Shop Talk - Fry Updates, Future Breeding Projects, Q&A

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thanks for watching/listening! If there's enough interest we can definitely do this again. If there's something you'd like to hear discussed in the future, feel free to leave it in the comments.

[@kevinvanslycke8386]

Im attempting to breed apistos in a harem setup in a 55 gallon. Any insight into your new mcmasteri and agassizii endeavors would be extremely helpful!

[@54handdrives]

I really liked this style of video. One like this every once in a while would be great

[@kevinvanslycke8386]

I'm also interested in anoxic/anaerobic zones within the tank hosting nitrate reducing bacteria.

[@alexwilken7892]

I'm new to the hobby and have been watching a lot of Aquarium Co-op and Prime Time Aquatics videos. Definitely adding your channel to the mix. I like your technical, matter-of-fact approach. Thank you for sharing your experience!

[@KeepingFishSimple]

loved this video!

[@bernardosantana2817]

Man your channel is so nice and refreshing, some actual knowledge and experimentation. Most aquarist youtubers these days are just spitting out repeated content for the newfishkeeper. So... Please keep this going and your channel is going places. Loved all of the videos I've seen so far and I'm hooked on for the rest

[@kevinvanslycke8386]

Fascinating work, your content is top notch. This is exactly the content Im looking for, detailed dwarf cichlid breeding from an experimental perspective. Im glued to this channel.

[@pedrofisk]

Would love a fall 2024 shop talk!

[@96xpLove]

I moved 2 chili rasboras to a small tank on accident (was trying to only put ember tetras in it and caught them) while re scaping their tank for about 7 hours, and ended up with 1 single fry. The tank was full of Indian almond leaf litter, Java moss, and cylindrical filter media. The water was about 6.5 ph, 75 F, and under 10 tds. The water was lightly tanned, I took ro water and soaked a peat moss filled filter bag (peat moss had been microwaved) in it for 3 or 4 weeks. Also, I had been feeding that tank live baby brine shrimp for about 2 weeks leading up to the hatch as I was trying to condition my ember tetras. Hope that helps!

[@JoshUC]

I have watched this video like 20 times by now, apistogrammas are my favorite fishes in the hobby. Unfortunatly I haven been able to breed them, I have tried several times to get a female and a male, but in the place I live I have been able only to get females.

[@jc13781]

LOVE the video update format - i LOVE your very thorough breeding videos as well and find them to be of the best tutorials on youtube for breeding the species you've thus far outlined. Thanks for all of the effort.

[@swatch12345]

Love all your videos dude. Well thought out, good explanations, and experimental things. Great success!

[@Gendonramsay]

I'm from Indonesia, we usually export wild caught chili rasbora but some people had very successful breeding project. We use outdoor dirt pond with blackwater to breed chili rasbora, well any kind of rasbora really. Due to our seasonal cycle, we just let them do their thing but generally when rain started dropping they started spawning. I haven't talk to a lot of breeders who breed them in a glass tank, but peatmoss and blackwater is essential to spawn them in a tank. And also live food

[@MakeMoreFish]

That's great information, thank you!

[@markfranklin8831]

For me I believe this might have been the best information video I've ever set and listen to I never moved away from start to finish thanks would love to see lots more of theses type videos for sure awesome job 👍

[@stoneysscapes7544]

I'm agreeing w/ you , sitting here watching my fish & I feel this was exactly the motivational video tonight to tackle my projects and decide on what new items to get my "last new TETRA 4o Breeder " ; )

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thank you! I'll have to do more

[@Dobromir_Chodkowski]

Thanks for the update on chili rasboras. I keep my fingers crossed for your success

[@bobby_au]

i really enjoyed this one. great way to wind down a busy work day.

[@MakeMoreFish]

It was fun for me too

[@fishmoding]

love these types of videos! Would love to see more in the future

[@taylortisaac]

I worked at a LFS for a bit and learned a lot. Pea puffers are definitely a 6+ school size fish

[@marielaavila9182]

Wow great video! Pea puffers are in fact a shoaling fish. I kept 6 in a 20 gallon long. This is the recommended stocking and tank size for pea puffers. From the group I follow on Facebook, pea puffers love moss. Without it, they do not breed easily. Once I handed java moss to my tank breeding behavior took off. I never had any babies survive though.

[@MakeMoreFish]

It certainly does seem that way. I've seen some footage of them in the wild and saw large shoaling groups of them without puffer on puffer violence. That's the worst kind of violence.

[@thirdspacemaker9141]

Your discussion of the temperature drop with the rainy season seems to be based on the premise that the rain event is happening at the location of the spawning. I suppose that makes sense, but I always pictured the temperature drop coming from large volumes of rain upstream flooding into the spawning location. I didn’t think the trigger was so much the rain but the START of the rainy season (think snowmelts in more temperate climates). I have never attempted to spawn cories, but if I had, I would have tried doing it with a rush of cooler water added as quickly as possible.

