The high quality of your stuff would be good enough, the rate that you pump out these information-dense videos is shocking. There's no doubt in my mind that this is THE aquarium channel to watch
Well i am honored to read this, and I work as hard as i can, trying to put 40 to 60 hours into the research, filming, outlines, editing and responding/interacting with viewers. So it means a great deal to me, to know that you can tell the difference between the large budget channels vs mine haha. Have a great weekend
it baffles me that you have been the only one commenting on this in the year after it's been uploaded. The fish are living in healthy water, just no too much of it.
@@Someoneonthisplanet1979 probably because fish don't care about anything, so long as their basic needs are met. The fish are able to move freely and orient themselves easily, their water is perfect quality, and they're adequately fed. Some fish _do_ need lots of space to quickly swim around, but plecos and angelfish couldn't care less.
Brother this is why I love your channel. Right in line with how I approach tanks. I dont want a perfect tank I have to constantly maintain. I want a interesting little self running world in a box I get to observe from the outside.
Thank you so much for this. This gave me SO much inspiration! I feel lucky to live in Oregon, because I have tons of healthy bodies of water that I can access. I went to a local creek (a part of a local river) and collected some decaying leaves/mulm/organic matter and some water, and brought it home. I got a big rubber stock tank to make into a "pond". I recently did an overhaul on my main tank, and switched the gravel substrate to a dirted substrate. I used the old gravel to fill the bottom of the tub that sits outside. I actually tested the water from the creek out of curiosity prior to using anything I collected from it. I tested for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, gh, and copper. I used some of the mulm/water I got and put it into a jar so I could observe it. So far, I've seen various species of copepods/daphnia, seed shrimp, scuds, water mites, water beetles, ramshorn snails, bladder snails, and some nematodes. I went to a local pond shop and bought a water lily (came with free frog eggs, filamentous algae, and more snails!). The shop owner was even nice enough to give me a few gallons of green water for free to put in there. Now, I have a whole miniature ecosystem in there and it's doing amazing! Sorry for the boring essay, but I'm incredibly excited about this. I'm so thankful to have gotten this project idea from you. Thank you for everything you do.
It makes me feel super happy to know that there are people out there that truly are progressives for this hobby. This information is so valuable and needed. Everytime I go into my LFS I feel like I need to teach them something 😂
I can't talk to the employees at my LFS about anything, really. A few years ago there was one guy that I could talk to. But now it's like I feel dumber after I talk to any of them.
BRILLIANT! I just sat thru a college biology class by watching this thoughtful and progressive video. I left a storage tub on my deck last spring and summer. Rainwater accumulated and things started growing in there. Tree frogs were attracted to my deck for the 1st time in my 10 years in this house. So, tadpoles appeared. My chickens loved to drink out of this container (forget the fresh water bowl!) and had access to nibbling on the tadpoles. Deck biome, lol! Oddly enough, I have containers of standing water and no mosquitos here. I’m totally onboard with the balance-of-nature systems. I had an aquarium years ago and OH, you are tempting me back again! It’s a wonderful hobby. Continued good fortune with this channel,. You’ve got LOTS of great info to share!
Your channel and tank philosophy are right in line with mine, I’ve been keeping aquaria for 40+ years, and have tried all different ‘tech’ levels, there’s just something about the simple balanced tank with basic lighting, deep sand substrate, heavy planting, low bio load and a simple sponge filter is just so appealing and natural It’s a similar philosophy as ‘Father Fish’ but without all the unnecessary and illogical religious bullshit which has no place in an aquarium keeping channel. Yes, I know FF is a religious ‘father’ and he does overall do a good job of keeping the two subjects separate, and I appreciate that, but with your channel, I know it’s going to be just the facts on aquaria and no illogical extraneous tangents, and I appreciate that even more :)
I think you are the perfect example of "If you do what you love.." I smiled when you took us to your backyard because it wasn't unlike my backyard growing up, except we only had mosquito and tadpoles, and the occasional snake. I am always eager to hear what you have to share with us for the sole purpose of creating the most ideal environment for our aquatic animals. Your love of aquatic husbandry is contagious and we are lucky you aren't stingy with your talents or knowledge.
Your Silky looks just like our cat Matcha 😊 My wife surprised me with a betta fish for my birthday last week....never raised a fish before but I am a total nature freak so right away all the sterile tank / fake decorations started to trigger me and also the thought of weekly water changes and adding chemicals to the tank etc. So the past week i've been traveling the interwebs from wormhole to wormhole, came to you from the Father Fish comment section and feel like I found home, thanks for doing this! Just cleaned out a 15 gallon tank, setting up a substrate, found some river plants, gonna buy some more and a handful of tank mates. Your videos have made the deeper knowledge so accessible and reassured me this is possible and inspired me with your thick ass foliage. You're a good human being! My heart thanks you!
Aww thank you. And thanks for caring for the nature in our world. I value father fish greatly, Lou is a friend, but we have a few disagreements, just that i think you can do things 3 or 4 "correct" ways...but i prefer the way he leans towards also. :) best of luck my friend!
@@Fishtory I understand and feel similarly, hence why your work resonates with me. FFish seems like a great guy but I dont want to be too narrow in my thinking, plus you actually explore the details and science of these natural ways of fishkeeping which is more my jive. Grateful for you both!
I love a little ecosystem I created for my cpd's tank. I started by adding moss, some aquarium plants. Then I added snail eggs and fish eggs. When my fry hatched and I started feedinf them infusoria. I bought some life daphnia to feed the adults and decided to put some in fry tank. They started breeding there. My fry grew, I probably overfed some and started noticing detrite worms. I also got a lot of daphnia. And my baby snails grew. Now my fry reached the size where they hunt for baby daphnia and small worms. I had to spend 2 days in the hospital and couldn't feed the tank. But all my fry survived and grew. 😊 Tank also looks spectacular. Full of life. Daphnia, fry, snails, copepods. Everywhere you look, something is alive and moving. I still feed infusoria, microworms and some artemia.
Watching now, great info. My oldest tank has been up for 10 years. It's gone through many iterations and always interesting to see its changes. Now it's got 3 Iberian crested newts, some guppies, and tons of cherry shrimp.
Thanks! Teacher in a highschool here and aquaryist. I've been breeding White Clouds in my classroom for a year. These tips will bring my tank to the needed next level.
So glad to hear it! Thats really amazing of you to do. Im sure the students love seeing the process. I highly recomend doing kribs or some dwarf cichlid with parental care too! Kids go wild for that... or guppies and mixing colors or traits with punnett square predictions as an asignment
Super interesting title. I'm sure this video is going to blow my mind! Thanks for all your hard work putting out such awesome content. And for being THE go to for finding info on giving my critters their best life possible!! 🙏✌️
@@Fishtory I just wish I was at an expendable income lvl that I could monetarily support the channel. You are literally my fish info walking encyclopedia! I appreciate your wisdom so much!!🙏
I've kept tanks some years now, always wanted tanks like yours, but mine wont thrive. I hope I can achieve this with my tanks. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. As a microbiologist myself I was always afraid of introducing pests/diseases. Time to see the good things of these useful microbes instead of being afraid.
