Thanks for watching them. I record these videos primarily as my own video diary and youtube is a great place to store them. However it's always nice to know that people might find them useful.

I usually buy stuff like the pump from one of the Chinese online stores e.g. AilExpress ...... search for "12 volt submersible pump" and you should be able to order one for less than £10 including shipping but you'd need a 12V adapter and to DIY wiring, pipework etc..

Thanks.

The fruit from my tree are quite sour and very few people like to eat them ..... so usually dumped on the compost heap ..... but sometimes OK as a garnish when pickled.

Only about 30% of the Shine strain breed true so it's unlikely it would suceed as a commercial strain.

@@km-qh3rs Shame, but we’re not in it for the money anyway are we ✌️

I think it's only a problem if eggs are touching eah other or maybe very close together ..... if eggs are at least 10mm or 1/2" apart then I think it's OK

Thanks. The planes only come close 1 or 2 days a week. Unfortunately it seems I often choose one of those days to make a video.

More than 30 years since I last saw snow ..... except on Christmas cards.

Wow! You retired early then, good for you! ✌️

Thanks. I think it's possible to get day neutral varieties that can be grown in temperate climates.

Yes, now you mention it I have tried something like that in the past but they were pretty small, about an inch l seem to remember, I wasn’t impressed ! ✌️

Yeah, I think in Singapore you could probably get 5 generations of medaka in a year.

Hi. Occasionally over the years I've kept a tank of tropical fish ... but soon got bored and gave them away. However I've found medaka are addictive.

@@km-qh3rs that is a great part of the hobby , there can always be something new

Personally I would never deliberately use green water for fry. I know this is probably a controversial opinion but my own personal view is that clean water is best for fry. Green water consists of phytoplankrton and only ocurs when there are excess nutrients in the water such as nitrates and phosphates for the phytoplankton to feed on ..... and therefore green water is not "clean". It's well known that, for example, excess nitrates can adversely affect even adult fish ..... pale green water may have relatively lower excess nitrates but then young fry are still likely to be adversely affected even by low excess nitrate levels. The other point I usually make is that medaka are not omnivores such as goldfish ..... medaka are carnivores and not omnivores (i.e. not carnivores/herbivores). Green water consists of phytoplankton which are similar to plants therefore of little food value to medaka fry ..... but zooplankton feed on phytoplankton so if you have zooplankton in your green water then medaka fry may benefit. However you really have no idea whether or not you actually have zooplankton in the green water. So, again my own personal view, green water may look nutritious etc etc for medaka fry but it's a waste of time and has the potential to adversely affect the health/growth of the fry.

Thanks.

I've heard that it can be relatively common for koi to die due to pH crashes in ponds but it seems to me that medaka generally survive. My point is that, although medaka survive, it appears they may be weakened and it may take a month or so for them to fully regain good health. However it depends on total alkalinity of the water, acidity of rainwater and how sheltered tubs might be from the full effects of very heavy, intense rainfall.

Nice to know that some people are still viewing my old videos.

Thanks for the comment. From what I've read, on a volume basis these pot scrubbers provide substantially more surface area for beneficial bactaria to grow than, for example, ceramic rings etc.

Thanks for the compliments. One issue is that I assume in first world countries it's probably relatively easy to obtain food grade plastic tubs even if they have to be ordered online. In my case all I could get were clear plastic or cheap black plastic ..... however I've found Ikea Trofast storage boxes for children's toys are now available in lighter colors. Interesting that it seems all other Ikea large plastic storage boxes are advised to be not suitable for close contact with food.

That's only half of the stagshorn ..... the original was growing on a frame on a slender metal pole that was bending under the weight ..... it was too heavy to move so I cut it in half and put each half in two different trees ..... still surviing but I need to remember to water them nearly every day throughout the coming dry, cool, low humidity winter. Not likely I'll make a garden tour ..... it's now just rough grass and a bit of paving so at my age it's easy for me to look after.

@@km-qh3rs Thank you for getting back, although I’m doubly jealous now!! I totally approve of making life as easy as possible as we mature, but as a retired horticulturist I wouldn’t mind betting you have a lot of interesting plants around you! ✌️

Thanks for the information. I think if brandname tubs are used, such as Ikea, then there's a reasonable probability that the plastic will not be toxic ..... my mistake was that I used very cheap non-brandname tubs ... not necessarily because they were the cheapest but because the size was what I wanted. Now I've settled for Ikea trofast tubs which I can reasonably assume are non-toxic but it means using a smaller size than I would prefer.

