So You Want an Automatic Egg Collector?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Almost forgot.. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all those celebrating something. Here's to another year where we had the privilege to play with fish. Let's do it again.

[@frigoavi]

Babe, get up, new Lowell just dropped.

[@sydneysangels]

Lowell, you're the man. Super high quality video, expert level fish breeding knowledge, DIY skills that pay the bills and a great sense of humor. What more could a fish nerd want? Thank you for another "banger" as the kids say

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoy the videos. I wouldn't classify myself as an expert, I think I'm decades away from that, but I do really enjoy being able to contribute what I can from the experiences I have had so far.

[@IvansGuppies]

I appreciate both the sincerity and ingenuity that you have!

[@Ben-Mul]

Yooooo it's like a crossover episode of the two people on KZbin I watch most! Ivan and Lowell!

[@IvansGuppies]

@ heeeey! Yeah, Lowell is awesome!

[@BlakesAquatics]

Something I've been doing and selling for 4 or 5 years now. Makes life very easy to breed fish

[@footagemissing]

I use one of yours Blake, works great!

[@AquaticMoose]

Thanks for explaining aspects like the flow and limitations that other people have not mentioned in their versions. It's cool to hear your spin and thoughts on this method! Another top notch video 💯

[@jeffkane4391]

I really like the uplift for the larger collector. They all look like excellent designs, I'm looking forward to playing with them. 😊

[@FathomAquatics]

:)

[@frogfood7772]

I have my middle school aquaculture students watch all your videos! I can't wait to show them this one!

[@deansfishroom]

Really well done Lowell !!! I look forward to playing with both of these, and of course your next venture.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thank you sir. I look forward to hearing how they work out for you. On to the next project!

[@tigercow]

Lowell, make me a fish raising robot companion this instant

[@MakeMoreFish]

on it.

[@ianwang7031]

First time I saw it done was from Sydney’s Angels & Bennett’s Rainbows, where he combined the Penn-Plax fry separator box with the Fluval HOB breeder box

[@LRBaquatics]

I need to try one of these

[@jeffkane4391]

@LRBaquatics I still have better luck moving the adults in comparison to the current egg traps I have. I am looking forward to playing with this design, though. 😁

[@MakeMoreFish]

Send me an email. I'll send you one to try.

[@jodip719]

I love your ingenuity. Egg scattering fish are on my list to try. Thanks for another great video!

[@Stravideo]

Love your design, much better than mine. Can not agree more on the higher slope, and the use of that kind of breeding box lift tube. I might redo mine with some of your ideas, but printable in vase mode. Great design, thanks for sharing

[@HuskysAquariums]

This is one of YT video suggestions that surprisingly is worth watching....loved your vids so far..Great job!..I also breed fish and design and 3d print....Cheers from Greece, Athens

[@GooberSmoosh]

I have used both the lift out version and the automatic version, hapily report Lowell is right with the lift out one being much better. The automatic one picks up all muck and BBS and deposits this into the fry tray, with the manual one I move the eggs into the conventional 3d printed tray manually with a pipet seperating the gunk. I use the hiflow uplift with filter floss attached by elastic band on the bottom of the uplift to filter out any contaminants. (fine intake sponge wasnt fine enough for live BBS) I find the hiflow great and much more controlable and easier to see the flow, i also like how it is easily detached when having to move things around, my fry trays are on tanks inbetween racks which made it hard using the normal screw in as i had to remove this before moving the tray out always spilling water. Thanks Lowell for all the hard work in making these, it has made my transition to scattering fish so nice.

[@873charlie]

I love you man. My fav content creator in this hobby. Thank you for what you do and please never stop

[@MakeMoreFish]

That's very kind, thank you. I will continue for as long as I'm able.

[@the186element9]

Thank you for sharing your videos.I just started with my first Apisto.After viewing several of your videos you certainly deserve my Subscription.

[@fishyerik]

Great episode! Very inspiring, and very good points. A very long time ago I experimented with egg traps for zebra danios, just based on my personal observations, only to later find out that what I designed was in principle identical to what was used in some laboratory and commercial breeding systems.

[@oS3R0o777]

It's like Minecraft, but he duplicates fish in REAL life! Almost makes me want to go touch REAL grass! ...almost...

[@rithlim6016]

I've learned about automatic egg collecting through Blake's Aquatics and even ordered one of his custom 3-D printed collector, which works fabulously. But your design has a nice aesthetics and I would like to buy one.