Its always possible, but remember our fish come from pretty gnarly little mud holes and tannic creeks, puddles and silty rivers... undoubtly to their microbiome and immunesystems, it is everyday normal stuff, where as the pet trade, fish stores and holding facilities are the super spreader, bad Pathogen havens
Most the folks in the comments seem to be mentioning you :) i think nature is winning out, slowly but surely. Congrats on that viral video you created last week as well! People want to / are finally ready to hear your message.
Well as a new sub to both of you, I'm grateful for the knowledge share..I've kept and bred turtles the past 24 yrs but only just got into aquatic plants and set my 5ft tank up again for some angels..wish I'd seen the dirted set ups before but at some point I'll break it down and redo, had to laugh when I saw your faux barrel tubs as I just bought 4 identical ones and set the first two up yesterday for some plants..much love and thanks to you both for sharing your extensive understandings, from Australia🙏 🇦🇺🦘🐨 I have 5 tanks in my loungeroom rn, 2 for giant bettas 2 for hatchlings, and the 5ft.. oh plus the outside turtle tank so in total..looking for future tanks online..I'm in the grips of MTS 😲..and loving it 😁 may I ask which channel Lucas is?
When starting a new tank, I always add a bit of tank water from each of my healthy established aquariums to try and build the microbiome, so far so good!
@stevengraham8841 it helps most definitely. There is a bit of controversy since many people assume the bacteria... nitrosoma and nitrobactcilis only live on filter media. However, they live on any surface... and some are floating around at any given time. Something less than 5% of the nitrogen conversion bacteria is in your water collumn compared with 95% on surfaces and media. That 5% will colonize the new tank's surfaces though... and usually we wait for the bacteria to just "appear" from thin air and cycle our tanks within 4 or 5 weeks. Well even 5% of the bacteria...heck, even 1% of the bacteria, still equals millions of tiny cells...and they double every 9 to 12 hours, growing exponentially. So water from an existing, cycled tank skips a week or two of the intial bacteria colonization
40yrs and never failed.. fill a tank no matter what size and have it running for 24hrs with a new filter going,then take a filter from a running fish tank and squeeze all that dirty water out that filter and then let that tank clear over 24 hours,then you can start putting fish in. Never failed me Yet.
I've been doing this with water from a pond nearby. That's how I was able to source scuds. I haven't been able to get any blackworms tho. But definitely agree the more nature is in the tank the more it takes care of itself. Another great vid!
Same ! I'm lucky enough to live in the mountains & have all kinds of little turtle ponds and streams that flow around the property. Black worms are something I haven't been able to find wild either, but I assume I'm just missing them, theyve GOTTA be there somewhere lol
Been sourcing scuds and water lice for about a few weeks now. Unfortunately my fish keep eating them so I'm trying to get a population going in one of my 10 gallons, I'm still hesitant to use actual pond water since I don't want leeches, hydras or flatworms. But at the same time I really want copepds, water daphina, worms etc. I do have detritus worms in my filters tho, have no clue how.
Commenting for algorithm! This is one of the best "organic" fish keeping channels I've encountered. I just came into the fish world with 2 fry texas shiners and a tadpole 😂😂 i want to keep their environment as close to natural and functional as possible and the information gained here is worth its weight in gold, frfr. Thanks so much!
Wow love this. Discovering a new world of fish and planted tanks. Wish I saw it 8 months when i started. Ive got into microbiome of the human gut recently as i suffer from IBS and a few intolerances. Natural is definitely thecway forward
Took a really bad fall last night…had intended to order my tank this month. Set off every pain causing illness I have and badly bruised my hip joint, top of my head and my hands. I may not be commenting for a a while. And I will put my tank off at least a month,maybe two, depending on how I heal. Fee;ing frustrated, upset, disappointed and generally cranky. Hope you are well! Pollen count is already off the chart up here in Delaware.
Im so sorry to read this! Hang in there... rest up and keep your chin up. Ill be here doing my thing when you're ready to get back to it. Best wishes to you
This has really filled in the gaps on my knowledge. I was about to start a new tank this month and was ordering supplies. this has certainly helped give a different untalked about perspective. too many people have these spotless tanks terrified of algae. I want natural
Welcome to the channel! There are 1200+ old videos here also, and weekly new content. UA-cam will not get the hint you want educational content unless you watch a few back to back every now and then...sunscribing sadly doesnt work alone these days. But i hope you enjoy anything you watch and have a great week!
I dare say in the tropics you won't need to inoculate your tanks. Keep the window open year round, open enough that birds and other big prey can't enter so that the wind can transfer everything into your tank Or put the tank outside for a spell and put mesh on it with decent openings on top of it so that the smaller stuff can enter the tank and the bigger stuff can't
I live in the tropics. Have darn damselfly nymphs in my tank. No idea how they got there as everything from plants to substrate I grow and make myself. Clearly stuff just flies into my tanks while my windows are open.
Haha yeah he and i starting publicly discussing the more natural ways of keeping fish, about 4 years ago. We have about 50 to 100 old streams together on his old daily morning show :)
I've recently just got back into having a tank and have never done much of a planted tank before as I used to have axolotls. I've been researching loads and I love your videos! So informative and you're really encouraging my new fixation 😅 this video in particular is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you so much for the amount of work and detail you put into these videos.
I love this! ❤ I have followed father fish and he preaches this kinds of biodiversity with dirted tanks. I want to try this next with a nano/Pico planted setup with just shrimp
I've only had a planted tank set up since January. I've got dirt under a deep sand substrate and I can already see it starting to stratify. It's all so interesting to watch! Now I am really wanting to start an outdoor pond, something like 200 or 300 gallons. I still need to watch your previous video, where I think you're talking about that sort of thing.
@@Fishtory I went from not really knowing anything at all about keeping fish, to becoming a fish nerd. Well, I'm almost a fish nerd. I've still got a lot to learn. I appreciate all the information you put out there for all of us. I have a little group of fish keepers I follow, and I particularly love the more natural way. Before I was only using gravel and hobs, now I've got dirt, sand, and tons of plants and am learning from you and Father Fish about the tiny creatures that make a tank a real ecosystem.
@@MandyJane123700can you help me by telling steps from beginning to end of seting up a tank like father fish. I always get confuse with sand and dirt and gravel..... Please can you elaborate by step 1 and 2. Please I want to setup an microbiome aquarium so it can thrive on its own and healthy fishes.