Hi, I'm happy if someone finds bits of my ramblings useful.

Thanks. Thinking about what I'm going to say on a video helps get my thoughts in order so that, hopefully, I avoid similar errors in future.

...... and less than the equivalent of US$1. Fish food in Japan seems to be much cheaper than other places in the world.

Hi, those are lengths of small diameter pvc pipe I use as floating barriers to keep the floating plants in check. I stuff closed cell foam into the pvc pipes so that they float.

hi Berenice, interesting that people in a tropial climate are keeping medaka.

Hi, sorry for the late reply ..... keeping medaka on a balcony would probably be better for me ..... I have enough space for 50 tubs and it's difficult to resist the temptation to add 2 or 3 more ..... and hen another 2 or 3 etc etc

Thanks. A civil engineer ..... always long-winded but usually not known for eloquence. The video was getting longer and longer ..... so I didn't include the bit where I was going to say that previously my medaka project was on a smaller scale. As such, at the start of summer last year, 2023, I think I had no more than 8 to10 elderly adults and maybe 70 young adults that had hatched in early spring 2023. I can't really remember but if, similar to this year, all the elderly adults had died and most of the strong young adults survived during the summer ..... then the impact of % total loss would not have been noticeable. But this year, starting the summer with maybe 40 elderly adults, 80 strong young adults hatched in early spring and 80 weaker juveniles hatched in late spring ..... then, in addition to the dragonfly losses, with all the elderly adults and a high proportion of the weaker juveniles dying it greatly increased the % total loss and the impact of that really made me think very hard.

@@km-qh3rs Thank you, n so glad you’re keeping on and improving your setup. It’s very interesting to us, given the lack of Medaka info around and you put it over in a lovely relaxed , informal way 🤝

@@gayefanner731 Thanks, I'm surprised that after 36 videos I'm still finding things to talk about.

I already have rigid plastic sheets to cover the tubs in cold weather ..... however it would be impratical to try to use these temporary measures to protect the tubs from intense, heavy rain in tropical type of summer rainstorms that may go on for hours and/or may occur almost every day for a couple of weeks. I'm going to have to install something more permanent to provide the sort of protection I think is necessary if I'm to avoid simialr heavy losses of medaka in future. I already have a video about effects of rain on water parameters and I think that is manageable, but I had not considered the adverse physical effects of long periods of intense, very heavy rain hammering down on the water surface of relatively shallow tubs. It only occurred to me after I came back from vacation and found the 50% losses of my medaka. I then went and stood outdoors in such intense rainfall and saw the large amount of turbulance that occurred in my 30cm deep tubs. Undoubtedly the medaka would have been battered about quite severely ..... although maybe not so much of a problem with, say, 60cm deep tubs. Also I assume it would not be so much of a problem in temperate climates where intense rain storms only occur infrequently.

@@km-qh3rs thank you for your reply, I am really learning new things constantly from your videos!

Thanks. I'm now thinking carefully about the lessons I've learned this summer so hopefully I can do better next summer.

Hi keeping medaka outdoors has its setbacks but it's nice to get successes such as your achievemnet in breeding 150 last year. If you're thinking of trying a long fin medaka strain I suggest you do a bit of research ..... it's my understanding that long fins are far less robust than, for example, platinums and generally may require.close to tropical fish conditions .... and I've read somewhere that it's recommended that emekins are raised in water temperatures of 30degC in order to grow the long fins properly

I haven't seen any more dragonflys under the pond netting so maybe there are no larvae still in the pond. However I now need to breed a lot more medaka before I think about re-stocking the pond. Temperatures should cool down in a few weeks and then hopefully my remaining medaka will start producing eggs again ..... and usually it stays warm enough until December to grow out the fry.

Thanks. If you have a look at my pond video about 7 months ago in February you can see adult medaka happily co-existing with what may be considered to be medium size goldfish. It appears the medaka didn't consider the goldfish to be predators and both medaka and goldfish would feed together. However I'm not sure about koi when they get large. Personally I very much doubt that goldfish, koi etc will go hunting for dragonfly larvae ..... they are omnivores and I think that they just eat whatever appears in front of them so I wouldn't really consider them to be predators. Dragonfly larvae can move very fast if they are threatened and it's unlikely goldfish would chase after them.