[@MakeMoreFish]

I do like a nice aesthetic

[@Finkeldinken]

Always worth a watch, it never fails! The aquarium I get to use for any small batch breeding experiments is situated in a way that would probably benefit from something like this. I did start on a DIY one last year, but had some issues with the fittings, so the project kinda fell by the wayside. Back on the horse!

[@FlowstateAquatics]

I'm a simple man, I see a new Lowell video, I freak the hell out. Single handedly convinced me it's time to invest in a printer and buy your files

[@MakeMoreFish]

Good. Join us.

[@Lennartz1]

Very true. If you can hear it (bubbling, gurgling) the pressure is too high. Always trying to find that happy medium!

[@SublimeSquamata]

Awesome video, honestly I liked your non scripted opinion on it all. Genuinely convinced me when I get back to breeding fish, I’m not going to use an automatic fish collector

[@MakeMoreFish]

I love simultaneously introducing and torpedoing my own product

[@benjaminpeters3885]

as usual, very intuitive and innovative! our community is lucky to have you

[@chizow8]

Insane levels of modular engineering going on here. Eggs straight into his breeding tray o.O

[@oinaw]

high quality stuff 😀 i prefer the passive egg trap and got the best results, but the active one definitely has its benefits aswell! i've made the experience that cpd eggs are very fragile, i stored them in a container with an air tube with medium output and all the eggs were destroyed by the movement overnight, maybe that can be a problem with the fluval box approach. my next tetra breeding project will be a small breeding container that floats in a bigger tank, the floor of the smaller container has holes for the eggs to fall through. i can't wait for the loxozonus video 🤩

[@MakeMoreFish]

It hasn't been an issue for CPD eggs in my observation but what you're describing is a valid reason to choose the fry tray over the acrylic box.

[@FishEZ]

Awesome new items Lowell! I've been working on this very item for a long time for what I didn't realize was termed "prospecting" to find out if my fish are spawning. (If you are the one who coined this term, I think it's very appropriate.) I have this very scenario with my larger Mascara barbs. When they see me, they just want to beg for food. So I don't think they are going to breed in front of me. I need something to know when and if they are spawning. I was going to modify the bottom of a reptile cave that I have which I thought might work. But I now wonder why I should " re-invent the wheel" when you have already have designed a very efficient one. Thanks again for all that you do for the hobby. I am enjoying the fry boxes very much. It took a long while to get them going, but finally, we've got a few going now. I agree with you about the clear breeder box being a better workflow than directly into the fry box. BTW, your breeder fish "modeling" in the videos are stupendous looking. Nice fish!

[@tigercow]

Another fantastic video. I love the critical discussion and comparison between the two methods.

[@footagemissing]

Great video and explanation on the pros and cons. Thanks for making and sharing.

[@heyderekp]

He's done it again folks!

[@zombi3907]

Dude, you are amazing. Thank you for all this.

[@mountaintoppufferkeeper2289]

The system is awesome! Great design. Thanks much for working on it it really helped my little niche up here. To me the maintainence and upkeep to are a worthy time investment to keep optimal flow and egg health. Prospecting with the small version on some super red devil tetras here.

[@TCKNurse]

I can't remember where I found the DIY system I use but its a combo of a penn plax Aqua Nursery and Hatchery Breeding Box and the fluval breeding box. I like the idea of the 3-D printed system you have come up with. Pretty soon with all your attachments you can do everything! Well done sir!

[@sipbipmip7381]

I wonder if a system like this would be useful for collecting shrimp larva from fan shrimp, I've had a few bamboo shrimp become berried but was never able to collect the larva from the water column.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Sure, something along these lines might help with that. I recall that Amano larvae are phototactic so that might help round them up too.

[@ntsp00]

Is the larger uplift tube with the air collar available for 3D printing? I use the fry tray that doesn't have the air manifold for eggs so I can add methylene blue separately from the tank. Essentially my process is condition fish, collect eggs for a few days, stop collection and add methylene blue. Having an uplift tube that doesn't necessitate the fry tray having an air manifold would be super useful! Sure I could use a fry tray with an air manifold and just turn off the uplift, but I already use a darker colored one I printed specifically to handle methylene blue and I like the extra space inside the tray :)

[@MakeMoreFish]

Yes it is. It's honestly a bit tricky to print because of its height, but with a solid brim it's doable.

[@BougieBishFish]

Aaaand already got my order placed 😎 thanks for this!

[@nickhelms4386]

Amazing work as always, thanks for sharing!

[@Malysandacz]

I tried DIY automatic collector for CPDs and I can confirm that passive one is much better, at least for my small commercial operation. The problem with CPDs eggs is that they are a little bit sticky and many will stick to the slopes of collector.