@@yahya_176 Hey, well I am not an expert, but I can tell you how I did it. If you already have the tank, you need to start with a shopping list. I used Aquascape Pond Plant potting soil for the dirt layer, but I wish I had used the proper supplements in it. So you should look into making yours better from the start. I should have put more long term nutrients in the soil, like calcium, magnesium and iron. Anyway, you put about an inch of dirt in the bottom, and then cover it with a couple inches of sand. I used quartz pool filter sand (and rinsed it first). After that it's up to you what kinds of decorations, and plants to use. Just research the plants. Definitely research the fish, because you don't want fish that will eat each other, or get too big for your tank.
@@MandyJane123700 you're an expert man❤. Thank you soo much for explaining this. If I didn't ask you this literally I'm gonna ruin my aquarium. Thanks alot. Btw how can I get these supplement that you mentioned? Sorry for any disturbance but I need someone to whom I can talk about, otherwise I know I'm gonna ruin it.
Setting up another 10g and hoping to get a deep substrate, dirty, and really push a living environment. Thanks for your work. Always earning those upward thumbs!
Thank God!!! FINALLLLLYYYY!!!! I have spent probably 20hrs over the past month looking for some sort of list... -Microorganisms, Macroorganisms, invertebrates, Crustaceans, Arthropods, Copeopods, Larvae, Insects, Etc.... That should be used to create a lasting food chain in an aquarium. I have been collecting organisms for weeks but I'm a novice and don't want an eco-crash. This is the first video or literature that even comes close!!! Thank you!!
It wont crash, but if you want to sustain the fish with insects and orgsnisms in the tank, youll need a creature that eats algae or a plants/algae as your bottom trophic level. So then the fish that eat insects or mid sized aquatic life, cant over harvest their foods...its a tall order if you want many fish, so most folks feed the fish some essential nutrients at least
Amazing vid! I was in reefing for 15 years for exactly this reason. People wanted to show me their prize sps, and I wanted to see their worms.amphipods, and skeleton shrimp. Lol, way too much work involved with salt. I've been trying paludariums but decided a nice low-tech guppy/shrimp tank sounded good. Had no idea you could get the reef dsb critters in fresh. Your tubs are great! I've been non-stop with UA-cam vids for a couple of weeks now. I was pretty excited to start a "natural" tank. Now I'm STOKED! I can't wait to see what I can evolve. Thanks! :)
What a great informative video. Confirms my 'experience" in over feeding, excess cleaning and fiddling with the tanks. Now I feed less, minimal cleaning and leave the tanks alone and worry less about algae. Otherwise you become a slave to the tanks. Since I started this process I have had only 2 fish die in my Cichlid tanks in the last 12 months and these were from fish aggression.
I've watched ton of your videos and I really love that we can do this sort of stuff it adds a whole new layer (or many) to the hobby. One thing that I've always been looking for is something we can keep in the aquariums that remove the last manual 'active' intervention of tending to the plants as they overgrow. We add nutrients by way of food for the fish and we only remove them when we trim the plants. Are there any fish (maybe it's invertebrates that are in turn eaten by fish) we could keep that would eat the plants (just new growth ideally) so that we could feed less and trim less. So we'd have a pretty much self sustaining ecosystem?
Yeah its hard with hardy plants...but duckweed and softer plants can be eaten by goldfish or some plecos and cichlids...but they tend to eat more than you'd hope, or not enough hehe. Im sure a balance is possible though!
@@Fishtory Hi, thanks for the reply. I could definitely look into a way to protect an section of the Duckweed from the fish either with hardscape or something artificial so it could 'seed' the tank even if the fish ate all they had access to. It might be harder with submersed plants if the fish are intent to eat all of it. I've mused with the idea of adding some solid horizontal grating (like plastic egg crate) halfway up the substrate to protect the roots from the fish, that way the plants could always grow back but maybe they would just get eaten as soon as they sprout back... Definitely going to start a new tank and try some of this stuff out though.
Yet another incredible video as usual. Great stuff man. I came to this way of tank keeping partly out of laziness and partly through a life long deep understanding of nature and ecosystems. I appreciate you providing the scientific details to back it up. Love your stuff man. I have been meaning to reach out. I have had some of the most incredible excursions into my local parks recently all thanks to you and a few of your videos. Made some life long memories and I can not thank you enough for the inspiration you’ve given me since I’ve found your channel. I have some pictures and videos I’d love to share. Is there a discord or something?
No discord yet, but facebook and email i can share it with on livestreams alexanderjwilliamson@gmail.com... but thank you for writing! Im so glad you enjoy the channel and enjoy getting out in nature and getting that magic inspiration and relaxation from the earth! Welcome also!
I have a 20 gal with a ton of plants and I never gravel vac anymore. Ive got way a bunch of plants to utilize the extra waste and nutrients. Happy to finally reach that point!
Alex, we all owe you a ton for all you've shared with us. What I want to know is what's it going to take to get you to Aquashella Dallas this year so I can buy you a brew or share a bowl with you or SOMETHING🤔
Haha um honestly... a plane flight....i was asked to speak at one point, but it never ran up the proper channels...im still knocking on doors though haha.. if i make it ... you'll hear about it for sure. And thank you for the kindness!
If you have insectivore fish as I do it certainly doesn't hurt to farm the mosquito larvae. I would just go out with a net and scoop them into a jar full of aquarium water and use a pipette to feed them to my Betta, CPDs, and panda corys. Watching them hunt their food is so satisfying. If you never let them get to the stage of hatching out it reduces the mosquito population because they would otherwise successfully lay their eggs elsewhere. It does demand daily attention though or the mosquitos will win out. It never occurred to me to also harvest the algae and microfauna as well so great video.
I do that very same thing...but didnt want to advocate it for everyone...i have a whole fish room and can feed 10 or 20 to each tank and know nothing will ever mature. Great point though!
Your “deep dive” into your subject matter is pretty cool. Sometimes I wonder if our aquariums are extensions of ourselves or are we extensions of our aquariums - it’s a kindred connection of sorts … in a spiritual sense
Thank you! The general takeaway I got was: let there be standing water outside! We have a big mosquito problem where I live, would covering with a fine mesh still work? Something fine enough to prevent mosquitoes but not much else.
These videos are awesome! So informational and well done. I can't wait to have an established tank. I do have a few questions? How long have you had these buckets? How do you make each one acidic or neutral? Do you ever get rid of the water? I'll eventually have a Betta tank and will definitely do this method.
I just add crushed coral for akaline and leaves for acidic. And time is 6 months to a year ideally...but even a few months or weeks depending on where you live, will yeild much diversity
And i let the water over flow, but dont really change it unless it smells fowl or sulphury... muddy and earthy smells are to be expected over time though
@@Fishtory Okay, I live in Texas and we definitely have terrible mosquitos, so the process would be too find a source of pond water that isn't too heavily populated (ducks, fish, turtles etc .) Then keep in house for a couple weeks to let any bugs hatch? And then keep outside covered with mesh cloth or wrack to prevent mosquitos?
