#45 – Brackish Tanks

BY UNPOPULAR DEMAND

3 years ago
Transcript
Speaker A:

Hey, Jim.

Speaker B:

What's up, Adam? whoa.

Speaker A:

Dude, that thing is a monster. I've never seen one so big. I hope you don't mind me staring.

Speaker B:

No worries. Get an iphone while we're in here. My wife loves it. She tells all her friends how happy it makes her.

Speaker A:

I wish I had a big one like yours.

Speaker B:

My wife.

Speaker A:

I've never talked about mine that way.

Speaker B:

I'll tell you my secret. Just keep it to yourself. We don't want every guy in the neighborhood having a beast like this.

Speaker C:

You're right.

Speaker A:

Absolutely right. So what's the trick to making mine bigger?

Speaker B:

Late at night, when the old lady's asleep, hop on your computer and head on over to Joe shrimp shack.

Speaker C:

That's it?

Speaker B:

Oh, yeah. Just use promo code. Aquarium guys at. checkout for 15% off your order and bring home some massive crayfish just like this one here.

Speaker A:

Awesome. So, you finished with your water changes yet?

Speaker C:

Joe shrimp shack.com make all the ladies jealous. Welcome to the Aquarium, guys. Podcast with your hosts, Jim colby and Rob golson. All right, guys, welcome to the podcast. Today we are doing the mythical episode that we lost and never found. So we're going to do it again.

Speaker A:

The right way of bracket lost on purpose.

Speaker C:

I did it was not good. It was good. I might have sniffed a few markers.

Speaker B:

It's kind of like bigfoot. I mean, we know what's out there, we just can't find it.

Speaker C:

That's why my mom never let me around the rubber cement either. anyways, I am your host, Rod olsen.

Speaker B:

I'm Jim colby.

Speaker A:

And I'm Adam on the shower.

Speaker C:

So today there is no guess, because we're hitting a topic that nobody really does on a prevalent scale. And that's sad. And we're here to stop that.

Speaker B:

We're here to stop that.

Speaker C:

Yeah, we got to get them in the brackish.

Speaker B:

In the brackish water.

Speaker C:

Everybody's scared of it. They think it's like, 50% of the way to expense for salt, and we're here to tell them otherwise.

Speaker B:

All right, well, let's get it called.

Speaker A:

The Salt Water Light.

Speaker C:

I mean, that would be a better brand.

Speaker B:

Salt Light.

Speaker C:

Diet coke sells more than regular coke, so why not salt?

Speaker B:

Light? There we go.

Speaker C:

Salt Light.

Speaker A:

You have news?

Speaker C:

Oh, Adam.

Speaker B:

Adam has news.

Speaker A:

I heard that on Twitter. coca cola said that they were sick of tired of 2020, so they were putting cocaine back in coke again.

Speaker B:

I'm all for that. I tell you what, it's been a crappy year so far.

Speaker A:

Didn't they have that when you were a child gym? They had cocaine in the coke.

Speaker B:

Well, it depends on where you lived, what neighborhood, if you know what I mean.

Speaker C:

Well, he was throwing jacks at the stona fountain, so he would be no, HR.

Speaker B:

Can suck it.

Speaker C:

He's our guy to know.

Speaker B:

You're going to be sad when you find out what I found out from HR.

Speaker C:

All right, well, let's get right into that.

Speaker B:

Well, Adam, keeps asking. We have HR, and so we don't have an HR department, but we're thinking that we probably should get one because of all the things that are said in this podcast.

Speaker C:

We got to outsource it.

Speaker A:

Segregation.

Speaker B:

Yeah, stuff like that. So anyway, as we all know, everybody here knows who boo is, and that is my wife's cousin, and she is actually HR for her.

Speaker C:

She volunteered to be HR for us.

Speaker B:

Well, I asked her some questions, and she goes and she goes, so what's the problem in your company? Marine knows Rob well, and I said, well, things are said. Sometimes it shouldn't be said. We're just trying to did you play.

Speaker C:

Her some highlights to show?

Speaker B:

Well, she heard it.

Speaker C:

She's listening.

Speaker B:

She's listen.

Speaker C:

She's a listener. And she's agreed.

Speaker B:

She goes, yeah, you guys probably need a little fix me up, shout out, maybe a little bit of a meeting and stuff. But once I explain to her that most of it's you, Rob, not Adam, and and stuff, here's what she came up with. We have one or two choices. I already know which one I vote for. I'm going to wait for Adam to vote. You don't get a vote because you suck. So what we can do is every time Rob says something offensive or wrong, I either can either, A, have a squirt gun and squirt them like a bad dog in the face, or B and this is the one I'm going for, is we can put the shot collar on them for the dog.

Speaker C:

I'm going with B. I'm going to confess something. I'll have to link this in the chat. So, a long time ago, my wife got a Tens unit.

Speaker B:

That was hilarious.

Speaker C:

For those that don't know what a Tens unit is, google that. It's like those little sticky pads you put on yourself, and then it electrocute you to relieve muscle pain and whatnot. So my wife got it because she's got a bad back, and I decided that I was going to screw with it one night. So we started putting in our hands, see what happened. And of course, our hands involuntary clasp, like we're crab people, we put it on our arms, and our arms just, like, go up and down like it's some sort of sick motion that I would get sent to HR for. So the obvious idea, besides putting it on someplace you'd never put it, would be all right on your face. So we stuck four pads on my face, recorded it on YouTube. We call it the Face acute. And I really haven't shown many people it on purpose. I'm embarrassed.

Speaker B:

So if you go on YouTube right.

Speaker C:

Now, it's it's got a really, really bad sound behind it. My wife always wanted to do it because I'd say, like a ringtone, but yeah, a ringtone.

Speaker B:

But he was crying the whole time. It was hilarious. Which is funnier yet, right? And he's £100 heavier so he looks like a clown.

Speaker C:

Here's a small taste of getting electrocuted. So, yeah, I don't recommend it.

Speaker B:

So I'm going to bring over my dog collar next week. That's what we'll do, the shot collar. And every time you see something offensive.

Speaker C:

And you'll just hear me swear on.

Speaker B:

The mics, no, people can vote. And so, like, if somebody says, Jimmy, shock him, then I'll just shock him.

Speaker C:

I can just about see the chat, just putting in shock emojis every time.

Speaker B:

That's what I'm saying.

Speaker C:

All right.

Speaker B:

And so now that we have our HR problem figured out, you know, the problem basically has been you, I guess. And so it's either a squirt gun, which would ruin electronics down here, or electricity in your body, which would ruin you, but it's cheaper to ruin you.

Speaker C:

Well, we'll see what happens by next stream. It might happen, but if you guys want to come listen to these live, we are on Discord. So go on our website, Aquariumgyspodcast.com. The bottom of the website, you'll find the link for Discord. And that's where we're actually on camera right now in front of the entire audience. They're sending us information and already prepping up for the brackish conversation. But maybe next week there'll be a shot caller on me that you can press a button for. So don't miss the fun. Come join it. You can only get the live here. We don't put it back up on YouTube. So come join the party.

Speaker B:

And I got some more news, too, about something else that I forgot about right now. So Secrets Farms sent me a present. It was my last trip and a fish. And it was a tropical fish hobbyist magazine that's still being printed.

Speaker C:

I thought it was going to be like one of those things where your insurance company gave you back $50 due to COVID because you weren't driving as much.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I got no money back from Secrets Farms.

Speaker C:

Well, I'm glad you got a magazine.

Speaker B:

But they sent me a nice magazine and yes, a tropical fish hobbyist magazine. We talked about a few podcasts back. Nobody was quite sure if they're still making it. It's been out there since 1952 or 55.

Speaker C:

And they still exist?

Speaker B:

They still exist.

Speaker C:

So how often do they do the issues? Every like two months.

Speaker B:

Bimonthly every two months it has saltwater and freshwater in the same issue.

Speaker C:

So now I got to find a way to sign up. Like, number one, we didn't know about it. So now you have a magazine like, hey, Jimmy, come on, man, you need to know about this. So now we got to find a link, share it with people.

Speaker B:

Yeah. So it's tropical Fish hobbies magazine. It's been around since 55, I think I said, on there. And got salt and fresh. So it's kind of the best of both worlds. I still like it that they answer a few questions, kind of like in the first part of it. Not a whole lot of advertising in there, let's say, for people selling fish.

Speaker C:

Well, maybe we can fix that. We'll put aquarium guys advertising in there.

Speaker B:

Yeah, but there's a lot of people like Tetran stuff advertising in there. And I saw some pretty cool items in there. I was going to bring the magazine tonight and I forgot.

Speaker C:

How could you?

Speaker B:

It's been a long day.

Speaker C:

So before we get to continue, because we have a lot of news, we have a lot of people that message us this last week.

Speaker B:

What's that?

Speaker C:

Apparently the moment I told them that our numbers on the podcast, no one listened. But when I told them that they could text us yeah, I've been getting text messages. That's good. So I kind of want to better use it. I don't want to retract it because I want to be there to help people, but I feel like this is going to grow. So, Jimmy, how is jen?

Speaker B:

My wife is doing pretty well now, for those of you in the loop, she had surgery, I think about a week ago Monday. They went in to remove her ovaries and they found a large cyst, which they originally called a tumor, which really freaked a lot of us out.

Speaker C:

Well, it doesn't help.

Speaker B:

No, they changed the word to cyst. They removed it. It was connected to many parts of her body. And the worst part, it was connected to her colon. And her colon was perforated. And they fixed that. She's had a tough probably seven or eight days now, but she's finally coming out of it and feeling much better. So thanks for those thoughts and prayers from everybody out there.

Speaker C:

And we had to delay the podcast for you just to make sure you had some time because it was very unexpected and how everything came out. So we're glad to hear jen is doing well.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Needing cookies.

Speaker B:

Yes. And we expected her to be out for two to three days, and he kept her in hospital for three days. And we're doing quite well known because tanasa, rob's wife tana, was nice enough to make us about six dozen cookies, and we're down about three dozen. So I'm just saying to NASA, if you're listening, we're down thanks to the diabetes. That's right. What's Adam got today?

Speaker A:

Oh, I don't really have I thought.

Speaker B:

You had something, man.

Speaker C:

Well, in the inspiration of nothing on adam's plate, let's go to my life is very difficult. Very difficult.

Speaker B:

You're the father of four children, right?

Speaker A:

That's actually easy.

Speaker C:

Someday I'll take your word for it. So we got a text message. I don't have any names here, so I'm just going by telephone numbers. So in the area code, eight four seven says, hey, guys, I've been binge listening to the podcast while doing work around the house on the vacation. I'm wondering why native fish aren't more prevalent in the hobby. I've always wanted to set up a native tank with something like rainbow shiners but it seems like they're hard to find, expensive. This is hard to understand since many native fish rival exotic fish in appearance. Thanks and keep up the good work guys. So really I couldn't agree more but I mean the real reason that I've found why we don't see a lot more people hosting blue gills is number one, local laws. You can't just go out and harvest game fish for yourself to put in a tank because the dnr may prevent it in your state. In Minnesota that is certainly the case. We have live well ordinances that do not allow it. However, in Minnesota, I'm just giving that as an example because we live here and we don't know your law of state contact your dnr. But if you want to harvest local species that are not game fish such as minnows, there are sometimes a bait license you have to purchase. In Minnesota you can do that for non game fish but if you wanted to have like a blue gill or heaven forbid, a crop of your bass in an aquarium they do have stickleback minnows. That's not a game fish but if you want something that is a game fish they do have places that you can get at local pet stores and has to order in from farms that have the correct licensing where they were farmed and purchased from a pet store and you can legally have them as a pet. You just cannot go to your lake for instance, keep your pet because they're worried that you're going to just stick that pet right back where it came from.