[@TheAquariumLibrary]

What’s a small commercial operation? 100 eggs a week?

[@Malysandacz]

@@TheAquariumLibrary small commercial operation for me is about 30 species, 5-10k fish sold every month

[@Malysandacz]

@@TheAquariumLibrary 5000-10000 fish produced every month. I breed around 30 species.

[@TheAquariumLibrary]

@@Malysandacz you’re doing 5,000-10,000 CPDs a month?

[@Malysandacz]

@@TheAquariumLibrary no, as I said I am breeding about 30 different species. I wouldn't sell that many CPDs. That would be too risky. Other breeders I know who are focused only on 2-3 species and making CPDs try to breed 2000-3000 CPDs/month. My strategy is different.

[@TheAquariumLibrary]

A turkey baster pairs very well with agitating whatever spawning media you use to encourage the eggs to come out through a gentle blowing and swishing. I use two spawning mops instead of plants because plants can die and don’t want to mess with dead plant material in a spawning tank. I do like your design, and have wanted to make my own, but just don’t have the resources to 3-d print like you do. Also debris collecting in the marina filter is problematic and I simply remove them once I collect them and place the eggs into a methylene blue solution until they hatch and have very good success. 2-3 drops of methylene blue into a Lees catch container and haven’t lost fry when they hatch out in that but have seen a huge jump in egg survival. I am not as worried about size classes because I am growing them at a lower temperature and they’ll take longer to grow and can then have a larger age variation. Though spawning once every two weeks isn’t a bad idea. I just need some more adults to make it worth while.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Hey, you're alive!

[@TheAquariumLibrary]

@ I am alive haha. I am hoping to make a couple here soon but will have to see. Really like your design. I was trying to find something like that online but didn’t have any luck. I’ve made a couple more improvements to my version that I have considered making a video on.

[@CharlesLales]

Excellent, congrats for job done and too to share all this info! Would be available for EU as well? ;-)

[@bloatus7611]

Straight up phenomenal, man.

[@HarrisonChung-e3j]

Curious about whether printing the drain with green filament and maybe some protruding sticks that you can wrap yarn around could act as spawning media which would take away the work with this setup. Maybe in a part 2?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Maybe, but it would at best perform similarly to intact and healthy vegetation. Debris will still accumulate

[@HarrisonChung-e3j]

@@MakeMoreFish Adding shrimp or putting the setup in hydrogen peroxide could potentially help with debris. I think a grid-like canopy shape on top of the drain would work better than the sticks. I might get green filament to try it out myself.

[@pelhamsaquatics]

Thanks for this information lowell! Im thinking if trying this, happy holidays sir.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Happy holidays to you!

[@johnhelldiverplays]

Have thought of breeding any shrimp? Caradina,amano,Sulawesi,neocaradina?

[@MakeMoreFish]

I have bred caridina and neocaridina but I don't really discuss it much. They functionally work like a livebearer so there aren't that many mechanics to cover unless you go down a rabbit hole of chemistry - and that's not my forte.

[@NYGOLD]

Great design and layout, much better that the one I made out of a funnel. lol

[@Kaiser-h5s]

Whenever you upload I stop whatever I'm doing and watch your video, keep them coming! Amazing job! Edit: also please tetra breeding videos would be awesome, I have cardinals but everywhere on the internet says you basically need to perform a ritual to spawn them.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Yep, that's true. Gotta sacrifice a goat.

[@liciniusagassi5595]

hello! amazing video, super useful! i'm new to your channel, and i was wondering if you'd ever consider doing a guide on how to breed 3 spot gouramis, or just a species of gourami. I have a male 3 spot and i'm planning on getting a female soon, and i thought it would be neat to watch someone do it, as it's not super well documented, especially for the 3-spots.

[@JAHNO]

Damn Lowell you da goat

[@markfranklin8831]

I believe this is a great solution either style great job. Thanks for sharing

[@johnhelldiverplays]

If I subscribe to my patron on a device can I send the file to another device to 3d print?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Yes you can

[@Climps]

Can i get the first one you made the passive collector in the uk?

[@MakeMoreFish]

I don't ship internationally but if you have any access to a 3D printer, you can have one made.

[@Climps]

Ok thanks for the reply, Could you send me a file and I could get it printed?

[@johngriffin5446]

For the uplift system, is there an internal diameter change that's equal to the silicone ID? If not won't eggs build up at the interface of the larger collection tube diameter and small ID of the silicone tube?