@@itslaquesha good questions...I was wondering the same thing as I tried a small pond this summer that quickly got overrun with mosquito larva. I had to stop. :(
Hey mate, greetings from Fife 🏴, great video again, i got dragonfly & damsel fly larva in some of my mini ponds recently as i had bogbeans from a local pond in them, a good way to get rid of them is to suck them out with a turkey bastor in the dark with a flashlight, also couldnt agree more on the bio diversity thing im not as learned as yourself on it but i have outdoor ponds and tubs full of daphnia, cyclops etc which i pull out with a turkey bastor and im raising baby bettas i bred on water straight out my outdoor tubs as its full of micro things (don't know all the names) they thrive on it, i have 40 or so all from an earlier breeding living in a 150l tank, males & females together, i believe if you feed them plenty live food plus treats and spend time ticklin their bellys they aren't as aggressive, i can only speak for myself tho on this as i get clipped by all the "betta experts" for having them together as they're meant to be alone "allegedly" 😉 keep up the good work pal, cheers 🥃
certainly important for an aquatic ecosystem. grab a jar of muddy water from a pond, river, lake or stream and leave it for a month. the life inside will be mindblowing
L immensely enjoyed this video. I think I am already headed in this direction to a big degree. I have many aquariums hooked together and grow a growing number of plants. L like the idea of a biome that I can leave for a few days and gp on a trip without major worries about the fish having food. Most of all I like to have an environment that my fish feel natural, secure, and at home in. I have a kiddy pool out back that I landscaped around to make a pond for my big Goldfish but a racoon or farrel cat caught and killed most of them so I brought the survivors back inside. I am going to put some big PCV out in it for goos hiding places and take out some frog bits and duck weed to give them cover. I probably have some of those microbes and small life forms already living out there. I am going to have to clean the area up and utilize it. Thank you for this great video.
Never got bored watching your videos, Alex 😊 By the way, both my tanks… the betta tank, the tank with Tiger Barbs and Cory Cats… are jungles now 😅 Red root floaters covering the top 🥰 So… I am now in the process of creating another water world… third tank 😊 Thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much 🙏🙏🙏😊😊😊
I’ve been keeping fish with this method for a couple years now. I’ve been keeping 5 little phoenix Rasbora in a 20 gallon tank for over a year now. I have never fed them. The only thing that goes into my tank is light.
Amazing, always to the point delevering a world of deep information. Thank you for your research and sharing. Also I would like to propose you to teach us how and where to do our own research, and maybe share what you read with us to allow us to go even deeper.
Ill leave this right here for now... ua-cam.com/video/rPmrVKH83pA/v-deo.html Also scroll back on the community tab. Members see more, but theres still lots there
Lol yeah i started youtube about 3 years prior to him, but hes been preaching the same methods for a few decades, so when i met him and he started up a channel, it was like fate. For a year or so we were both on one another's channels a whole lot.
The high quality of your stuff would be good enough, the rate that you pump out these information-dense videos is shocking. There's no doubt in my mind that this is THE aquarium channel to watch
Well i am honored to read this, and I work as hard as i can, trying to put 40 to 60 hours into the research, filming, outlines, editing and responding/interacting with viewers. So it means a great deal to me, to know that you can tell the difference between the large budget channels vs mine haha. Have a great weekend
Right it's internet gold for me!
Agreed 100%
💯 dude.
It's really one of the best out there 💯💗✌️👍
excellent review Alex. This is a fundamental piece of work.
Glad you think so too! Cheers
Father fish! So cool seeing you comment on other great videos! Thank you both so much! Both major inspirations to my return to the hobby. Cheers 🍻
Your fish are telling you they need more space.
Yes I'm a fish whisperer!
it baffles me that you have been the only one commenting on this in the year after it's been uploaded. The fish are living in healthy water, just no too much of it.
@@Someoneonthisplanet1979 probably because fish don't care about anything, so long as their basic needs are met. The fish are able to move freely and orient themselves easily, their water is perfect quality, and they're adequately fed. Some fish _do_ need lots of space to quickly swim around, but plecos and angelfish couldn't care less.
So smart yet hasn't figured that out some how
Do these types of fish tanks smell?
Of course not!@@ryu-ken
Brother this is why I love your channel. Right in line with how I approach tanks. I dont want a perfect tank I have to constantly maintain. I want a interesting little self running world in a box I get to observe from the outside.
Amen. And thank you kindly
Thank you so much for this. This gave me SO much inspiration! I feel lucky to live in Oregon, because I have tons of healthy bodies of water that I can access. I went to a local creek (a part of a local river) and collected some decaying leaves/mulm/organic matter and some water, and brought it home. I got a big rubber stock tank to make into a "pond". I recently did an overhaul on my main tank, and switched the gravel substrate to a dirted substrate. I used the old gravel to fill the bottom of the tub that sits outside. I actually tested the water from the creek out of curiosity prior to using anything I collected from it. I tested for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kh, gh, and copper. I used some of the mulm/water I got and put it into a jar so I could observe it. So far, I've seen various species of copepods/daphnia, seed shrimp, scuds, water mites, water beetles, ramshorn snails, bladder snails, and some nematodes. I went to a local pond shop and bought a water lily (came with free frog eggs, filamentous algae, and more snails!). The shop owner was even nice enough to give me a few gallons of green water for free to put in there. Now, I have a whole miniature ecosystem in there and it's doing amazing! Sorry for the boring essay, but I'm incredibly excited about this. I'm so thankful to have gotten this project idea from you. Thank you for everything you do.
I really appreciate you Alex getting this out there, you and Father Fish are sharing how to have wonderfully healthy aquariums naturally 🐠
nicely done! I heard once "never criticize someone for mispronouncing a word, because it means they read it"
Haha love it
It makes me feel super happy to know that there are people out there that truly are progressives for this hobby. This information is so valuable and needed. Everytime I go into my LFS I feel like I need to teach them something 😂
Lol just remember that there is no right way to keep fish....but a few wrong ways
Some major stores pay their employees to lie to make a sale.
I can't talk to the employees at my LFS about anything, really. A few years ago there was one guy that I could talk to. But now it's like I feel dumber after I talk to any of them.
@@FishtoryI’ve heard someone say there’s fish keeping and then there’s fish abuse 😂😅
I'm a huge biology and it's very refreshing to find an aquarius that actually knows what they're talking about.
@@AbdullahAzrael why thank you so very much! I try my best
Biggest biology I ever did see
The amount of knowledge, context and understanding you bring is astounding.. I've learned so much and my tanks have never looked better.