@@km-qh3rs thanks for the reply. I'll take a look at the video you posted 7 months ago. Keep the videos coming thanks. P s once the Medaka are filled back into the large pond would you be able to kindly do a video without the netting on? Would be good to just see it all. Looks great.

Hi, medaka are usually OK in water with a pH of between 6.5 and 8.0. In my case, the fish died because the water pH was below 6.0 after heavy rain. Therefore I put oyster shells in the water to try to keep the pH at about 7.0. But if I put a lot of shells in the water, the pH could go above 8.0 and maybe the fish would then die. I suggest you try to get a pH testing kit to see if your mini pond water has a pH of between 6.5 and 8.0. If it is within that range, it is unlikely that your medaka are dying because of the shells. There are other reasons medaka may die such as very high water temperature or bad water quality . You are in Japan so water temperatures should be OK this time of year unless the pond is in the sun and water temperatures go above 40degC in which case the fish may die. Also with a mini pond it is important to carry out 25% water changes every week if you don't have filtration in the pond.

Thanks. The fry are about 10mm long now. So maybe they will grow to about 15-18mm in the next couple of months and have a chance of surviving the UK winter.

Hi, another 2 weeks of vacation ..... a report from home says my medaka are "still alive". The 4 months of summer at my sub-tropical location have an average daily day/night temperature of 30degC ..... which is why my medaka grow faster than yours. Supposedly slower growth results in better coloration so your medaka may look better than mine.

At 18-20degC I find medaka are reasonably active and eat as normal ... except in smaller quantities than at 28-30degC. For Jan/Feb in winter at my location, temperatures may be average max 20 and average min 12 with lows of 6 for several days at a time. All my medaka survive OK outdoors in unheated tubs except I may put very small juveniles and some of my more delicate medaka in a heated tub at 18-20degC I suggest there's a general 15/10/5 guideline for water temps for medaka (maybe does not apply to delicate varieties) ..... ... at 15degC they eat moderately; are moderately active; grow very slowly ... at 10degC they eat very little; are slow moving; stop growing ... at 5degC they do not eat; are completely inactive at the bottom of the tub. Therefore even small juveniles probably have a reasonable chance of surviving in temps above 10degC. At temps 10degC and below probably only 18-20mm long juveniles have a reasonable chance of surviving..

Sometimes I think it's good to let medaka hatch naturally in a pond. The survivors possibly have stronger genes than many hatched artificially.

@@km-qh3rs I tend to only put out the spawning mops mid-July. This means I catch some of the eggs and fry that might not be strong enough to get through winter. I raise these inside and put them out the following spring (or sell them for a couple of quid/give them away) My thought process is that the ones that hatch earlier in the pond in spring/summer, should they survive being eaten, will have a few more months of growth. That seems to allow them to survive winter.

They are not banned. Aquarium shops are not supposed to sell them as outdoor fish if they've imported them under a certain licence as an indoor aquarium fish. That's where the confusion comes from. It's perfectly legal to keep them in outdoor ponds and give them to friends if you wish.

I'm always interested in raising medaka entirely outdoors ..... but then that's easy for me in my sub-tropical location. I don't live in the UK and I'm not a lawyer so I may be wrong about this ..... but my understanding is that there is no law that states it is illegal to keep medaka in outdoor tubs and garden ponds. However it appears there's an advisory note from a fish importers trade organization to retailers that, in accordance with their license under the Import of Live Fish Act, they can "only sell medaka for indoor aquariums" and that the retailer should ensure customers understand that medaka "cannot be kept in outdoor ponds or barrels". However obviously when customers get the medaka home, the retailer has no control over where the customers keep the fish and it appears to be incorrect for a retailer to say they "cannot" be kept outdoors.

I've heard that koi are not much good at keeping mosquito larvae under control. If this is correct, then medaka should be reasonably safe from predation by koi. Maybe another way of looking at it ......... do the koi breed in your pond? If so, then medaka fry should have a similar chance of survival as koi fry.

@@km-qh3rs Thank you!

Thanks