[@MakeMoreFish]

yes. The drain and the elbow underneath it smoothly transition to match the ID of the silicone tube, which, when fully inserted, ends up flush with a backstop.

[@Chainchomp432]

19:07 I've used other ones and always ended up with more fry at the bottom of the trap than in the box.

[@MakeMoreFish]

That happened to me with most of the pencilfish. Their eggs are adhesive so what the collector usually picked up were freshly hatched fry rather than the eggs themselves.

[@Chainchomp432]

@ can’t wait to try this with my chili rasboras. Hope this cracks the code.

[@MakeMoreFish]

@Chainchomp432 Be really careful about that... the drain cover is not fine enough to keep boraras from swimming through it. They will find their way underneath and could potentially be pulled into the tubing.

[@TheOriginalBrian]

Yusss.....Thank you!

[@NewMan96]

Just.....WOW!

[@MARKET_GARDNERI]

I am a simple guy, I see a Lowell video, I click

[@Jlui83]

When breeding cod do you have better yields with just 1 male? I currently have 2 males and 4 females. Thinking of removing that extra male. Ive been noticing the yields have dropped

[@luisromo2036]

I miss your videos. Are you okay ? It’s been awhile since your last video.

[@dieenteimhimmel7377]

You're my favourite notification btw

[@MakeMoreFish]

That would work

[@kurtr12]

Is the egg collector for the spotted congo puffers going to be on the Patreon. I have a group of those puffers I'm breeding and would like to try these instead of the store bought trays I have.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Yes it is. It's large and a bit tricky to print though, just fair warning.

[@fabiansfish]

Awesome stuff!!!

[@gamerghost123]

One question that was left unanswered I think. Why not use the uplift system/tube from the 12” on the 6”? Just curious maybe the fine bubbles will do better?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Enabling the small collector to use a larger diameter tube would make it a little bit worse when using the smaller tube. Because I believe most people will (and should) use this in conjunction with an acrylic breeding box, the smaller tubing diameter would be the one to optimize for. It also just works as is. The smaller uplifts have more than enough power.

[@Jason-lr4dj]

You make great videos

[@FCusanelli]

I want to be you when I grow up Lowell . I'm 46 years old.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Wall yourself off behind racks of aquariums and abandon all social grace. You'll pretty much be there. It's never too late

[@Stamfordrealtor]

Do you sell your cbds?

[@pedromachado8643]

Do you ship your products overseas?

[@jmatti826]

Yessss!! 👏👏👏

[@merofish]

I look forward to lowell new video than Christmas

[@ab4877]

i can't recognize the name of your favorite plant for a spawning medium. The transcript is calling it saser tang, which comes up empty in my web searches. Cn someone spell it out in a response here

[@MakeMoreFish]

Susswassertang

[@shawndoe2834]

Is there a background color that makes it easier to spot eggs?

[@MakeMoreFish]

It depends. If you're using a flashlight, black provides the maximum contrast. If not using a flash light, white keeps the surface illuminated enough to at least see the eggs and especially the embryo inside. Grey is kind of a midpoint between the two.

[@shawndoe2834]

@MakeMoreFish Thank You

[@reformedsoteriology]

I use guppy grass

[@johnwebster6852]

I don't have a way to produce your products. Is there a source that I can purchase from ?

[@MakeMoreFish]

If you're in the US, yes. There's a link in the channel about section to an Etsy shop where you can find most of this stuff.

[@biomage13]

In the video with the egg trap, did you condition the CPDs separately? Or together?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Together but in a tank with no good places to spawn.

[@mstrmarek]

Should at least acknowledge the folks that came up with the concept, all good tho there’s a better way of doing this for all egg scatterers :)

[@MakeMoreFish]

0:47

[@mstrmarek]

@@MakeMoreFishdiymike was the first with KZbin, it just needs a orange juice container and some stainless mesh

[@mr.octopus6972]

In the first minute of the video, Bro is in a rant about everyone usigng the word effortless is a liar. Then 1:30 happens... 😅

[@MakeMoreFish]

This guy gets it

[@Jewsus_Crisco]

should do a colab with fishtory.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Okie dokie

[@alanmillis6998]

What is the moss you are using? I have listened a few times and cannot figure out what you're saying.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Susswassertang

[@alanmillis6998]

@MakeMoreFish oh yeah thats what I thought 🤣😂

[@alanmillis6998]

@MakeMoreFish oh yeah thats what I thought 🤣😂

[@-AndrewR]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@ruicouto8509]

Bom trabalho mano?

[@akim2007p]

First! 😂