This comment truly makes my week. Thank you so very much. Im honored to know the channel is of use to you. Happy fish keeping
BRILLIANT! I just sat thru a college biology class by watching this thoughtful and progressive video. I left a storage tub on my deck last spring and summer. Rainwater accumulated and things started growing in there. Tree frogs were attracted to my deck for the 1st time in my 10 years in this house. So, tadpoles appeared. My chickens loved to drink out of this container (forget the fresh water bowl!) and had access to nibbling on the tadpoles. Deck biome, lol! Oddly enough, I have containers of standing water and no mosquitos here. I’m totally onboard with the balance-of-nature systems. I had an aquarium years ago and OH, you are tempting me back again! It’s a wonderful hobby. Continued good fortune with this channel,. You’ve got LOTS of great info to share!
Your channel and tank philosophy are right in line with mine, I’ve been keeping aquaria for 40+ years, and have tried all different ‘tech’ levels, there’s just something about the simple balanced tank with basic lighting, deep sand substrate, heavy planting, low bio load and a simple sponge filter is just so appealing and natural
It’s a similar philosophy as ‘Father Fish’ but without all the unnecessary and illogical religious bullshit which has no place in an aquarium keeping channel.
Yes, I know FF is a religious ‘father’ and he does overall do a good job of keeping the two subjects separate, and I appreciate that, but with your channel, I know it’s going to be just the facts on aquaria and no illogical extraneous tangents, and I appreciate that even more :)
real talk over here - I feel the same about Father Fish. Such good pointers and teaching, mixed in with... general weird old man stuff
I think you are the perfect example of "If you do what you love.." I smiled when you took us to your backyard because it wasn't unlike my backyard growing up, except we only had mosquito and tadpoles, and the occasional snake. I am always eager to hear what you have to share with us for the sole purpose of creating the most ideal environment for our aquatic animals. Your love of aquatic husbandry is contagious and we are lucky you aren't stingy with your talents or knowledge.
That is so kind of you to write. Thank you! Nature is my vice hehe
Your Silky looks just like our cat Matcha 😊
My wife surprised me with a betta fish for my birthday last week....never raised a fish before but I am a total nature freak so right away all the sterile tank / fake decorations started to trigger me and also the thought of weekly water changes and adding chemicals to the tank etc.
So the past week i've been traveling the interwebs from wormhole to wormhole, came to you from the Father Fish comment section and feel like I found home, thanks for doing this! Just cleaned out a 15 gallon tank, setting up a substrate, found some river plants, gonna buy some more and a handful of tank mates.
Your videos have made the deeper knowledge so accessible and reassured me this is possible and inspired me with your thick ass foliage. You're a good human being! My heart thanks you!
Aww thank you. And thanks for caring for the nature in our world. I value father fish greatly, Lou is a friend, but we have a few disagreements, just that i think you can do things 3 or 4 "correct" ways...but i prefer the way he leans towards also. :) best of luck my friend!
@@Fishtory I understand and feel similarly, hence why your work resonates with me. FFish seems like a great guy but I dont want to be too narrow in my thinking, plus you actually explore the details and science of these natural ways of fishkeeping which is more my jive. Grateful for you both!
I love a little ecosystem I created for my cpd's tank.
I started by adding moss, some aquarium plants. Then I added snail eggs and fish eggs. When my fry hatched and I started feedinf them infusoria. I bought some life daphnia to feed the adults and decided to put some in fry tank.
They started breeding there.
My fry grew, I probably overfed some and started noticing detrite worms.
I also got a lot of daphnia. And my baby snails grew.
Now my fry reached the size where they hunt for baby daphnia and small worms.
I had to spend 2 days in the hospital and couldn't feed the tank. But all my fry survived and grew. 😊
Tank also looks spectacular. Full of life. Daphnia, fry, snails, copepods. Everywhere you look, something is alive and moving.
I still feed infusoria, microworms and some artemia.
👏 amazing.
How do the daphnia survived in the fry tank? I mean what they were eating? Infisoria? Thanks
@@Click771 infusoria
Watching now, great info. My oldest tank has been up for 10 years. It's gone through many iterations and always interesting to see its changes. Now it's got 3 Iberian crested newts, some guppies, and tons of cherry shrimp.
Whoa! What a mix of critters. Cool
Thanks! Teacher in a highschool here and aquaryist. I've been breeding White Clouds in my classroom for a year. These tips will bring my tank to the needed next level.
So glad to hear it! Thats really amazing of you to do. Im sure the students love seeing the process. I highly recomend doing kribs or some dwarf cichlid with parental care too! Kids go wild for that... or guppies and mixing colors or traits with punnett square predictions as an asignment
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.
So nice of you! Thank you
"I'm just throwin something out there!" Bro, you're awesome, so intelligent and thoughtful. I'm learning so much
Super interesting title. I'm sure this video is going to blow my mind! Thanks for all your hard work putting out such awesome content. And for being THE go to for finding info on giving my critters their best life possible!! 🙏✌️
ThanK YOU for watching, commenting and supporting what i create
@@Fishtory I just wish I was at an expendable income lvl that I could monetarily support the channel. You are literally my fish info walking encyclopedia! I appreciate your wisdom so much!!🙏
I've kept tanks some years now, always wanted tanks like yours, but mine wont thrive. I hope I can achieve this with my tanks. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. As a microbiologist myself I was always afraid of introducing pests/diseases. Time to see the good things of these useful microbes instead of being afraid.
Its always possible, but remember our fish come from pretty gnarly little mud holes and tannic creeks, puddles and silty rivers... undoubtly to their microbiome and immunesystems, it is everyday normal stuff, where as the pet trade, fish stores and holding facilities are the super spreader, bad Pathogen havens
@@Fishtory you're totally right. Never thought about it in this way. Thank you!
Excellent, Alex. This is the story that must be told.
Most the folks in the comments seem to be mentioning you :) i think nature is winning out, slowly but surely. Congrats on that viral video you created last week as well! People want to / are finally ready to hear your message.
@@Fishtory We are together in this Alex. Without your input I could not be as far along. With Lucas we 3 are changing the hobby.
Well as a new sub to both of you, I'm grateful for the knowledge share..I've kept and bred turtles the past 24 yrs but only just got into aquatic plants and set my 5ft tank up again for some angels..wish I'd seen the dirted set ups before but at some point I'll break it down and redo, had to laugh when I saw your faux barrel tubs as I just bought 4 identical ones and set the first two up yesterday for some plants..much love and thanks to you both for sharing your extensive understandings, from Australia🙏 🇦🇺🦘🐨 I have 5 tanks in my loungeroom rn, 2 for giant bettas 2 for hatchlings, and the 5ft.. oh plus the outside turtle tank so in total..looking for future tanks online..I'm in the grips of MTS 😲..and loving it 😁 may I ask which channel Lucas is?