[@pelhamsaquatics]

Fantastic projects! ,as an aspiring fish breeder your work is very much appreciated. Thank you sir very much.

[@Richardmunoz86]

Awesome content. Would like to hear about breeding setups. Thank you

[@larsoncollin]

Love the format!

[@d4n13lr0x]

Watching this video has been such an incredible wealth of knowledge, it's unbelievable! I felt as if I was watching an official fish husbandry breeding diary. Really curious on having updates on the chili rasbora and pea puffer breeding projects. Thank you for sharing and hope to see more of this type of content in the future!

[@MakeMoreFish]

That's so good to hear, thank you! We'll have to do some more.

[@jamesm9770]

Thanks for the sharing the knowledge.

[@tyler8322]

I love your vids, they are always so informative and I plan to reference your videos in the future when I plan to breed fish myself. By any chance, would you be willing to share what city you’re in? So that if any of us are local could buy fish from you or from the store where you sell your fish to.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Sacramento area in northern California

[@carlam.9529]

I LOVE watching your videos !!! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us !!!

[@crusstacean]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing

[@saltygreek3870]

California black worms are very easy to culture( breed) all you need is a 2.5 -5 gallon tank, that plastic tub will work, you do NOT need a heater, they do great betwen 68-78 degrees they do require atleast a nano sponge filter, gravel is required between 1-2 inch deep! You can feed them every 3-4 day 2-3 algae wafers broken up and spread sround the tank or tub substrate, a light isnt realy required, I have a light and when light is on the worms will stick out above the gravel and wave back n forth gently, its quite a site , I could send you a video if you like, Best of luck and thx for great content .

[@fredrikjensen2596]

I found your channel yesterday. Now I almost seen everything! Love your content!

[@tropy7]

Thanks for your great videos. Please make a video if you have success on breeding chilli rasboras.(have you tried rain water?)

[@corydoraszoneaquatics]

Great video, thanks.

[@MegaChance3]

enjoyed that

[@Haisty10]

I've kept groups of up to 50 Pea Puffers don't see any aggression in large groups.

[@ghinannafsiaqila4629]

You can go to Parung market lot of cheap and many species of fish

[@steve-adams]

Have you figured out this chilis yet? I've been trying-admittedly not very hard-for about 1.5 years now with absolutely no luck. I've got 8 of them. The water is quite warm, fairly soft, heaps of leaf little and life foods, etc. I wonder if they need a larger crew? A specific food? It's a mystery.

[@greenthumbaquariums1185]

Thanks for including my question in your video. I've got another one for you :-) In your accidental black worm culture, are you changing water or doing other maintenance aside from pulling out worms?

[@MakeMoreFish]

I think I did a water change at one point and every time I harvest I remove some water. Not much though.

[@tejaswasingh9731]

🔥🔥🔥

[@alannaveness6539]

I know this video is a year old but I just watched it today. In regards to your thoughts at the end of your video about rain water, cooler water changes and keeping the heater on. What about a large reservoir of cooler water outside the aquarium and loop it to a rain drip system that pulls that water from the reservoir? Like a looped water change but outside the aquarium so it can cool down and the drip into the aquarium?

[@MakeMoreFish]

I've pulled tank water to cool down in cases where the water chemistry is very particular. Stands to reason it would work.

[@wadesims2000]

I bet you the water is really hard. They tend to use saltwater mixed because freshwater isa premium.

[@theangleraquarist]

With the blackworms, Indian almond leaves are good food for em

[@DEXTER-TV-series]

Excellent video! My respect! Try to speak with Dexter from Dexter's World channel about rasboras.

[@davidramsaur1984]

Awesome video. How do you cut your terracotta pots? Some clean cuts!

[@MakeMoreFish]

I've done it with a handsaw and also with a dremel and abrasive wheel. Both make clean cuts but the dremel is quite a bit faster.

[@kenjiro2676]

I enjoyed this a lot, I am a casual fish keeper and I learned a lot from this video. I found it both informative and entertaining. Could you make a video in regards to pea puffers? I really like your narrations or voice overs and also the high quality footage of your fish.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Anything in particular you'd like to hear about on the pea puffers?

[@kenjiro2676]

@@MakeMoreFish what struck me was that you experienced less nipping when there are more of them. I’d like to learn more about their behaviors and how you made it work so that there is less nipping.

[@Kate-cb4rj]

Great video!! Quick question, what is the grasslike plant in the mosquito rasbora tank? Its beautiful and I love the look of that tank. What it the light set up and is their CO2? Crossing my fingers its an easy plant.