Speaker B:

Yeah, when I was wholesaling, I checked into the license and stuff because you have a special license just to sell. And I think at that time, it was three types of game fish. And at that time, the license was very expensive. And it was one of those deals where you'd never make your money back on the license and stuff, so you can do it in that tropical fish hobbies magazine that cyrus Farm is so nice to send me. That question actually was asked in there and they pretty much said the same thing check with your local dnr but.

Speaker A:

There is some fish that you can have in the aquarium like flake fish. American flakefish are pretty common.

Speaker C:

Yeah, but again, they're not huge in prevalence. They have muted colors. Something like a shiner minnow is a good example. Right? It's something that's really beautiful. In fact, we had a picture of one I think put on discord here a little bit ago but they're quite beautiful and again not the easiest to get because of baiting licenses and people tend to go for something exotic that they've never seen before. They look at something like a discus and go wow, we don't have anything that in Minnesota. That's what I want to display. So there's both mentality of yes, it's expensive and hard to do. And then we want something exotic in our tanks that we've never seen before for just the impression of, hey, that's cool. So I hope that helps answer your question, but don't let that stop you. Check your local laws and get yourself a minnow trap. These things are easy to purchase from your local fleet supply store. They're decently priced and it's a completely humane way. There's no net for these minnow traps. They're just two cones at the end and kind of like a cylinder. And capture local minnows on your own. And I think Stickleback is starting to catch some attention as to what was mentioned before. Hopefully we'll see those more in the according trade. I want to get into those more myself. I've kept them in the past, and they're a fun minnow that has some real good color that looks kind of like a mini walleye.

Speaker A:

And their behavior is really cool. They build nests out of sticks and grass.

Speaker B:

Do they really?

Speaker A:

Yeah, I had them and then all of a sudden my heater shit out on me.

Speaker B:

There are some ducks there. Again, I just had to shock him.

Speaker C:

We need a shot color for us. All right, if I'm going to do it, you better put something on your neck.

Speaker B:

I will. I put on my shiny cross or something.

Speaker C:

Is that right? Yeah, like you're bling there.

Speaker B:

That's right.

Speaker C:

Make yourself look like a chillo landlord.

Speaker B:

Yeah, there we go.

Speaker C:

My neck. Okay.

Speaker B:

I'm going to fry your brains until they smell like scrambled eggs.

Speaker C:

Anyway, so that text message back would say hey to the response of, wow, you really do respond quickly. I mean, when you send me this text message, it sends directly to my phone. So again, at the bottom of the website, of course. You guyspodcast.com, you got questions for us. Email, text message, phone call, leave a message. Come on. Discord however you want, but we're extremely responsive and people are finally getting that. All right, next one is from area code nine one seven. And they write us saying, hi, aquarium guys, this is major. 911 shot in the dark. But I'm freaked out. I'm a total newbie. Discovered IC in one of my two tanks, a 30 gallon with plateaus and tetris. Only one fish is showing symptoms other than spots, and the other two have ick white spots. Planning on going to peco first thing in the am. Because, of course, I don't have any quick here. Or quarantine tank. Is it worth quarantining these three fish, or should I treat the whole tank together? Favorite commercial. It cures. Does adding aquarium salt really cure everything? And do I increase the temperature? Also? Great podcast. So funny all the time. I didn't leave with that, but I'm very worried right now. So I immediately messaged her back, letting her know, start right now by raising your temperature to 82 degrees and letting her know that, yes, salt helps and use topical IC ears, like methyl and blue.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I mean, last week we were schooled by Dr. Fish, and he told us once, if you take your fish out of your regular tank, what was it, 30 or 36 hours, all the IC is gone.

Speaker C:

Dead, no matter what in the tank.

Speaker B:

Right. But you have to remove your fish from that tank.

Speaker C:

Right.

Speaker B:

So it would be great if just another reason to buy another tank, have a quarantine tank, put those fish in there, treat them there. A lot of times the fish the ick here will stay in your tank a little bit, and you could pop them in there, leave them in there for three, four days, and then after that, you can put them back in your regular tank, and you should be fine.

Speaker C:

I think that's more of a decoration protection. If you don't want to ruin your decorations or plants in the tank. You can take all of your fish out, treat them in the quarantine tank, and then leave your normal tank sit for three days. You know, it's out of the normal tank. You're already quarantining and curing the quarantine tank. Then you can move them back in. So that's an interesting way. I think it adds potential to add some stress to the fish doing in a quarantine tank. But those are the tools that you trade. Make the best decision for yourself.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people have live plants, and a lot of that IC medicine doesn't go well with live plants. Also, depending on the silicone used on the seams of the aquarium, a lot of times it will stain at blue or green or whatever you're using for a icure. So listen to the podcast with Dr. Fish, and he really explains it well. He's on top of his game, and.

Speaker C:

We'Ve gotten a lot of great feedback on that. I mean, the feedback we got, I mean, of course, Sandy gave us a message saying, sandy from Secrets farm's President. So if she enjoys it, I mean, that that's, you know, checkbox there.

Speaker B:

There we go.

Speaker C:

But the fans have been overwhelmed, and they're excited for more. We're going to do that as a continuation series. We hopefully aim to do that once a month. So. Thank you, Dr. Fish, and we can't wait to have you on again.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I'm going to have questions.

Speaker B:

You have questions now?

Speaker A:

I'm going to build more.

Speaker B:

I've got questions like, how many times can you shock Rob until his brain melts? It smells like scrambled eggs. That's what I want to know.

Speaker C:

So I haven't proofread this. So that's an HR mistake number one. But we have an email from Cat and says, hey there, recording guys. Podcast. You remember me as the terrified beginner who texts you about IC. Okay, so she emailed back. Here we go. Your tank has been raised. Salt and meds have been administered. All my fish look okay for now. Fingers crossed. Thanks so much for the help. Just hearing back from a real person opposed to a zillion contradictory articles form post was so reassuring. I really want the best possible life for my fish and I'm sure grateful forgive me for more super level beginner questions. Potential question for the podcast. As a beginner less than a year of the hobby, what's the best way to meet other local aquarius? I joined your discord. I am pitfalls and platties. But are there any other ways recommending to make local connections? I'd love to have a buddy or two to swap fish and plants with extra equipment with. I live near a big northeastern Us city, so let's answer that first because there's a couple more questions here. Of course, Discord like we have our own community if you don't have people around you, great way to do it.

Speaker B:

Facebook.

Speaker C:

You know, there's Facebook to find your area generally like I live in the fargo morehead area, so there's of course a Facebook community for that. Find yours in the local area. Fish people really tend to cling to the Facebook groups because Facebook not just works as a social media platform, but really is more accustomed to the older demographic. So they're the ones that are probably just introduced to Facebook where other people have moved on to such things as Twitter or Instagram. So Facebook is still the big prevalent thing for fishkeepers. Find yourself your aquarium society. If you live by a northeastern big Us city guarantee there's aquarium society there. Find that, pay your small fee and join virtual meetings now that we have the COVID happening. So those are still going and that.

Speaker A:

Just got us bam zap of them. Again.

Speaker C:

We're not on YouTube. I can say COVID.

Speaker B:

The other thing too is if you want to connect with fish people, go to your favorite fish store, sit there for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon and just talk to people. They will connect you. Everybody there has a connection and they might already have something set up. It would say ask your fish store owner, especially your independent stores. That's the ones that I really like to support. And they usually have such a group of people and they'll say, yeah, give this guy a call, give this guy a call and you'll be set up. And pretty soon you'll be overwhelmed with.

Speaker C:

And ashford they have a local swap meet because a lot of times they'll schedule those every so often just at the store where they have bring in people and they have vendor tables. That's the thing that just stores do as well. So hopefully they give you a few different ideas. Next question. Second part of the question is where the heck should I buy my fish? Right now I'm sticking to platties, Tetris and potential other small tropical fish, hoping to get a third tank beta this fall. Well, your local pet store, there's plenty of great places online, such as Joe Shrimshack.com promo code, Aquarium Guy to check out for 15% off. It really comes down to who has what you're looking for, because so many stores right now, due to COVID, are missing everything. What are some of the things that you see, Jimmy, that are completely missing from the market?

Speaker B:

I was up in fargo, North Dakota, today, took my wife out for lunch. We stopped at Pet Smart, actually, to purchase some dog food for our puppy. And they had nothing. And when I mean nothing, they had angel fish, they had some feeder goldfish, and they had a fiddler crab. Every tank they had was completely disgraced.

Speaker C:

So everything just from the major box stores?

Speaker B:

Yeah, major box stores were empty. And I've been seeing that for the last, cheaper six to eight weeks. Very limited in what they're getting in. And it's not that there's a shortage of fish. It's just really tough getting them in at this time. I've talked about it before. The cost of shipping has gone up because we have to do stuff like bringing in through Ups, which is very expensive, versus the airlines, which is about half the price. Airlines aren't flying right now because of everything going on in the world. A lot of people like ourselves up here, north, I usually would bring in stuff once a week, every single week of the year. And right now, we're bringing stuff in about every three weeks and getting very limited amounts of stuff.

Speaker C:

And it's not that you don't have demand for it because clearly demand skyrocketed due to this time because everybody's at home, they're not going to concerts. They want an indoor COVID safe activity inquiry or that. So it's not the demand isn't there, it's just access.

Speaker B:

Yes. And the thing is, the fish are out there is just to try to get them there. Some people are refusing to work. Just to give you, for instance, seagrass Farms. I talked to them last week trying to get some stuff delivered because in the state of Florida now, they're being required wearing face mask all the time at work. It's very tough to keep people working all day long when it's 90 degrees and 100% humidity. And I know they were down to maybe eight or ten people out in the fish room picking orders and putting in boxes of stuff. And for that very reason, I had to wait an extra two or three days where normally I get stuff overnight. But it's just that they're having a tough time getting all their help in because unfortunately, nobody really wants to wear a mask when it's 90 degrees and you're working in a hot, humid environment. And that's just a fact.