Protect this man at all costs!!! Golden information
Haha thats very kind of you to say
I don't even have an aquarium and I really enjoy watching your material.
Awww awesome! Thanks. That makes my day! Welcome
Another amazing and informative video! Thank you for sharing your methods! Ecosystem tanks are so much easier to maintain and fascinating to watch 🙂
Thanks for watching!
I never get tired of watching this
I'm all for plants, but the bigger fish need more swimming room.
When starting a new tank, I always add a bit of tank water from each of my healthy established aquariums to try and build the microbiome, so far so good!
Great plan! I do too!
Apparently that doesn't work I've been told
@stevengraham8841 it helps most definitely. There is a bit of controversy since many people assume the bacteria... nitrosoma and nitrobactcilis only live on filter media. However, they live on any surface... and some are floating around at any given time. Something less than 5% of the nitrogen conversion bacteria is in your water collumn compared with 95% on surfaces and media. That 5% will colonize the new tank's surfaces though... and usually we wait for the bacteria to just "appear" from thin air and cycle our tanks within 4 or 5 weeks. Well even 5% of the bacteria...heck, even 1% of the bacteria, still equals millions of tiny cells...and they double every 9 to 12 hours, growing exponentially. So water from an existing, cycled tank skips a week or two of the intial bacteria colonization
40yrs and never failed.. fill a tank no matter what size and have it running for 24hrs with a new filter going,then take a filter from a running fish tank and squeeze all that dirty water out that filter and then let that tank clear over 24 hours,then you can start putting fish in. Never failed me Yet.
I love/hate when u make a video I have to watch like 9 times to understand lol
Lol my bad/good?
I've been doing this with water from a pond nearby. That's how I was able to source scuds. I haven't been able to get any blackworms tho. But definitely agree the more nature is in the tank the more it takes care of itself. Another great vid!
That is awesome!
Same ! I'm lucky enough to live in the mountains & have all kinds of little turtle ponds and streams that flow around the property. Black worms are something I haven't been able to find wild either, but I assume I'm just missing them, theyve GOTTA be there somewhere lol
Been sourcing scuds and water lice for about a few weeks now. Unfortunately my fish keep eating them so I'm trying to get a population going in one of my 10 gallons, I'm still hesitant to use actual pond water since I don't want leeches, hydras or flatworms. But at the same time I really want copepds, water daphina, worms etc. I do have detritus worms in my filters tho, have no clue how.
@RaptorJeSus scuds like hanging out at the water surface especially around floating plants ...and in darkness
The more i watch of your videos the more im convinced your are the best aquarium channel on YT... 💯
Wow, thank you!
Commenting for algorithm! This is one of the best "organic" fish keeping channels I've encountered. I just came into the fish world with 2 fry texas shiners and a tadpole 😂😂 i want to keep their environment as close to natural and functional as possible and the information gained here is worth its weight in gold, frfr. Thanks so much!
Welcome aboard! And thank you
Wow love this. Discovering a new world of fish and planted tanks. Wish I saw it 8 months when i started.
Ive got into microbiome of the human gut recently as i suffer from IBS and a few intolerances.
Natural is definitely thecway forward
I hope you feel better soon!
Took a really bad fall last night…had intended to order my tank this month. Set off every pain causing illness I have and badly bruised my hip joint, top of my head and my hands. I may not be commenting for a a while. And I will put my tank off at least a month,maybe two, depending on how I heal. Fee;ing frustrated, upset, disappointed and generally cranky. Hope you are well! Pollen count is already off the chart up here in Delaware.
Im so sorry to read this! Hang in there... rest up and keep your chin up. Ill be here doing my thing when you're ready to get back to it. Best wishes to you
This has really filled in the gaps on my knowledge. I was about to start a new tank this month and was ordering supplies. this has certainly helped give a different untalked about perspective. too many people have these spotless tanks terrified of algae. I want natural
I agree
I have been looking for an aquarium channel like this. Right on.
Welcome to the channel! There are 1200+ old videos here also, and weekly new content. UA-cam will not get the hint you want educational content unless you watch a few back to back every now and then...sunscribing sadly doesnt work alone these days. But i hope you enjoy anything you watch and have a great week!
I dare say in the tropics you won't need to inoculate your tanks.
Keep the window open year round, open enough that birds and other big prey can't enter so that the wind can transfer everything into your tank
Or put the tank outside for a spell and put mesh on it with decent openings on top of it so that the smaller stuff can enter the tank and the bigger stuff can't
100% this is correct
I live in the tropics. Have darn damselfly nymphs in my tank. No idea how they got there as everything from plants to substrate I grow and make myself. Clearly stuff just flies into my tanks while my windows are open.
You are like a young Father Fish! Great content
Haha yeah he and i starting publicly discussing the more natural ways of keeping fish, about 4 years ago. We have about 50 to 100 old streams together on his old daily morning show :)
I've recently just got back into having a tank and have never done much of a planted tank before as I used to have axolotls. I've been researching loads and I love your videos! So informative and you're really encouraging my new fixation 😅 this video in particular is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you so much for the amount of work and detail you put into these videos.
No worries 👍 enjoy the "got to catch em all" phase of the hobby haha :)
“Over here is Fresh Neptune (Joe Namath) rockin the shag tubs”
Hahaha you caught that eh?
I love this! ❤ I have followed father fish and he preaches this kinds of biodiversity with dirted tanks. I want to try this next with a nano/Pico planted setup with just shrimp
Go for it! And tell Lou I say" hello friend!"
This is what natural fish keeping is all about. :)
Amen
Looks like the neighborhood mosquito breeder… lmao 18:39
I think it’s this channel for the why, and Serpadesign for the how.
I'm honored! I'd love to work with Tanner some day. Maybe if enough people mention it to him lol 😆 thanks for watching !
Wooo! ❤ been awaiting this! Thanks for another amazing video Alex! ❤️
Glad to hear it! Thank you kindly 🙏
I've only had a planted tank set up since January. I've got dirt under a deep sand substrate and I can already see it starting to stratify. It's all so interesting to watch! Now I am really wanting to start an outdoor pond, something like 200 or 300 gallons. I still need to watch your previous video, where I think you're talking about that sort of thing.
Definitely! The whole creation of an ecosystem and biotope is part art, part science, part luck and all love
@@Fishtory I went from not really knowing anything at all about keeping fish, to becoming a fish nerd. Well, I'm almost a fish nerd. I've still got a lot to learn. I appreciate all the information you put out there for all of us. I have a little group of fish keepers I follow, and I particularly love the more natural way. Before I was only using gravel and hobs, now I've got dirt, sand, and tons of plants and am learning from you and Father Fish about the tiny creatures that make a tank a real ecosystem.