[@MakeMoreFish]

That was some overgrown blyxa japonica grown under a finnex stingray 2 if I recall. It's a fairly bright light. I don't think it's considered a conventionally easy plant and CO2 is usually recommended. My experience was totally different. It took over the tank without CO2

[@richardreynolds9896]

Nice video

[@elleenhsu6359]

Also new to your videos, but have found them to be fantastic! after several failed experiments with both shrimp and fish, I'm breeding corydoras aeneus right now and finally have week old fry! so all of your videos have been so apt. Where are you located? just crossing my fingers that you're local and i could buy fish from you!

[@MakeMoreFish]

Congratulations on the fry! and thank you, I'm in northern California.

[@elleenhsu6359]

@@MakeMoreFish ahh maybe one day! Colorado here with super hard water (so I’m extra happy the aeneus spawned). Gonna watch more of your content!

[@riccardoricci9420]

what substrate do you have in the macmasteri tank? Love your videos and learn so much from you

[@MakeMoreFish]

I think that was eco complete at the time but I'm trying to keep all my apistos on fairly fine sand nowadays

[@riccardoricci9420]

@@MakeMoreFish oh ok, thanks. I was asking because I love the idea of having a dark substrate for the fish to really darken up (I keep mine on fine pale sand too) and at the same time have a substrate that allows plants to shoot out runners easily and really take over. Any other suggestion to achieve this?

[@xalienh3630]

With the rasbora's have you had any luck? I'm in Australia and was able to breed a group of 8 in a ibc pond that was full of val, complete carpet with very tannin rich water, water temp was in the low 30's surface temp that is (Wet season). kept them in it for about 3 months then took the parents out and about 1 month later noticed about 20ish fry.

[@MakeMoreFish]

No I haven't. That's very cool. The only people I have talked to that have done it successfully have been in your quadrant of the world, have kept them outside and had spawns after rain.

[@xalienh3630]

@@MakeMoreFish if you ever try them again best of luck mate, and just want to say great channel and amazing content.

[@animegod1714]

How big is your chili rasbora tank? Do you use a filter? Substrate? Also do you boil the leaf before putting it in the tank?

[@MakeMoreFish]

20 gallons, sponge filter, eco complete under contrasoil and yes I boiled the leaves for a while beforehand

[@animegod1714]

@@MakeMoreFish thanks. Try contacting Rachel O'Leary for breeding tips. She said in one of her video that she got them to breed but only got a few fry. She might respond to you since you are a KZbinr as well.

[@animegod1714]

@@MakeMoreFish do you use any filter in the chili tank?

[@jwcarlson]

What's being fed to the sterbai at 0:40? Rapashy?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Yes that's repashy. Community blend I think.

[@melissaturner1737]

Have you tried a white worm culture? My puffers love my white worm and grindle worm cultures

[@MakeMoreFish]

I have.. I haven't worked out a way to maintain white worm cultures that is sustainable for me. I would like to though

[@melissaturner1737]

@@MakeMoreFish I didn’t have luck and first then I found out that there is a warm and cold strain and the warm strain has done amazing for me. I just ordered them on Amazon but I can find the actual seller and let you know if you’d like

[@MakeMoreFish]

@@melissaturner1737 yes please! My white worm efforts have otherwise been postponed until I get a wine cooler..

[@EmanM45]

I believe the PH helps determine sex ratio

[@andystokes8702]

It's interesting that you say that maybe the advice constantly given in relation to water parameters, flow rates etc for hill stream loaches or advice on breeding chilli rasboras may not be accurate, possibly just copied from elsewhere. Hill stream loaches supposedly require cooler temperatures and fast flow yet Lucas from LRB aquatics keeps them quite happily at normal aquarium temperatures in tanks with no water flow at all, unfiltered. It makes you wonder how many people publishing articles have actually seen these fish in the wild and tested the water - not many is my guess, they are just parroting what they have read elsewhere.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Some can be really valuable but I find I have to be very careful. Many of them have this odd feel to them like they were written by AI. It sounds mostly correct, but then you catch a detail or two that you know isn't accurate and it puts the whole thing in doubt.

[@jc13781]

"KeepingFishSimple" is a young guy in OZ who has some really amazing ram breeding videos, and he talks about how to avoid ending up with all males, or females.

[@MakeMoreFish]

I'll have to ask him!

[@SlickNick3]

Great video Lowell thanks for all the updates! I’m looking forward to the Macmasteri breeding. I have a young male. I wanted a pair, but wasn’t confident there was a single female at my lfs. Still enjoying him on his own regardless

[@anthonycastellano4803]

I was watching a chris lukhaup video (m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXmtfZiQZsuFfK8) when at 0:27 seconds a few rasboras swam onto screen. Theres a clear difference in belly size and color between some of them, so I would have to guess the sex ratio of the chili rasboras you've gotten must have been extremely skewed by temperature while were being raised abroad.

[@biomage13]

Let me know if you are still looking to reach Mike Hellweg. He is a friend and I a great guy.

[@kenjiro2676]

11:58, what is your gender ratio?

[@MakeMoreFish]

2 males and 4 females assuming I'm sexing them correctly