Speaker C:

Everything is missing, hit and miss, depending on the store. But even you can't even order stuff like eels right now. You can't get fighter eels. There's a lot of select items that are just across the board, holes are falling apart. But to go into further her question, she noticed to hear that some of her local mom and pop stores they go in there, dead fish are floating around. It's not very taken care of. So she doesn't want to go to that local fish store. So again find your best place online. Try to find not necessarily Facebook. Facebook will lead you to the people. Facebook is not allowed to sell live fish. They can only sell plants due to the terms of service. But you'll still find people that have access to them or you could private message to find out more information. Those are the best ways. I know it's rather limiting but Josephtrack.com amazing results. Long Joe the Wood and last question is any idea of variety of this tetra is I have three of them hanging out in my 30 gallon aquarium. I really like them. My first experience with schooling fish, I'd love to know what they are so I can make sure giving them everything they need. Thank you all for your help. pitbulls and platties so Jimmy, I would just want your confirmation. Does that not look like a green tiger barb to you? That is he said so confirmed your schooling fish are green tiger barbs. They are a modification of tiger barbs to have a different color. So you'll see like their head and top fins look like a tiger barb. The rest is kind of that blotch dark green.

Speaker B:

You also find them as green moss tiger barbs, right. And if you like tiger barbs they are all the same fish with different color morphs and you can get albino, you can get the green moss, you get the regular tiger barbs and now they're glow tiger barbs also. So all kinds of tiger barbs, they're all the same fish. They all can go together. One of the questions I saw in the tropical fish Hobbies magazine is there was a newbie who was confused. She had six different kinds of glow fish, I should say glow tetras which are the black tetras which were at one time black tetris and then turned to white tetras and now turned into the glow tetras. And she thought they were all different fish because they're different colors. But they're all the same fish, all the same requirements but just a common mistake. But when you're brand new there is no dumb question ever. So please ask all these questions and if we go over them a thousand times I apologize. But we want new beginners to be successful.

Speaker A:

I thought that the green mouse tiger barbs seem to be less aggressive than regular tiger barbs, didn't they?

Speaker B:

I have heard that and I don't know why that would be but I have heard that green moss tiger barbs are I got some albinos and I thought they were really poor eaters but then somebody pushed out the idea. Well, they're albinos, so they get poor.

Speaker C:

Eyesight or you farted and they're scared. They're hiding in the corner. There you go, running for their lives.

Speaker B:

I just shocked you again.

Speaker C:

No, I don't remember. All right, last thing from one of our listeners. I want to give a shout out to Marine ly Betas. They sent us in some information, and this has been bouncing around to Facebook. Normally when you get on Facebook, you'll see these pictures of, like, violet blue angel fish. And it's just someone photoshopping some images. This is a little video clip. They have metal right next to it that makes it look very vivid and clear that this doesn't seem photoshopped, but it shows overseas that they're making some sort of glow placo. It looks like a Bristol placo.

Speaker B:

They look like an albino Bristol.

Speaker C:

And let me tell you, you think that the yellow, green betas look terrifying. These things look like they're actually, like.

Speaker B:

Radioactive look like the Green hornet.

Speaker C:

They move in the picture so fluently, it's really hard to fake that. So my question is because I sent it over to Matt peterson, because Matt peterson is very in touch with PR, because anytime that they make a new globeta, he'll be one of the first to know because he's a news outlet for the fish industry. So they're very keen on letting the public know ahead of time when these things are coming out officially. So is this an actual globeta, like the glow angel fish that they've done in the past that aren't out and some third parties just breaking the copyright overseas? We don't know. Or worse, this could be something that's died. It looks really pure across the entire thing. So if it is dyed, I expect it to be stained blotchy, like they were dipping them, because it's everywhere nice and pure on the fish. So don't know, but we're seeing leaks of that. We really hope it's not injected or died. That would be really cruel and unusual.

Speaker A:

One of the corridor sites are dying albino. cory.

Speaker C:

Yeah. So what's the list that we've seen so far in the trade? We have danos, right? We have white skirt tetras, we have rainbow sharks. Specifically, we have Tiger barbs. Tiger barbs. We have betas. I think that covers it.

Speaker B:

Isn't that there are angel fish overseas, right, but they're not available here.

Speaker C:

That would be the available here that has a usda patent, I believe. Yeah. So overseas people have taken the same process because no one owns the copyrights overseas. And we've seen, like you said, corydoras, we've seen angel fish for sure. We've seen attempts at oscars. There's a few others, I think some catfish that I can't remember. But this is the first time I've ever seen a playco being taught. Yeah.

Speaker B:

And the oscars that are available here in the Us are dyed. You'll see a blueberry Oscar, which is an albino Oscar that's been dyed.

Speaker C:

Right.

Speaker B:

So not a GlowFish again.

Speaker C:

If you got any news that you want to share with the other team, just like Marine ly bidders did, certainly go in our discord, let us know.

Speaker B:

And I'll make a phone call at Cigarettes Farms and see what they know.

Speaker C:

You never know what you can scoop up by talking to friends, right?

Speaker B:

Yes, right.

Speaker C:

Just like talking to Matt. So I got that information. He got no official statement, but it could be stained.

Speaker B:

We'll find out.

Speaker C:

Anywho, we should probably get into our normal topic. Are you guys ready?

Speaker B:

Born ready.

Speaker C:

Did you prep your bracket aquariums in the event of this podcast that we had to do again?

Speaker B:

Yes. Because you guys screwed it up last time.

Speaker A:

No, I didn't screw it up. It was an awesome podcast, and rob's lost it in, quote.

Speaker C:

That's fair.

Speaker B:

That is fair.

Speaker C:

That's 100% fair.

Speaker B:

Just going back that was this past winter after we came back from going over to the big saltwater aquarium. You guys decided to do a podcast. I said, I'm going to bed, and you guys did a podcast till 02:00 in the morning and then lost it.

Speaker C:

And then lost it. Gone. poop here's, getting back into it. So brackish tanks, because we're going to go from every level that we can possibly do and give some suggestions. What are you guys calling a diet? Salt water. So there's fresh water, light. Salt water. Light. Don't drink your tank water. Contrary to some of my listeners, again, freshwater salt water and brackets spread in between kind of that mangrove style aquarium. And there's a plethora of fish that get ignored because no one wants to attempt it either. If you're going to go to salt, why not go all the way? They don't want to go in between because there's a lot of education and not a lot of other people doing it. And above all else, there's not a lot of marketing. People say that the fish are muted or complicated, and we're here to tell you that that's just not true.

Speaker B:

Not true at all. I like my personal brackish fish that I have fallen in love with in the last six months has been the little pea puffers, and those were bringing in from overseas. And the last shipment we got in of about 300, I sold 150 of them to one of my stores, and she sold them all in about four days. poof, gone. And those pea buffers, if you've not noticed them, they are literally the size of a pea. My customer that sold them put them in a planted tank, and she threw 150 and a 55 gallon tank, and it looks just like a big giant swarm of bees buzzing around in there. And they move very weird.

Speaker C:

They're not like a swim fish. They just kind of hover, kind of hummingbird aliens. Yeah, like a hummingbird.

Speaker B:

And she sells the snow, and her whole trick is when she gets stuff in like that. She puts it on Facebook and says, arriving at 03:00 on Friday afternoon, and she'll be ready for them. And people just come in in droves. And she sells multiple she has multiple pricing. So if you're out there running a pet store, don't be afraid to use multiple pricing, even on fish that are four or $5. I do that all the time with my neons when I sell nians.

Speaker C:

So let's start with how to set up a tank. Let's start at the beginner level here. So most of the people have never tried brackets. So I want to encourage you to start a bracket tank. Get 20 or 40 of 55. What if you can scrap together for.

Speaker B:

A brackish tank or go buy a new tank?

Speaker C:

Let's start going down the essentials.

Speaker B:

Buy a new tank, right?

Speaker C:

So buy a new tank. Because that's always our don't have enough fish room. Buy a new tank. Fish got sick, needs some quarantine. Buy a new tank. We need to just catch phrase that or something.

Speaker B:

Buy a new tank.

Speaker C:

Buy a new tank. So let's talk about the necessities and how it's so much harder. I'm going to beat this like a dead animal, because that's what I get from everybody when I mention brackets. Oh, don't do it. It's harder. So gravel, you can use sand.

Speaker A:

Sand is better, right?

Speaker C:

You can use gravel like pea gravel. You can mix it.

Speaker B:

River rock.

Speaker C:

There's no limitations there. You can still have a planted bed. Decorations. I don't think there's anything different with decorations. You can have anything that you want as far as bleeding and maybe whatever decorations might dissolve in salt. But you still shouldn't have those decorations in your tank with fresh water. So there's no change there. Let's keep going over the list. Heater. The heater doesn't change. filtration. filtration stays the same. You can still use carbon. You can still do your sump. Hang in the back. canister overflow, no change there. Lighting doesn't change. It seems like it's the same.

Speaker B:

Jimmy, it's kind of the same, but you add what, salt. There you go.

Speaker C:

So how much salt do you add to make it brackish? Fourth of a cup per gallon.

Speaker A:

Five gallons.

Speaker C:

Per five gallons. So just use the aquarium salt you buy in the store, or can you use the sea salt mix?

Speaker A:

I do. I always use the sea salt mix. I thought that that was better. I was actually told by somebody that it's actually better for the fish, and.

Speaker B:

It has a lot of buffering and different things in it and stuff, too. But I know that different brands of salt water, you might want to have to play with a little bit by yourself. A what? Hydrometer. Because you might want to play with it a little bit just for the fact of some instant ocean different salt water. Salt, some of it's stronger than others. And we've heard that over and over so we're talking about when he's talking about the quarter cup for five gallons. He's talking about aquarium salt, which is the granulated salt that you can buy at the aquarium store.

Speaker C:

Now, some of these barometers that you find right, because we had a debate before this, we're trying to make sure we have hydrometers. Excuse me, you are a dominator.

Speaker B:

I shocked.

Speaker C:

Trying to find these devices. The hydrometers, there's essentially two different ones you can find in the market. You can find what you guys call the instant ocean measurements. It's like a little square plastic unit you scoop water into, and it shows kind of like a half circle on a kind of like a speedometer, if you will, and shows right where your solemnity is. So that's $15. I have never used them. Jimmy and Adams swear by them.

Speaker B:

I've got six or seven of them at least.

Speaker C:

If I've ever done that. Two or three. When I've ever done this I'm not going to lie to you guys. I'm bad. This is a shame on robb's moment. I really don't even test it. I put in the mix, and I frankly taste the water.

Speaker B:

I'd shock you right there.

Speaker C:

I do a lot of sniffing. Sniffing does a lot better for me.

Speaker B:

Than were you sniffing flu before that podcast?

Speaker C:

A lot.

Speaker B:

Oh, my God.

Speaker C:

No wonder it works. I've had great success. I haven't had really any issues. Anytime I've had a brackish tank, I just do the full measurement, do a sniff and sniffer taste test, and I'm good to go. I can add a little bit more, add a little fresh, whatever is necessary.

Speaker B:

So just as stupid as it sounds, it's not that tough.

Speaker C:

Not tough. If I can sniff and taste, you guys can use a hydrometer.

Speaker B:

Yeah. So what I want to explain to people, too, I've had this misconception that people have said to me, well, I don't want to do brackish because I don't want that salt creep on the outside of my tank. Like a saltwater tank. If you're familiar with saltwater tanks, get.

Speaker C:

A nice crusty shit on the top.