@@MandyJane123700can you help me by telling steps from beginning to end of seting up a tank like father fish. I always get confuse with sand and dirt and gravel..... Please can you elaborate by step 1 and 2. Please I want to setup an microbiome aquarium so it can thrive on its own and healthy fishes.
@@yahya_176 Hey, well I am not an expert, but I can tell you how I did it. If you already have the tank, you need to start with a shopping list. I used Aquascape Pond Plant potting soil for the dirt layer, but I wish I had used the proper supplements in it. So you should look into making yours better from the start. I should have put more long term nutrients in the soil, like calcium, magnesium and iron. Anyway, you put about an inch of dirt in the bottom, and then cover it with a couple inches of sand. I used quartz pool filter sand (and rinsed it first). After that it's up to you what kinds of decorations, and plants to use. Just research the plants. Definitely research the fish, because you don't want fish that will eat each other, or get too big for your tank.
@@MandyJane123700 you're an expert man❤.
Thank you soo much for explaining this. If I didn't ask you this literally I'm gonna ruin my aquarium. Thanks alot. Btw how can I get these supplement that you mentioned? Sorry for any disturbance but I need someone to whom I can talk about, otherwise I know I'm gonna ruin it.
Watching father fish made the algorithm bless me with your channel, thanks so mucho for this information packed video, you got a new sub :D
Welcome aboard! :) and thanks to Lou haha 😄
Setting up another 10g and hoping to get a deep substrate, dirty, and really push a living environment. Thanks for your work. Always earning those upward thumbs!
Good luck! And thank you
Thank God!!! FINALLLLLYYYY!!!!
I have spent probably 20hrs over the past month looking for some sort of list...
-Microorganisms, Macroorganisms, invertebrates, Crustaceans, Arthropods, Copeopods, Larvae, Insects, Etc....
That should be used to create a lasting food chain in an aquarium.
I have been collecting organisms for weeks but I'm a novice and don't want an eco-crash.
This is the first video or literature that even comes close!!! Thank you!!
It wont crash, but if you want to sustain the fish with insects and orgsnisms in the tank, youll need a creature that eats algae or a plants/algae as your bottom trophic level. So then the fish that eat insects or mid sized aquatic life, cant over harvest their foods...its a tall order if you want many fish, so most folks feed the fish some essential nutrients at least
@@Fishtorydi you have a video on how to start that without having the fish harvesting all the live food? Thanks mate
Definitely shows you do your research. As always great content
Thank you kindly
I appreciate the understanding of nature you have! This is a great introduction for people to understand the aquarium hobby and world!
So nice of you
your knowledge is contagious, amazing how far is extend, thanks for sharing!
So nice of you to say. I'm glad to hear it
Amazing vid! I was in reefing for 15 years for exactly this reason. People wanted to show me their prize sps, and I wanted to see their worms.amphipods, and skeleton shrimp. Lol, way too much work involved with salt.
I've been trying paludariums but decided a nice low-tech guppy/shrimp tank sounded good. Had no idea you could get the reef dsb critters in fresh. Your tubs are great! I've been non-stop with UA-cam vids for a couple of weeks now. I was pretty excited to start a "natural" tank. Now I'm STOKED! I can't wait to see what I can evolve.
Thanks! :)
Right on! Best of luck to you, my friend!
Thankyou so much for you time and excellent advice 🙏🏻👍🏻
This channel is the absolute BEST!!!!!
I'm so glad you think so! I try! Welcome 🙏 officially if I hadnt said it before
What a great informative video. Confirms my 'experience" in over feeding, excess cleaning and fiddling with the tanks. Now I feed less, minimal cleaning and leave the tanks alone and worry less about algae. Otherwise you become a slave to the tanks. Since I started this process I have had only 2 fish die in my Cichlid tanks in the last 12 months and these were from fish aggression.
100% :)
Fantastic video!!! So very informative. Thank you so much for sharing.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for hitting on my favorite part of having a tank!
Meee too
Nice! Crazy how you got sticklebacks in there too.
They had babies in the tub i guess haha
I've watched ton of your videos and I really love that we can do this sort of stuff it adds a whole new layer (or many) to the hobby. One thing that I've always been looking for is something we can keep in the aquariums that remove the last manual 'active' intervention of tending to the plants as they overgrow. We add nutrients by way of food for the fish and we only remove them when we trim the plants. Are there any fish (maybe it's invertebrates that are in turn eaten by fish) we could keep that would eat the plants (just new growth ideally) so that we could feed less and trim less. So we'd have a pretty much self sustaining ecosystem?
Yeah its hard with hardy plants...but duckweed and softer plants can be eaten by goldfish or some plecos and cichlids...but they tend to eat more than you'd hope, or not enough hehe. Im sure a balance is possible though!
@@Fishtory Hi, thanks for the reply. I could definitely look into a way to protect an section of the Duckweed from the fish either with hardscape or something artificial so it could 'seed' the tank even if the fish ate all they had access to. It might be harder with submersed plants if the fish are intent to eat all of it. I've mused with the idea of adding some solid horizontal grating (like plastic egg crate) halfway up the substrate to protect the roots from the fish, that way the plants could always grow back but maybe they would just get eaten as soon as they sprout back... Definitely going to start a new tank and try some of this stuff out though.
Yet another incredible video as usual. Great stuff man. I came to this way of tank keeping partly out of laziness and partly through a life long deep understanding of nature and ecosystems. I appreciate you providing the scientific details to back it up. Love your stuff man. I have been meaning to reach out. I have had some of the most incredible excursions into my local parks recently all thanks to you and a few of your videos. Made some life long memories and I can not thank you enough for the inspiration you’ve given me since I’ve found your channel. I have some pictures and videos I’d love to share. Is there a discord or something?
No discord yet, but facebook and email i can share it with on livestreams alexanderjwilliamson@gmail.com... but thank you for writing! Im so glad you enjoy the channel and enjoy getting out in nature and getting that magic inspiration and relaxation from the earth! Welcome also!
I have a 20 gal with a ton of plants and I never gravel vac anymore. Ive got way a bunch of plants to utilize the extra waste and nutrients. Happy to finally reach that point!
Awesome to hear!
How do you deal with mosquitos? Would your method work if I put a screen on top of these outdoor buckets (to prevent mosquitos laying eggs in it)?
Alex, we all owe you a ton for all you've shared with us. What I want to know is what's it going to take to get you to Aquashella Dallas this year so I can buy you a brew or share a bowl with you or SOMETHING🤔
Haha um honestly... a plane flight....i was asked to speak at one point, but it never ran up the proper channels...im still knocking on doors though haha.. if i make it ... you'll hear about it for sure. And thank you for the kindness!
this was a very informative video and opened up my eyes to a different way of keeping an aquarium!
