answered the question as to what I do do outside of work with, “fish, cats, and motorcycles”….
Clears the air..
Great podcast today, gents!!
Haha! A wonderful addiction to have ❤
Set It and FORGET It? I have a terrible time leaving mine alone. It's not just that I want more fish/inverts for me ...
I want to buy goodies for them ... LIVE foods, different foods, spawning mops, hiding caves ... the urge to spend, never ends.
Number 10 could be there is no one type of person that keeps fish. When I go to buy things from people on Marketplace I'm always pleased to meet all different types of people. Everyone knows those stereotypical "dog people" or "cat people" but all different kinds of people keep fish for lots of different reasons, and I love that.
Sometimes it is hard . When you loose a fish.
So true
47:42 This was an interestion perspective. The question is, where do we draw the line? Of course you aren't going to go and kill a dog or a cat on purpose, but it is widely accepted that culling fishes when breeding is fine. Also, what about bugs? We easily and willingly kill them when they're animals too.
I don't know if this is bad, but i don't see fish in the same light as cats or dogs, but more like ants... I care enough to want to give them the best life and care possible, but when one dies i feel no loss, only a curiosity as to what killed it.... Of course i'm only dealing with guppies, tetras, shrimp, a dwarf frog and bettas right now, but still it's weird...
Had 4, down to 2, but really wanting to set something up just for shrimp and nanos.
Shrimp are awesome. There’s a species for every water type.Soft? Caradina, Neutral to mid 7s? Neocaridina. Liquid rock? sulawesi. (Obviously do your due diligence and research) Get about 6-10 in a nicely planted tank, feed em good food and they will do exponential shrimp math. Always buzzing around and cleaning stuff.
I'm finally getting to a place with by large parrot fish were they are not digging up my plants 😅🎉
Now hopefully they can just grow
I fight with my self every day not to get another aquarium
Do you guys have a topic coming out on Fertilizers and how much is too much..? I really would be interested in that topic and maybe talk about the different brands and how well each one works... 😏👍
It should be part of the planted tank episode we do!
I like it because i can nerd out about a subject and i can also have a ridiculous amount of pets 😊
Yes!
Great intro as always.
I always my met fish keeping hobby to something that I could always be in control of .I would like to go up to five tanks someday. But l,ll just to be happy with just one for now.🐸🐸🐸🐬🐬
I'm currently running 4 tanks but once I can afford a 125+ gallon tank, that will go to 5...
awesome hobby
I know that not everyone that keeps fish is going to go to the depths of research and effort that a lot of the people that are going to be watching this are, but just from a moral standpoint I can’t understand how people will let the condition of their aquariums go to shit. The fish don’t have any choice in being kept in your glass box, same way as your dog or your cat didn’t have any choice in being taken into your home. The least you can do is give them a good life.
First year I got a ten gallon second year a 20 gallon and now this year 55 gallon.
Very cool!
We need a fish cruise.....
Disappointed That I wasn’t able to make my 6 AM drive to work listening to this. That Wind stream internet John has must’ve been acting up
Fish do die but it doesn't take toll on you like a dog ,car or even a bird.😢😢😢
I don't mind the work
I have one tank and three others.
I’ll admit. I have lied about having fish tanks for 14 years. We will be buying our first home in California soon, shocking right, they only cost 100 million a piece 🤣 but as long as you are smart, respectful I think it’s fine to omit if it’s not in the lease. And you’d be surprised how many don’t specifically say no aquariums.
Second floor first apartment. Stick to 10 gallons or 20 gallons. Old home, if you’re not a PhD yourself like me, have a structural engineer or a friend advise you on how much weight it can hold, always go perpendicular to your floor supports. Maybe keep it to max mini grand piano weight and yes. Always have at least $25k in renters insurance. Maybe it’s cause I’m a California and we can say it’s for mental wellness and it’s therefore illegal to ban
Pets with a doctors note.
The best!
Fish are not decorations, they are not pets…..they are members of your family. Or they are here…some of my plecs with live longer than me…I’m 52, some of my plecs are only 5-10yrs.
I’ve been asking for a cares list episode And this is the best you got? 10 things to know about aquariums? Lol
Cares fish will eventually come out - the main issue is it’s mostly goodieds, that are brown and tan so most people don’t want to keep them. The others are Lake Victorian cichlids and have amazing color, but are very aggressive so people don’t want to keep them either.
I got a free brand 55 gal top fin kit. I'm a $1000 in and haven't put a fish in it yet.
Yeah, bought a 5 dollar angel a few months ago, five hundred in new tank so far. Been in hobby since 1980. Fell for it again. Think I have 19 or so now, tanks a lot.
I hear you! 😀
Tell me about mts
They stopped doing the 125 50% off in my area...Have yall seen this?
I haven’t seen them either - Jason
Nice
I can’t afford more than one right now.
My water is soft. And ph is 7
I’m a couple minutes into the episode but hey man, I’ve been in this hobby for 20 years and I only have one tank. Just one big 240 gallon
That’s cool! 😀
Now we all know John is a Harry Potter fan, so it should be 9 3/4...
Just like my Angel Fish oneday .One day my Koi Angel fish got got mad and killed my big Silver Angel.😮😮😮😮
I lost a oscar
I like your podcasts, but I really with John would give Jason a little more “tank talk” time.
10: Oscars have mind control powers. You have been warned.
Last time I was this early I got a divorce because I caught my wife cheating. I Hope everyone is having a great day!
Weird flex
Been there done that…..😢😮😅
Greetings from Kazakhstan.
Welcome to the club 😢😮😢
😀
Yeah it sucks
The problem is you see a new fish you just gotta have…I have now decided not to look…🫣😂