Speaker B:

Yes. And it's called salt creep. And as the salt just kind of it looks like it crawls out of the tank, and it looks crystallizes. Yeah, and you don't get that from brackish tanks. So put that out of your head. You're not going to get any salt creep from a brackish tank if you're doing it right.

Speaker C:

I mean, at worst, you'll get the same film that you do in a fresh water tank. I haven't seen any exponential increase of calcium getting sucked out. Maybe even it dissolves the calcium in the top lip. I really haven't had much of a problem at all.

Speaker B:

And the other thing you got to remember with your bracket tanks is that when you do a water change, you need to replace that salt. But let's say your tank is in a very warm room and it's evaporated. The salt does not evaporate out of the tank. Then you can just top it off with fresh water.

Speaker C:

So I try to gauge my tanks. Like, imagine you cut your tank in half, and then fourths, you try to measure how many gallons it would be like. I have a 75 gallon tank that you're looking at right next to you, Jimmy. So if I'm a thirds out of there, I'm going to add that many gallons and gas on that much salt, then put my hydrometer in there to make sure my salinity is still good enough after everything mixes. And if I have to add more fresh or add more salt, I can just go from there. It's best effort.

Speaker B:

Yes. It's not tough at all. If Rob can do it, you can.

Speaker C:

Do it even, like, if you want to go as far as because I always use the python units to connect my sink so I don't have to carry buckets ever. But if you really wanted to go there, you could do water changes with a five gallon bucket and then measure how many gallons you're taking out so you know exactly what to put back in. That's too much work. Do a best guess scenario, measure with the hydrometer and go from there.

Speaker B:

What I've done when I first was doing a brackish tank, to help myself out, I did a 20 gallon high. And what I did is I just took a seriously, took a measuring stick and measured, I think, what is a 20 gallon high? 24 inches. 20 inches, yes. And anyway, I just divided it in fourth, so I knew what every five gallons was. I just put a little tiny mark with a Magic marker on the side of the tank. So when I drained it, I knew it was five gallons or ten gallons, and I knew I needed to throw in a quarter cup of salt or a half a cup of salt.

Speaker C:

Peasy, lemon, squeezy.

Speaker A:

But also make sure to put the salt in the water that you're adding, not just dump it dry into the tank.

Speaker C:

So here's a good one. This goes for salt water users as well. If you don't want to burn the skin or fins off your fish, especially corridors are the most susceptible or loafs in the bottom of your tank. Never put salt directly into your tank. So if you're going to treat medicinally, you're going to treat for brackish. Whatever you're doing, take that salt, melt it in a cup, and then put it in your water.

Speaker B:

I got something better. When we were doing it for saltwater tanks, when I was helping do tank maintenance with Thai.

Speaker C:

Wait, you're telling me that you put your glass into the rim and then made a margarita?

Speaker B:

Well, we were usually drunk. We were doing it. No, the best thing you can do is get yourself a cheap power head. $5, $6, and you put your salt in your pail. You drop your power head in there and you walk away. And it spins that in there so fast. Five minutes, it's 100% all mixed up and you don't have to worry about anything. And we had four or five power heads and four or five buckets all the time just spinning that salt because we were doing saltwater tanks at the time. And that salt takes a long time to dissolve.

Speaker C:

Sometimes I feel like pressuring the word cheap powerhead because if you get some granules in there that start burning out your motor, you don't really want it to be expensive.

Speaker B:

That's right. And so all these old power heads that we had that we just drop them in there and it would spin that water like a whirlpool is fantastic.

Speaker C:

Here's an idea, right? Tell me you have a hang on the back filter or something else that has a power head on it. Or maybe an old uv filter that the ball burnt out in.

Speaker B:

Just pop that in there and you're.

Speaker C:

Not having to buy anything special. No.

Speaker B:

Or else you could even take an old aquarium pump and an air stone and put it in there. But the more violent the water movement, the quicker the salt dissolves. And it's just easier than sitting there stern it with a stick.

Speaker C:

I just take a red solo cup, take a spoon and sit and watch TV.

Speaker B:

I mean, that's because it's for chocolate pudding and you're eating it while you're watching the TV.

Speaker C:

It's not easy, man.

Speaker B:

No.

Speaker C:

So moving on back to the barometer, you guys.

Speaker B:

It's not a barometer, dumbass.

Speaker C:

Hydrometerometer is for weather. Excuse me. Hydrometer. God. Thank God you guys are here's.

Speaker B:

A little let me give you some advice. The next time you run the microwave, close the damn door because I think the little neutrons are good in your brain, dumbass.

Speaker C:

But I smell burning.

Speaker B:

Yeah, it's your scrambled egg brains.

Speaker C:

Regardless, the hydrometer you can also purchase is a brewer's hydrometer, right. On Amazon. You get these for, like, three $4. Their glass, their food grade. They can't get manipulated or stepped on. For the plastic shitty ones that you get.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Drop them, you cut your finger open and get stitches.

Speaker C:

Don't break them. Right?

Speaker B:

Yeah. Drop them one time, they'll literally work forever.

Speaker C:

They're cheaper and they're food grade. If they do it for beer, I feel it's more trustworthy than these stupid ones for you called Live Reef.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Well, let me ask Adam one thing. Hey. How many times do they bounce off the floor?

Speaker A:

They don't.

Speaker B:

You guys there you go.

Speaker C:

Violently. They do. That's what this is. No.

Speaker B:

You know how stuff he is. You got stuff laying around, you don't put it properly away and it's package. It should be put in. It's laying there and you bump it, it hits the ground and it's broken.

Speaker C:

Yeah, definitely. Some alcohol at your house.

Speaker B:

No, that plastic one you can punch across the room, and it's just fine.

Speaker C:

I feel like this feature YouTube video happening. Yes, do it just Pat mcafee that.

Speaker B:

My peeps will tell you that that's the only way to go. Me and Adam are right, and you're a dumbass.

Speaker C:

So again, all you have to do is put that in. Now, what are some of the caveats guys that you'd have to worry about having a bracket tank?

Speaker B:

Plants, food.

Speaker C:

So let's start with plants. Right, plants. You can do many different types of plants. Simply look it up and see if it can withstand salt. That's a quick Google search for any breed of plant that you're wanting to put in there, and it is limiting. So if you wanted to do some sort of crips that aren't really salt or salt sensitive that you can't even dose with, you can't use those. But most plants, you'd be really surprised on the salinity level they can withstand. Some actually thrive or require a little bit of salt in the water. So whatever breeds you have, try to identify the best you can. Send a picture to a friend. If you don't know what it is, do your research. Or if you have a little extra, take a snippet off, plant it in a saltwater tank and see what happens.

Speaker B:

That's right.

Speaker C:

It's a way to experiment.

Speaker B:

Mangroves.

Speaker C:

Mangroves. mangroves are wonderful and require salt and are beautiful extensions to the top of your aquarium.

Speaker A:

If java fern.

Speaker B:

Java ferring.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I haven't tested this one. Seems accurate.

Speaker A:

Job is one of the few plants that I know of that will take, like, brackish water salt levels, and then they're durable enough that a lot of brackish water fish are actually kind of herbivorous like. They always nip at plants.

Speaker B:

That's a big word.

Speaker A:

At least you recognize that it was a big word. Jim robb. Still in amazement.

Speaker C:

I'm looking a window over here.

Speaker B:

That's because he runs the microwave with the door open, you assholes. jerk.

Speaker A:

So they're a hardy plant and they're just durable, but I've always seen them do really good with brackish water.

Speaker B:

Interesting. I did not know that madagascar lace.

Speaker A:

Plants cannot take any salt.

Speaker B:

No, the most beautiful plants out there, and they are so touchy.

Speaker C:

They also can't take a lot of flow. If a fish farts on them the wrong way, they'll fall apart and melt. Pretty much. I mean that's.

Speaker B:

Besides debbie downer. My God. Yeah.

Speaker C:

I'm not bitter at all. My life's plant hasn't sprouted.

Speaker B:

We should do a plant a plant podcast sometime. That's something I want to learn about.

Speaker C:

Oh, I have just the person. We have a gentleman in the discord that sells a ton of plants. Well, there's a pile of people that have asked, but I think we have a plethora. I think that would be a great one.

Speaker B:

Yeah, we need to find the right person because I am not plant experiences. We know.

Speaker C:

We just have to get to one of those days where we have to embrace the Malaysian trumpet snail memes. Because they're going to make fun of us forever.

Speaker A:

Yeah. Planet tank people like Malaysian trumpet snails.

Speaker C:

That's how you can find yourself a planted hippie. Ask them if they have mts in their tank and they're proud of it.

Speaker B:

You guys are psychos with your trumpet sales, I tell you.

Speaker C:

Us. You had the soapbox last time we.

Speaker B:

Talked about I'm not a fan, but not a fan, but I might like this one. My opinion means nothing. We know that.

Speaker C:

Praise be the trumpet snail.

Speaker B:

Praise be the trumpet sale.

Speaker C:

All right, so you also said food. What did you mean by that?

Speaker A:

Adam, a lot of your brackish water fish require a little bit more specialized diet. Live or frozen food. They don't really go for flakes or pellets. They just require that movement or that flavor or that look of real food.

Speaker C:

So here's some examples. Right? We have the Archer fish. The archer fish is a gorgeous bandit. Fish. It takes a while, especially if you're getting them from a distributor that may have live or have a young one that really hasn't dithered with a lot of other fish.

Speaker B:

They will eat you said dithered.

Speaker C:

Dithered, right? They will eat wow and shock you.

Speaker A:

Actually, you should be shocked. That's an HR thing right there.

Speaker B:

Yeah, you said dithered.

Speaker C:

What's wrong with dithered?

Speaker B:

You said it again. I shocked you.

Speaker C:

Do I have to Google this shit? There's a dither fish. Dithered is something completely different.

Speaker B:

You know what?

Speaker C:

That's it. We're going to stop right here.

Speaker B:

I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in North Dakota.

Speaker C:

Dithered meaning. Oh, my God.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Appearing West Side more colors than are really available. Wow.

Speaker B:

Yeah. I think there's multiple meetings of dithered.

Speaker C:

We got an urban dictionary this year.

Speaker B:

No, we're not going to Urban Dictionary. Come on.

Speaker A:

This is why we needed the ho.

Speaker B:

Yeah, this is where he gets shocked again.

Speaker C:

But this is the content people come for. Are you kidding? All right, dithering takes ages to do a job or being intentionally slow. No, there's a ton of meetings, so I don't know what you're getting after. Not even Urban Dictionary can slap me in the face with this one. All right, so dithering in my use of the word, is when you have a dither fish, meaning they watch the other fish's actions or demeanors and tries to imitate them for either social or interactive behaviors. I have a Rose Line shark in my tank that has calmed down my bala shark tenfold. Without him, I don't think they would have done that. So it changes their behavior because they learn off the other fish. So when an Archer fish gets to dither with others, it learns to eat flake, eat pellets. You can also take a long tweezer and try to move the surface tension of the water they'll come get a pellet just much like a beta would, so you can get it off of them. But again, they do lean towards the live food like crickets, because they're squirting a stream of water out of their mouth and they surface and hitting a bug.