Glad to hear it. 🙏 thanks for stopping by :)
Absolutely brilliantly explained. Thank you. I’m in Scotland. And just thinking with the energy crisis. I need a simpler more natural aquarium
After work i tune in to ur channels till i fall asleep and wake up still hearing ur voice i love all and every single contents of u
Aww thanks so much 🙏
Great information as always sir 😊
Thanks for watching Jeff!
Replaying back to back
If you have insectivore fish as I do it certainly doesn't hurt to farm the mosquito larvae. I would just go out with a net and scoop them into a jar full of aquarium water and use a pipette to feed them to my Betta, CPDs, and panda corys. Watching them hunt their food is so satisfying. If you never let them get to the stage of hatching out it reduces the mosquito population because they would otherwise successfully lay their eggs elsewhere. It does demand daily attention though or the mosquitos will win out. It never occurred to me to also harvest the algae and microfauna as well so great video.
I do that very same thing...but didnt want to advocate it for everyone...i have a whole fish room and can feed 10 or 20 to each tank and know nothing will ever mature. Great point though!
@@Fishtory so that is how you deal with the mosquito larvae that show up in the tubs?
Hey bro, really cool. We need to promote natural sustainability in this hobby
Definitely. Thank you
Your “deep dive” into your subject matter is pretty cool. Sometimes I wonder if our aquariums are extensions of ourselves or are we extensions of our aquariums - it’s a kindred connection of sorts … in a spiritual sense
I understand your sentiment 100%
Symbiosis ❤
Wow that's great for a natural aquarium
Thank you
As a lifelong fisherman and aquarist, I wholly agree.
Thank you! The general takeaway I got was: let there be standing water outside!
We have a big mosquito problem where I live, would covering with a fine mesh still work? Something fine enough to prevent mosquitoes but not much else.
Lots of fish enjoy eating mosquito larvae you just have to keep it harvested so they don't actually hatch out
Love this Alex!! always the best of the best my friend....❤🥰
Aww thank you Mary Paige! I miss you and hope life is treating you right.
Awesome report! thank you for your work Sir
My pleasure!
These videos are awesome! So informational and well done. I can't wait to have an established tank. I do have a few questions? How long have you had these buckets? How do you make each one acidic or neutral? Do you ever get rid of the water? I'll eventually have a Betta tank and will definitely do this method.
I just add crushed coral for akaline and leaves for acidic. And time is 6 months to a year ideally...but even a few months or weeks depending on where you live, will yeild much diversity
And i let the water over flow, but dont really change it unless it smells fowl or sulphury... muddy and earthy smells are to be expected over time though
@@Fishtory Okay, I live in Texas and we definitely have terrible mosquitos, so the process would be too find a source of pond water that isn't too heavily populated (ducks, fish, turtles etc .) Then keep in house for a couple weeks to let any bugs hatch? And then keep outside covered with mesh cloth or wrack to prevent mosquitos?
@@itslaquesha good questions...I was wondering the same thing as I tried a small pond this summer that quickly got overrun with mosquito larva. I had to stop. :(
Thank you so much, this video is greatly informative and inspiring. For me it's the missing link in the road to real ecosystem aquarium.
Hey mate, greetings from Fife 🏴, great video again, i got dragonfly & damsel fly larva in some of my mini ponds recently as i had bogbeans from a local pond in them, a good way to get rid of them is to suck them out with a turkey bastor in the dark with a flashlight, also couldnt agree more on the bio diversity thing im not as learned as yourself on it but i have outdoor ponds and tubs full of daphnia, cyclops etc which i pull out with a turkey bastor and im raising baby bettas i bred on water straight out my outdoor tubs as its full of micro things (don't know all the names) they thrive on it, i have 40 or so all from an earlier breeding living in a 150l tank, males & females together, i believe if you feed them plenty live food plus treats and spend time ticklin their bellys they aren't as aggressive, i can only speak for myself tho on this as i get clipped by all the "betta experts" for having them together as they're meant to be alone "allegedly" 😉 keep up the good work pal, cheers 🥃
Thats exactly how i do it too! Cheers! Keep on keeping on, my friend.
❤❤❤ I love this! Thank-you! ❤❤❤
certainly important for an aquatic ecosystem. grab a jar of muddy water from a pond, river, lake or stream and leave it for a month. the life inside will be mindblowing
L immensely enjoyed this video. I think I am already headed in this direction to a big degree. I have many aquariums hooked together and grow a growing number of plants. L like the idea of a biome that I can leave for a few days and gp on a trip without major worries about the fish having food. Most of all I like to have an environment that my fish feel natural, secure, and at home in. I have a kiddy pool out back that I landscaped around to make a pond for my big Goldfish but a racoon or farrel cat caught and killed most of them so I brought the survivors back inside. I am going to put some big PCV out in it for goos hiding places and take out some frog bits and duck weed to give them cover. I probably have some of those microbes and small life forms already living out there. I am going to have to clean the area up and utilize it. Thank you for this great video.
That tank is awesome. Thanks for the information.
Love this information. Ty 😊
You are so welcome!
I'm so glad I found your channel. Love all of the information, thank you....❤
You are so welcome! Im glad you found it as well!
Thank you again for your valuable insight.
Of course. Thanks for watching
Great information especially in the final outside section of the video
Glad you liked it
Never got bored watching your videos, Alex 😊
By the way, both my tanks… the betta tank, the tank with Tiger Barbs and Cory Cats… are jungles now 😅
Red root floaters covering the top 🥰
So… I am now in the process of creating another water world… third tank 😊
Thank you, thank you, thank you soooo much 🙏🙏🙏😊😊😊
I’ve been keeping fish with this method for a couple years now. I’ve been keeping 5 little phoenix Rasbora in a 20 gallon tank for over a year now. I have never fed them. The only thing that goes into my tank is light.
Great work! Thank you for being an inspiration and source of information
i LOVE THIS STUFF, great content, very educational!
Thank you
Silky is so sweet!
this video has been an amazing one and has helped me so much
So glad to hear it!
Great information
Glad you think so!
Thanks for all your information!
My pleasure!
Amazing, always to the point delevering a world of deep information. Thank you for your research and sharing. Also I would like to propose you to teach us how and where to do our own research, and maybe share what you read with us to allow us to go even deeper.
Ill leave this right here for now... ua-cam.com/video/rPmrVKH83pA/v-deo.html
Also scroll back on the community tab. Members see more, but theres still lots there
Again a super interesting video. Thank u
Glad you enjoyed it
Wow, you are like the secret protege/prince/son of father fish
Lol yeah i started youtube about 3 years prior to him, but hes been preaching the same methods for a few decades, so when i met him and he started up a channel, it was like fate. For a year or so we were both on one another's channels a whole lot.
Alex i am addicted to your contents❤
I'll allow it. Haha thanks Johnny