Speaker B:

And archer fish, they're super fun. Are they brackish?

Speaker C:

They're super bracket.

Speaker A:

They are.

Speaker B:

I knew that.

Speaker C:

Are you okay? Did you find that rubber cement glue before we started the podcast? No, you just hate the word dithered.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I grew up in North Dakota. It means completely something different.

Speaker C:

You got to tell me after the air off the air. All right? The more we got one of the viewers, I feel like you mean diddled that is not but well played, listener.

Speaker B:

Yeah, there we go again.

Speaker C:

The diets of bracket fish do vary, and that's mainly because the variety of areas brackish fish come from. They're all over the world, and generally the main grove type areas are an estuary of mixed species, so they have a lot of different flex diets to do to different changing seasons. Check your fish. A lot of them will have a completely different needs, but that goes for any fish. You want to do your homework before you purchase any fish. I wouldn't really leave that up to Brackish or not. Just be aware that there's some weird species in Brackish. What other things do we have to worry about? Adam or Jimmy on brackish fish? On Brackish tanks. Nothing else. Come on, what's so hard about this?

Speaker A:

Algae control.

Speaker B:

All right, so is algae control as much of a problem when you have.

Speaker C:

Salt in the tank or you still have algae?

Speaker B:

You don't hair algae in in salt water tanks. You have all kinds of algae. So why wouldn't you have LG in a bracket tank?

Speaker C:

I think he's saying that the algae problems, like, there's not a lot of avid cleaners. Like, we have platos different shrimp and whatnot auto sync with.

Speaker A:

Yeah, right.

Speaker C:

So that's the one we get is we don't have the necessarily a lot of cleaner fish, which I'd like to ultimately argue brackish species contain a lot of different options. So the biggest one I like to lean on is the amano shrimp. So the amano shrimp accommodated in freshwater, but to breed, they require Brackish, so you can't even have them breed without it. And they're not the cheapest shrimp either. Plus one for you. I think, out of any creature, ounce for ounce, there's no better creature in the brackish or freshwater world that cleans better than a romano shrimp. They will take black beard algae, hair algae. They'll clean surfaces, they'll clean plants. They're just a wonderful hungry, hungry hippo.

Speaker A:

Do they eat the diatom algae? Like the diatom the brown diatom slime that you sometimes get?

Speaker C:

Yes, I have amanos in most of my tanks, and they do they may pick other things first, but they absolutely.

Speaker B:

So the added benefit of having the amano shrimp in your tank is, heck, they might breed. And that's a wonderful thing, because ammonial shrimp are expensive.

Speaker C:

The amano shrimp, if you see them on the bottom, they'll hold a clutch of eggs. All shrimp hold the eggs on their person until they're hatched, and then they release. So you'll see a bunch of eggs like, oh, that shrimp is holding, and then nothing will happen. Eventually, the holding will just drop and you won't see anything happen. That's because they're frankly just dying and they're eating the dead eggs. So if you want to breed those, put them in brackish where they should be. What other cleaners can you guys think of?

Speaker A:

Florida flagfish.

Speaker B:

They love the algae.

Speaker A:

Yes, they do.

Speaker B:

And our friends at Secrets Farms sell the Florida flagfish. They're relatively inexpensive and very beautiful.

Speaker C:

Yeah. So if your local pet store doesn't have them, that's one of those species that they will, even through culver, be able to get access to. They have some sort, they say, muted colors, but mine always, after a little time having them and putting on right food, always brighten up. They're real fun and active and monsters on chewing different allergies and surfaces.

Speaker B:

And another added benefit about the Florida flagfish is you can normally throw them out in your fish pond, and they do very well. I had Florida flagfish out of my rain barrel, basically just to keep down the mosquito larvae. And when I brought them in last fall, they were absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker C:

And on the same note, molly's do.

Speaker A:

The same thing as molly and flagship molly.

Speaker C:

So what's your experience with molly's?

Speaker A:

Well, for my store, I always actually purposely kept molly's in bratisch water. But they love algae. In fact, I almost think that out of all the fish, they're almost strictly herbivores. They'll eat, like, the protein, like the brine shrimp larvae and everything else, brine shrimp and stuff. But they almost seem to like if you throw an algae wafer in a tank full of molly's, that thing is gone in, like, three minutes.

Speaker B:

Yeah, they're voracious eaters, that's for sure.

Speaker C:

So the other thing that we'd like to pick on just for more surface area, because molly's, they like to pick on stuff that has some growth, so we want some more surface tank creatures that will do it. The nerite snail. nerd snails are super, super popular, and they have a high price tag for designer near right snails.

Speaker B:

And they have to also be in brackish water in order to breed or actually salt water. Right?

Speaker A:

Salt water, I think.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Well, they do do brackish. Absolutely. I've had brackish tanks where I put neurites, and they bred perfectly fine. Maybe I put a little too much, because, again, at that time, I didn't use a hydrometer. I tasted the water, but all my other fish were doing great.

Speaker B:

That's because you probably were using a barometer demand.

Speaker C:

Well, that would. Break in a tank. Yeah, I watched twister Ones and had to buy a barometer.

Speaker B:

There you go.

Speaker C:

Terrible puns.

Speaker B:

You were shocked again.

Speaker C:

So that should be at least enough to get started on the cleanup crew. There are others, but generally it's just loose flake, and you're already taking that with some other fish. But those are staples, right? There should be enough to take care of, like a cleanup crew to try to do your glass, but never replace any fish or shrimp or snails for tank maintenance. If you can't grab an algae scraper to clean off the sides of your tank and understand how the bloom works, maybe you're feeding too much. That type of question. Change your water, do your maintenance. Love your fish. If you're not interacting with the tank, you don't know when stuff goes wrong.

Speaker B:

Now, let's talk about the more exotic bracket fish that you don't see very often.

Speaker C:

Well, I feel like there's a whole long line of that, but we still haven't covered if there's anything else that we need to worry about for brackish tanks.

Speaker B:

What would you have to worry about?

Speaker C:

I don't know, man. I've been trying to come up with all these ideas to see why people are complaining all the time.

Speaker B:

Well, I tell you, the one thing that you will find out is that if you have a brash tank and you break your heater, that salt water conducts electricity even better than regular water. So if you see your fish darting and stuff, don't put your fingers in the water, because you will get one heck of a shock.

Speaker C:

Or do it and poop your pants.

Speaker B:

Or get a bisectomy. That's how it works. It all works the same, and that's a fact, Jack.

Speaker C:

I feel like there's a story behind that.

Speaker B:

No, but I've had some broken tanks and broken heaters in brackish and saltwater, and it is one hell of a lot bigger jolt than it is when it's just freshwater. Freshwater is a nice little buzzing sensation in your body. The brackish little more intense, your heart pounds a little bit. Salt water is poopy pants, because salt water really conducts electricity a lot more than regular water.

Speaker C:

I'm just imagining you pooping your pants, that's all. I get to smile with that one all night.

Speaker B:

Yeah. There you go. Think about that when you go to bed tonight.

Speaker C:

Well, any other issues that you guys can think of? And I'm asking this to you, to listeners, while we're doing the podcast. Is there any other brackish issues that you guys have heard? Because the amount of negative connotation that I hear when I type in brackish oh, no one does that. It's not worth it.

Speaker B:

See, I think some of the most beautiful fish out there are brackish. I love the monofish.

Speaker C:

Jimmy is just dying to talk about species. So here is your conversation on bracket species.

Speaker B:

Jimmy go, mono fish, which to me, one of my favorite fish here is the angel fish, and I think the monofish looks very similar to an angel fish. It also looks very similar to a saltwater fish. And that was my first when I was 16 years old, I bought a monofish. And I remember the fact that when I was 16 years old, I probably paid twelve or $13 for that fish. And I bought a pair of them and they had to educate me on brackish water. And I went, I don't got to do brackish water. I'll put them in fresh because they're in fresh water here. Not knowing, I went home and they lived fine for about a week, and then they whistled away and died. And so that was my first failure with brackish. So I went back, listened to the pet store the second time, which was in the westacre Shopping Mall in fargo, North Dakota. Went home and I kept my models for jeepers a long time, maybe two or three years, and I just loved them. And I think they're probably one of the coolest fish out there because it's about as close as you're going to get looking to a saltwater fish in brackish water.

Speaker C:

Oh, 100%. They look like modified designer angel fish. They're quite cool. They have black and silver lines going across their body, and a lot of the back fins even turn a hue of yellow.

Speaker B:

Yes, very beautiful, very saltwater esque. And there's something that I very seldom ever get anybody ordering, and I sell very few. But the people that do want them are very excited to get them when they show up.

Speaker C:

So I want to go over some of the species, since we're picking our favorite species here. You grab some is the misconception fish. Right? We talked about molly's, but also guppies. Guppies do normally do quite well in brackish water. Yes, there are some designer in bread guppies, but that's a conversation to the state of guppies, that they're not being that hardy any longer. But guppies do excel in a brackish water climate as well.

Speaker B:

They'll do very well. So guppies swords platties also will do very well.

Speaker C:

I didn't know swords did it.

Speaker B:

Yeah. I mean last week dr. Fish, he talked about how swords are very effective with salt.

Speaker A:

No, that was molly's.

Speaker B:

I thought no, he talked about swordtails, too, last week. If you guys would listen to the podcast last week like I did, that's what you would have heard.

Speaker C:

I hope you're wrong so we can.

Speaker B:

Call I hope so, too, because I want to get shocked.

Speaker C:

How about you, Adam? What's one of your favorites?

Speaker A:

Oh, I've got a whole list.

Speaker C:

Let's hit that list.

Speaker B:

Why are you holding back?

Speaker A:

Well, I was being polite.

Speaker C:

He was listening to you about your story about pooping your pants.

Speaker B:

Hey, don't start me.

Speaker A:

We've got bumblebee gobies and just any species of gobies. Bumblebee gobies are my absolute favorite little brackish water fish because they always look either grumpy or happy. However you look at them, they're just kind of a little fish, and you can breed them in brackish water, like, super easy.

Speaker C:

They look super angry. They kind of look like Jimmy after he's been told he can't have the last cookie. Just, like, pissy all the time in the tank, like a frown.

Speaker A:

If you give him more cookies, he wouldn't be pithy.

Speaker C:

Right, before we go on your list, Adam, you said bubble. We go be. That made me think of the pea puffers again. So a lot of the pea puffers that we get in the trade are acclimated to fresh. So be careful when you're doing this dose slow, because, again, a lot of times they're bred and raised in fresh water. It's more of the green spotted puffer or what they call what was it? The eight puffer? I can't remember. Eight figure eight buffer.

Speaker A:

Figure eight.

Speaker C:

Those are the more traditional brackish buffer, but the pea buffers are normally done bread and acclimated into freshwater. They certainly do well in brackish, but be careful on that. You might have some mixed results anytime that you have fish that's changing anything in the environment abruptly is the issue. Fish can take a lot of abuse. You can take a fish from 68 to 85 degrees as long as you take a day to do it in.

Speaker B:

A frying pan, right?

Speaker C:

So if you're going to do that, slowly start building up your brackish tolerance before you do that. Don't just dump, but anyways, your list, buddy. Your list.

Speaker A:

Okay, so sale, fin, molly, I know that they're regarded as regular mollies, but sailfin mollies actually have a lot better behaviors and stuff, and actually, you can keep them in pure salt water. I would put them in my marine aquariums, and it was just extra food for the fish.

Speaker B:

What do you mean extra food for fish? Are you talking about the baby mollies?

Speaker A:

Yeah, the baby mollies would be extra food for the saltwater fish.

Speaker B:

You're a jerk.

Speaker A:

Well, fish got to eat.

Speaker B:

Sailfin mollies come in a wide variety of colors, and they, again, have turned kind of in, like guppies, where they have what was the word you called? The designer.

Speaker C:

Designer inbred. I mean, we have kept these pure line of species, kind of like dogs, right? You get it? Like a mastiff and a pure bread. Mastiff has piles of knee issues and breathing issues. They're a crap dog because you got a pure bread, and they've just been bread and bread over the years. Finally. And I have really bad genes from being in bread. That's what's happening to the state of guppies right now.

Speaker B:

If you're a dog, I'd say you're a mastiff.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I got diabetes, bad eyesight, arthritis, bad knees. I crapped my pants last time I put my hand in your tank, Jimmy.

Speaker B:

It happens.

Speaker C:

I'm a purebred pure bread nerd. There you go. But that's what's happening with a lot of the state of guppies. So getting a mutt guppy may be cheaper. It may not give you all the warm and fuzzies. Having some expensive guppy, it's probably going to last longer than some of these crazy strains of inbred cobra guppies or whatever else you're finding.

Speaker B:

Southern self and molly. Adam, what else do you like?

Speaker A:

Half beak?

Speaker C:

I have the small, what we call the golden wrestling half beaks. They're actually white with a little bit of color on their tails. We got them in. They did really well. I sold the majority of them to my friend and I think he had a little bit too much currents in his tank. They like a little bit more peaceful surface and they crapped out in his tank. I still have one remaining that I didn't scoop for him. And it's nice and big in the top of my 125 gallon tank. Completely freshwater, but it absolutely loves salt. I've had it in the tank that was almost Brackish because I was treating some fish in there. It just excelled. So that would be the only exception that I would have, is those small ones. Those gold half peaks do use fresh water, but they do better in Brackish and all the other half peaks because there's a whole range of species. And you can talk to Chris biggs. He has a vast knowledge of the list of species of halfbeaks. Almost everything has a dedication to Brackish, and they're beautiful.

Speaker A:

Anna bleach, the fluoride fish.

Speaker B:

Those bastards.

Speaker A:

Those are cool.

Speaker C:

Have you had them before, Adam?

Speaker A:

Yes, I have. And they're really cool because how is the family friendly way to say it?

Speaker B:

They gave me the heebie jeebies because they're always staring at me.

Speaker A:

Well, that's because literally, they have four eyes. But in order to breed them, you need to get like six or eight. They have to figure out which part goes where.

Speaker B:

That's right.

Speaker C:

I've talked about this.

Speaker B:

We talked about not this conversation again, oddball one.

Speaker C:

So I'm just going to give a.

Speaker B:

Little earlier, just talk about this again.

Speaker C:

Come on, man.

Speaker B:

I do not want to hear about the left leaning penis.

Speaker C:

Now I have to talk about jesus, you did it. So annabelle are a crazy fish. They grow about twelve inches and they're a live bearing species.

Speaker B:

The fish grow twelve inches.

Speaker C:

The fish grow twelve inches. They're peen. They're going to podium because I'm remembering this because it didn't sniff a lot of glue tonight. They're going to podium either left or right, and it needs to find a corresponding female with the ace in the hole.

Speaker B:

I can't believe we're having this conversation again.

Speaker C:

You don't believe me?

Speaker B:

I believe you, but I've read it. I actually thought, you're full of crapola.

Speaker C:

I can't wait until I get these fish back in again and I read.

Speaker B:

About it and I'm just going so you have to find a left hanging mail to a right leaning mail.

Speaker C:

No, it's not left to left. It's left to right or right to left.

Speaker B:

You two suck at square dancing, I tell you that much.

Speaker C:

Yeah, because they have to meet. Remember, they're side by side. You don't want left to left. Then you just got to dive down on the bottom. That's not how logistics work. You want a left thing to a right thing. That's what I'm saying. This is getting weird.

Speaker B:

I'm going to go put battery acid.

Speaker C:

My eyes by far one of my favorite brackish fish. They're found in mangrove areas. And it's not that the fish has four eyes. The fish has two pupils on an oblong eye. So the idea is the fish floats the surface and its eyeballs half exposed at the top and bottom. So they're looking both up for predators and down for food. They're quite the fun little dolphin.

Speaker B:

They're looking down to see if they're left leaning piny is hilarious.

Speaker C:

Right? This is a fish that needs surface area, not tank space. So getting a 300 gallon tank will do little to nothing. Getting an indoor kitty pool, a $30 kitty pool from Walmart is a fantastic way to get these fish started. They have all the surface area they need. It may only be 30 gallons or whatever. I don't know what those pools hold. I have no clue. But it's not about depth. It's all about surface area.

Speaker A:

Here's one that most people don't know about. columbian sharks and chromites. And there's actually two different species of chromites. And both of them, they're actually a brackish water cichlid and not really worked with a lot, but kind of cool that people should try because they actually have a lot of like the only thing is, from what I've understood, because I have had them, but I've never bred them, is they're basically like brackish water convicts.

Speaker C:

That would be why?

Speaker A:

That would be the only downside is that they're basically a convict. Stick with or bracket.

Speaker B:

It's been a long time since I've heard the word columbian shark. I think they're really cool. They look a little bit like a bullhead.

Speaker C:

Literally had to look it up because I had no idea what you were asking, really about.

Speaker B:

We used to sell out crap, ton of those things.

Speaker C:

They're called black fin sharks. That's how I know them.

Speaker B:

Okay. Ever since I've started this business, it's been colombian, and I kind of forgot they called black tip sharks, too.

Speaker C:

I'm actually trying to remember. I think the last time I saw them was probably when I was a kid and bought it from your store in Ferguson Falls.

Speaker B:

Probably, yeah.

Speaker C:

It's been like literally forever. I completely forgot about them.

Speaker B:

Yeah, they're cool.

Speaker C:

Good one, Adam.

Speaker A:

And then my other favorite is the different types of brackets, water moray eels. And the only thing with those is that you absolutely have to have the tightest fitting lid that you could ever possibly put on a tank because they will literally swirl out of the smallest little opening and land on your floor. And then you're missing your eel, and then you go the next two days later and you find it dried up on your floor. However, if you can find it within the first eight to 10 hours and throw it back in the tank, it's probably going to live. They're hardy little buggers again.

Speaker C:

All these stories feel like there's an experience behind them.

Speaker B:

Well, after they've been on the floor for three days, you call them eel on a stick. It's kind of like but I have.

Speaker A:

Had more eels that have gotten out of either salt water tanks or brackish water tanks, and I have found them within a certain amount of time and put them back in water and they will come back.

Speaker B:

Yeah, that is the same thing.

Speaker C:

Gorilla tape goes a long way, guys. That's all I'm saying. So while you say that, we have had one of our listeners spino that's been putting us a list of brackish fish, and he's been putting up a lot of information about moray eels because he's a huge fan. So to give you an idea, if you want to look it up, there's not a lot of freshwater eel species that we have with tire track eel, fire eel, snowflake eels, about the closest thing that we can get to a nice looking, more a style eel. But these that you can get for brackish, there's a whole long list of them. One of them that he has, I'm just trying to find what he put here.

Speaker A:

Australian species. So we don't get it.

Speaker B:

There's a lot of things there's a lot of things that we don't get.

Speaker A:

Most of it well, you can get them. It's just a matter of knowing the right people.

Speaker C:

I was trying to find the different names of them, but there's a lot of different colors that you can find. Just type in brackish mores and see what you can find. There's a bunch of different patterns. One of them they put on discord is a black and yellow pattern. So you get a lot more vibrant color out of the eels than you do the muted freshwater species of eels that we get, because the fire eel has like, one blotch of red, and the rest makes it look like a giant leach. I mean, I hate to say it, white, yellow hater. I'm a little bit of an eel hater. If you're going to have a nice eel, right, you don't have some, like, some weird snap. You want to have that cool more characteristic, where it has that cool eyeballs are looking at you.

Speaker B:

I don't care. The next time that we go out swimming on the reef that it attaches to your thing. I'm just saying that the last time we were in Florida, when we went out swimming on the ocean, that would have been hilarious. For that.

Speaker C:

Just a little snap on my thing.

Speaker B:

Yes, a little snap.

Speaker A:

Just a little tiny I got, like, three more things.

Speaker C:

All right, fine. You go.

Speaker B:

You make it sound like you've got a little thing. A little thing, too.

Speaker A:

I don't have that problem that's your.

Speaker C:

Guys see where's the HR department that's white discrimination right there. You're fish, bro.

Speaker B:

I've got nothing.

Speaker A:

Don't forget glassfish.

Speaker B:

What?

Speaker A:

Not the painted ones, but, like, compounded glassfish and regular glassfish. And they would go good with your gobies, that type of stuff. They're an amazing little fish. They have a really cool behavior. And when you feed them, like frozen blood worms or lie black worms, you can see the food in their belly.

Speaker C:

It is creepy. Can confirm.

Speaker A:

And tiger fish, that is a really common brackish water fish. They get massively big part of the datinoids.

Speaker C:

There's essentially two different varieties. There's the New Guinea tiger fish and siamese. The siamese is the traditional one. They get about 18 inches. They're considered like a mini monster in a brackish tank, and they're beautiful.

Speaker A:

And then the one fish well, then there was also some stuff, like some of the pipe fish, but I've never really worked with those in freshwater or brackish. I've only worked with them in salt water. There was a beta that was brought up, which I didn't know. Is there any killy fish or rainbows that are brackish water?

Speaker C:

Rob some of the because there's two different body styles of rainbow. We have the traditional big rainbow, like the basami rainbow, millennium rainbow. Those are freshwater all through. But some of the nano species, like fracado rainbows, do better with a little bit of salt, in my experience. I know that there's a plethora of different species. Even in the Discord, they put one up. All these nano species have such a horrible long name. But look them up, you'll see a lot of different nano species. They're trying to find common names, but they're very hard to find. It in the aquarium market. You can only get, like, a handful of the different nano species. I think for cotta is going to be probably the one that's going to be one that is a little bit better in salt.

Speaker B:

It's very beautiful. I tell you what, if you're not on Discord, you should be on Discord. People are putting up beautiful pictures of beautiful fish, and I've been really impressed of how vibrant some of these fish are in color. They're just rival marine fish.

Speaker C:

I'm just glad that they're not putting up any little things on the Discord. Have to ban them.

Speaker B:

Yeah, right. I'm surprised we're not banned, actually. But there's always tomorrow.

Speaker C:

Is that all the species you got?

Speaker A:

Adam no, I do have one more that I have personally done loaches, really.

Speaker C:

That I did not know.

Speaker A:

And actually, that's how I bred them, I think, is because I had them in Brackish with my sailfin, molly's, and then the sails and molly I got bored with. So I got rid of them. And then I switched them to pure freshwater and forgot that I had cooley loaches. And then I did a massive water change and I started with eight and I ended up with, like, 50.

Speaker C:

There's a thought for you, Jimmy, because we always have a problem. Jimmy and I have had a lot of problem with koolie loaches. We can order black kooliloches and they're really cheap.

Speaker B:

The black ones do very well.

Speaker C:

I mean, good luck finding them, but they're really cheap. So I have a bunch of black koolie loaches on hand. They're doing great. But the bandit and every time that we've ordered banded cooly loaches and of course, they're always more expensive, but they always crap out on us. We were just assuming that maybe it's the vendor we got it from or something else. But that may be the key.

Speaker B:

But sometimes, too, it gets a little bit of fungus on them. They just don't seem as hearty as a black cooley loach. And everybody wants the bandit cooley loach. But you're right.

Speaker A:

Yeah. And that's what I did, is I always put them sorry if I interrupted, Jim. What were you saying?

Speaker B:

No, I totally agree with you. Sometimes going from brackish to fresh or fresh to brackish will get a fish spawning and you never know which way it goes. But yeah, I completely did not realize that you could keep a coolie loach in brackish water. That's kind of cool.

Speaker A:

Well, I almost thought that that's why I had success with them because I had the same problem you guys did where they would just die and you're like, what the hell are they dying from? And they just seem to die. But then I put them in the brackish tank and they did. Amazing.

Speaker B:

Somebody just put up on Discord and says, I don't know, but little coolies remind me of mangrove snakes. And I agree. Looking at them, they look very much like a mangrove snake. Which I don't want in my tank because I hate snakes, damn it. But back to your you just hate.

Speaker C:

Anything that could be resembled a little thing.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Got to hate you all tonight and tomorrow probably too. Back to pipe fish. I've gotten pipe fish in on several occasions when I've ordered in, like, freshwater feeder guppies. And they go out to the pond and they sand them. And ty and I used to get 5000 feeder guppies in at a time and they'd almost always be in those little pipe fish. And we always took them out and we try to keep those things alive. And we never had any good luck with them. But finding out that they need very much live brine shrimp or live mosquito larvae to live. But I love pipe fish. I wish I could keep them.

Speaker C:

They don't have as big of a mouth as you do. They're quite small. Right. They can't just donuts you know what I mean?

Speaker B:

That's correct. We figured that out. All right.

Speaker C:

Adam, got any more fish?

Speaker A:

Yeah, I have one that I don't recommend ever. And they get so bring it up. They get labeled as freshwater stonefish.

Speaker C:

The batfish, or whatever they nickname them at.

Speaker A:

No, jim seeing them on the list, too. They get put in the oddball list on the secrets list.

Speaker B:

Stonefish.

Speaker C:

They look like yeah, they're poisonous.

Speaker A:

Yeah, they're extremely venomous. Not poisonous.

Speaker C:

Excuse me. venomous?

Speaker A:

Yeah, but they're cute.

Speaker C:

They're super cute. I don't know why you hate on them unless you're at them and stick your hands in the tank.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

I think they would kill you 100%.

Speaker B:

Looks like a turd with a mouth could kill you.

Speaker C:

But they're adorable. I don't know. You know what the hate is for. Yeah.

Speaker B:

I mean, there's so many different cool fish that lay in the bottom.

Speaker C:

Oh, there there's pictures.

Speaker B:

That's what I'm looking at.

Speaker C:

Look at the pictures. I don't know why you guys hate on that. It looks like a wonderful decorated turd.

Speaker B:

Yeah, they don't move. They kind of lay in the bottom. And when your favorite fish, whatever your favorite fish may be, swims by. He opens his mouth, sucks it in, and it's gone.

Speaker C:

Yes. Forever.

Speaker B:

Yes. And I've seen some people call the stone fish different things and stuff, but.

Speaker C:

Freshwater stonefish, that's how they're marked in pretty much every catalog.

Speaker B:

Yeah. And the thing is, there are many different varieties. Many different varieties. They are all kind of sold under one thing called the stone fish for experts only.

Speaker C:

Do not put your hand in tank will kill you.

Speaker A:

I think we've all agreed on that. It will kill you, right?

Speaker B:

I don't think it'll kill you.

Speaker C:

You know what?

Speaker B:

We should do the student experiment again.

Speaker C:

There's multiple species. The ones that we've gotten in the past will kill you. Guys, quit licking your stuff. That's all we're saying.

Speaker B:

Listen, you're all getting a blue ring octopus for Christmas, so stop it. Sweet, sweet wheat. That was adam's answer. Always. You know how all these conspiracy theorists and stuff talk about how would you kill a person, get away with it? Adam was always going to buy a blue ring octopus and throw it in somebody's drink or something. I don't know what he was going to do.

Speaker A:

God damn it. Now that one goes out the window.

Speaker B:

Oh, so don't kill anybody in your next lifetime, you won't have that problem.

Speaker C:

The FBI is like, he's a fish guy, right? Yeah, it's definitely him.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Blurring octopus. This gal is up in Canada in a blurring octopus stuck to her face.

Speaker A:

No, actually, the venom, from what I've understood, makes it mimic a heart attack perfectly. And the venom of the blue ring, it goes through their system pretty quickly, so you can't really trace it, from what I've understood.

Speaker B:

But when the thing is stuck to somebody's face. I think that's going to be a giveaway. I'm just saying. But those are very beautiful, too. The blue ring octopus. So get one of those two put in one of the rockfish to see who lives.

Speaker C:

See, why can't we find, like, a nice fish that is venomous? That when it stings you, you shit your pants. I want that fish. I give it to all my friends. Like, dude, it bit me.

Speaker B:

Listening to this podcast kind of has an effect on me at times. Oh, my God. I can't believe this guy said that.

Speaker C:

All right, Adam, adam, what else you got.

Speaker A:

That'S about? It freshwater flounders. Like the only other thing, but I.

Speaker C:

Don'T think I got this one. Why hate on my freshwater flounder?

Speaker B:

I love flounders.

Speaker C:

What shit you got to say about it? Come on, now.

Speaker B:

Give it.

Speaker C:

Give it.

Speaker B:

Flounders rock.

Speaker A:

You don't like flounders in the bottom of excuse me.

Speaker B:

It looks like a flat turd, like somebody ran it over.

Speaker C:

All right, so when you get these things, they're also labeled as Hog chokers, because that's clearly an HR name I didn't make up at this moment.

Speaker B:

You know what? I want you to Urban dictionary Hog Choker and see what you come up with. Because I think for sure somebody's going to jail tonight, and it ain't going to be me for saying hog choker damage. No way.

Speaker C:

All right. Hog Choker, urban dictionary. Here we go. A rare bird found in east coast erie Harbor. Seven years. Okay, that's not good. That's it. It's just a bird. All right. Urban dictionary. Sucks. I win. But, no, it's for real. Callaholic joker. They're fun and they're stupid cheap. If you have a local pet store that doesn't want to get these in, they're boring. They're, like, $0.25 on most lists when they come in, or 50. They're really cheap. So you get these in, you get them about the size, anywhere between a nickel and a quarter. And they look when they're young, they have this beautiful marble pattern. It's like a gray, black and brown mix, and they're flat as a disk. You put them in your tank, they stick to the side of the glass. They bury themselves in sand because gravel sucks. And they're just a fun fish, right? And they grow up as they grow up, they turn more brown, but they retain their black blotchy spots, and they literally look like everything you'd imagine a salt water flounder would be. But they only get about probably mine.

Speaker B:

Was six to eight inches, say five, six inches, easy.

Speaker C:

That's pretty much all they get as they grow. If something fits in their mouth, it dies. I mean, that's as simple as that. But that's with most fish that are semi aggressive. If they can eat it, they will. Other than that, they're fun. They're hardy. A whole Hog Choker will bury itself in sand. Super fun and interactive.

Speaker B:

Why do they call it. A hog choker. Do hogs choke on these things when they eat them?

Speaker C:

I don't know. Why do they call them a freshwater flounder when they're bracketing?

Speaker B:

I think what they are is basically kind of like a water wood tick is what they are.

Speaker A:

Better name for them.

Speaker B:

Water wood tick.

Speaker A:

Water wood tick.

Speaker B:

There we go.

Speaker C:

How do we just call them flat patties?

Speaker B:

Flat patties.

Speaker C:

Flat patties. We need a better PR team for some of these fish. Say that again, Adam.

Speaker B:

We forgot about that.

Speaker C:

All right, the last one. That, of course, because Adam has his list. I had my list, which we did a lot from adam's list already. Is all the scats there is a bunch. No more glue. No. Damn it, Jimmy.

Speaker B:

I was scattered.

Speaker C:

No, you're stupid glue.

Speaker B:

No, I was scattered. Some of those old jazz guys were scat.

Speaker C:

Oh, so you metaphorically put a dime in the jukebox.

Speaker B:

In the jukebox.

Speaker C:

And you're playing something that I'm scatting.

Speaker B:

Like the old blues guys. They scat. Come on. skimming double ass.

Speaker C:

Somebody clipped that and send it out as a ringtone. Oh, my God. So scats are a beautiful fish. They resemble the other datinids we spoke of, the tiger fish that had the same flat, squareish body structure. There's a few different scats. They're not did you say they're square? They're kind of square, man.

Speaker B:

Not a square.

Speaker C:

Look at that. It's square.

Speaker B:

I don't think I see square in this room. Is you.

Speaker C:

Oh, my God.

Speaker B:

What?

Speaker A:

I did hear one thing about these.

Speaker B:

Guys down at the pub. You heard about it or what?

Speaker C:

No.

Speaker A:

I was wondering, do these guys have a venomous spine?

Speaker C:

What?

Speaker A:

Ax spines.

Speaker C:

I've heard that if you get poked with them, they're toxic, but they don't do anything besides, like, make you swell up a little bit.

Speaker B:

See what he's trying to do here? He's trying to figure out now that the blue ring octopus thing is out I have to know this for killing somebody. Now he's going, well, could I use a scat and put it in their drink and kill him?

Speaker A:

I'm not going to put anything in their drink.

Speaker B:

Reliving your college days when you used to try to pick up women at the club.

Speaker C:

Check this out. So I've had scats. Didn't know this. Apparently, they have scats are venomous.

Speaker B:

There you go.

Speaker C:

Figure maybe this is why brackets get such a bad rap. We got the stonefish that'll kill you. We got scats that have venom. We talked about the four eyes that makes you feel creepy.

Speaker B:

Maybe that's why this whole podcast makes you creepy. Because you're talking about the four eyed antibly with the thing that hangs left and he's looking for a girl that hangs right. I just think that's just weird.

Speaker C:

Well, here's another thing. We have a tank full of beautiful scats above us that some listeners showed.

Speaker B:

Us a picture of. Very beautiful.

Speaker C:

And there's a square dildo on the back, so I'm frankly scared as well. Maybe that's that's it. It brackets. Just has bad PR.

Speaker B:

I can't believe that nobody's put up a thing on the podcast, live chat about scatton after I scattered. They did, did they?

Speaker C:

Yeah. He's a shookoo, WAP hop guy.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Just for you.

Speaker B:

That's me. That's me on drugs right there.

Speaker C:

Or glue. Definitely glue. But apparently, according to this, their spines have venom scat. People scatch in the persian Gulf induce painful wounds, partly parasites, whom touches the spine. Well, maybe that's what happened to me because I got poked, I swallowed up a little bit. Maybe I was just a little bit better on the toxins paralysis. Maybe that's why I can smell colors. You can smell color that tasted purple?

Speaker B:

I didn't know that. I need some of that when you're done with this.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Apparently, I'm just reading here, localized pain, partial paralysis, and itching so yeah, maybe that's what happened to me, then. Itching I just never knew. And I bought a fish that explained so very much. Oh, shit.

Speaker B:

So for those people out there who are doing heavy drugs right now, you can get yourself a Scatfish for next to nothing.

Speaker C:

They're gorgeous fish. Now, us telling you that they're venomous, clearly they're not venomous. And the thing that will kill you, don't put your hands in there. But they're gorgeous fish. They come in all different colors. They have dots. They have stripes. Even the one that we see here on discord is black with yellow tails and head. It's just gorgeous stuff that you can see out there for sketch. There's a whole long line, but apparently be careful on touching them. Didn't know that with anything.

Speaker B:

Don't put your hand in the water until you know what you're grabbing.

Speaker C:

You figure that when you buy a fish, they give you, like, some sort of warning, like, hey may kill you. Hey may swell up.

Speaker A:

But here's the other thing. In a store, I don't have the time to label everything that could possibly kill somebody.

Speaker B:

You might want to take the time to do that.

Speaker C:

All right, let's make that argument, because I feel like McDonald's, like, I don't have time to possibly label that your coffee is going to burn you. I get that. But this is different. This is a creature that could kill you, prove permanent damage to you. You got to at least put a label on that shit. You know what I mean?

Speaker A:

If I know that it's deadly, I purposely don't keep it into my store unless I get it by accident in jim's Live Rock.

Speaker C:

What about your lionfish? That's deadly to some people. You just got lucky.

Speaker A:

I know I got lucky, but people want that one, and they know that.

Speaker C:

It'S going to be mom, I want that one. Okay. Here you go, daughter.

Speaker B:

The selling point was yeah, once you get stung by a lot of these things, your arm swells up and you can't talk and you can smell color. Why can I taste metal in my mouth?

Speaker A:

But I mean, that's right up there with piranhas. Everybody thinks red breasted piranhas are just this violent, vicious thing. They are not and they're not. They're just big ass pansy fish. But you get the golds and the blacks and the diamond ones, and those will just go right through the tank trying to kill you.

Speaker B:

They will knock on the window and try to lure you over and eat you. Yes, I totally agree. If I dropped a net in a red breasted piranha tank, I would reach in and grab it mindful I would watch them. But I had some black piranha that I gotten from somebody and he said, yeah, these things are nasty. Don't ever go after a net when you drop them in there. And the one time I had a net and move them from tank to tank, I used a double net. And he was on the floor before I got him out of the water because he went through the net. But he would sit there and look at me and knock on the glass and go, you're going to feed me today, butthole? And I'd go, yeah, I guess because they're aggressive. He'd come right to the front of the tank and stare you down. Whereas red breasted prana, you feed them goldfish and you stand back 25ft in the darkness and wait for them to eat and then see the glitter show, which I like to call the snow globe. When they chomp on the goldfish and all this pretty scales fly all over.

Speaker C:

The place, you get yourself a little poof.

Speaker B:

Yeah. You go, oh, snow globe.

Speaker C:

Wow, this whole thing has taken a.

Speaker B:

Very it's got nothing to do with brackish.

Speaker C:

Very different turn.

Speaker B:

That's right.

Speaker C:

So above I got to read this quote because again, we're getting a live chat from people that are listening in. So let's see if I can find it here.

Speaker B:

Oh, there's a quote right there I wanted to read. Yeah, I agree. Rob should run the microwave without the door being open.

Speaker C:

No door, you're terrible man. Thought you love me. Hold on. I'm almost there. Jimmy, it was so funny. I got to find it.

Speaker B:

This is where we pay the jeopardy theme song scrap. He's nodding yes, actually.

Speaker A:

Is there 1ft.

Speaker C:

When you're swimming in the creek and an eel bites your cheek, that's amora.

Speaker B:

I love that quote. We got to get that into a T shirt.

Speaker C:

That's a more. anyways, let's pick one or two more and cut it off because there's a lot of fish to go off of. But we can't forget the mud skipper.

Speaker B:

What?

Speaker A:

I forgot all about those.

Speaker C:

How dare you?

Speaker B:

I like mud skippers.

Speaker C:

Adam just associates that thing as, like, a half lizard creature.

Speaker B:

That's because he's a lizard guy.

Speaker C:

Adam, tell us about mud skippers. Okay.

Speaker A:

Mud skippers are really cool because they come out of the water and suck.

Speaker B:

The blood out of your neck at night.

Speaker A:

No.

Speaker B:

Are you sure?

Speaker C:

You're not helping. I'm just prakish. No.

Speaker A:

Mud skippers are just really cool because they build a nest on land and they have holes, and they fight with each other and they squirt mud at each other. And the males have these big, flashy, really pretty top fins, but they literally come out of the water. And I don't know how long they come out for. Like, what? Ten to 15 minutes at times, I think.

Speaker B:

Looking for blood?

Speaker A:

No, they don't look for blood. They just come out of the water and they hop around on land and they hunt crickets on land. They're just a really cool fish that I totally forgot about. Like, if you wanted to set up a pallidarium or a half land, half water tank, which would be really cool, put Mud skippers in it, that would just be amazing. And then send pictures.

Speaker C:

And there's a bunch of different Mud skippers. There's Indian mud, skippers. There's African mud, skippers. Most all of them are exclusively bracket.

Speaker B:

So tell me how poisonous they are.

Speaker A:

I don't think they are.

Speaker C:

They're not.

Speaker B:

They look poisonous.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Some of them have, like, old kind of decorative stripes, maybe blues on them. They look like some sort of, like, dart frog is going to bite your ass. But no, they're fun. They're like a halfway between, like, a fish, a frog and a salamander. They're real cool looking.

Speaker B:

Yeah. So they come out of the water looking for blood, and they eat crickets.

Speaker A:

Okay, we'll go with it.

Speaker B:

All right.

Speaker C:

I feel like we need to make a horror movie just to fulfill your freakish fantasy.

Speaker A:

30 foot mud skipper.

Speaker B:

There we go.

Speaker A:

That's a B rated movie right there.

Speaker B:

That's great. Let's do it.

Speaker C:

So I think the last two we can pick on is betas have been debated. If they want to have them in salt, I use fresh excel breeding betas, and fresh, I can't ignore that. Beta is like freshwater, but wild betas that are getting more and more popular because of people like foo the flowerhorn on YouTube. Fantastic YouTube channel. Check it out. He makes all these tanks with absolutely no filter whatsoever, and all he does is play music behind and show how these fish tanks live. After every couple of months, he puts in a new YouTube video giving status updates and watching them grow and popularize. Wild betas. They got a little bit of surgeons the last couple of years because of those videos, but they do extremely well in brackish. And the goblin or leaf goblin. Fish or wasp fish? Wasp.

Speaker B:

What is that?

Speaker C:

There's a picture. Wasp. Wasp. Just like you're either a squat or a twat.

Speaker B:

You are both you're a twitter and a twat.

Speaker C:

No, these things look cool. They kind of look like a red stone. They look very saltwater, don't they?

Speaker B:

They look like batman.

Speaker C:

Batman.

Speaker B:

Batman looks like a bat fish kind of to me, I guess.

Speaker C:

A little bit rosier, a little more character. They're pretty small. They seem to grow. I haven't had these. Have only seen them looking here. Has grown only about an inch or two in the tank. Give that a try. Look that up. I don't believe that's venomous either.

Speaker B:

I've never seen one of those. Those are cool.

Speaker C:

Well, I think we've given up plenty of different ideas. We gave you cleaner species. We gave you different ways to check your salinity. And we've proven that the tanks do not have any special requirements as far as the equipment, the tank, the set up. So go hog wild, guys. Give it a try. And if you've learned anything from the Doctor Fish podcast, us saying that you need salt was not an exaggeration. Salt is just the go to is like, oh, my fish looks funny. Salt. Maybe they're just not eating right. Salt. Their colors aren't bright enough. Salt. It was ridiculous on the amount of treatments that they gave us and really proved that our theory was correct on just abuse salt. So why not just go a little further and try a brackish tank?

Speaker B:

I think you should I think you should just go out and buy a new tank and try a bracket tank. I want somebody to go out there and get some of these crazy freaking mudskippers, and I want them to see them come out and hunt crickets. I think that would be cool.

Speaker C:

And if you get stung by a scat, we want pictures.

Speaker B:

Yes. And if you poop your pants, we'll take your word on that.

Speaker C:

We'll fly you to Minnesota.

Speaker B:

No, we don't want no pictures of that. We'll take your word on it.

Speaker A:

Rob, you're literally going to fly somebody to Minnesota to tell us that they got stung by us.

Speaker C:

If someone has evidence of a video that they got stung by a scat and can correlate that to shitting their pants, I'll fly them out to Minnesota. But the best part, flying economy. Probably going to get you the $250 COVID tickets, but I'll get you there.

Speaker B:

Yeah. And you're not going back home.

Speaker C:

That's on you.

Speaker B:

We'll get you here to Minnesota.

Speaker C:

We'll go half.

Speaker B:

We're not picking you up either. Welcome to Minneapolis Airport. Have fun. Let us know how it went.

Speaker C:

Well, I think that's the podcast, other than we can double check for questions from the listeners.

Speaker A:

We forgot the only other thing that we forgot was fiddler crab.

Speaker B:

Fiddler crab.

Speaker C:

There's a whole line of crustaceans. That again, most crustaceans come on a mangrove sea beach area. So they're very adaptive to saltwater conditions. So if you want to look up most fiddler crabs, I think vampire crabs.

Speaker A:

No, those are fresh.

Speaker C:

Vampire crabs are completely fresh.

Speaker A:

Vampire. And the red devil ones are fresh.

Speaker C:

Well, see, I always add a little water or a salt no matter what. So I'm covering my bases. I know they do well.

Speaker B:

There's so many cool crabs out there. We could do a whole crab convention type podcast and then we're never doing anything on a Malaysian trumpet sales, just so you know.

Speaker C:

Never again.

Speaker B:

Somebody sent me a picture of Malaysian trumpet's tale.

Speaker C:

No, that was never mind. There's crabs.

Speaker B:

So it says if their Malaysian trumpet sales turn it back. Have been known to tolerate brackish. They've been known to tolerate nuclear waste. Battery acid being nuked in a microwave, jimmy shoe bleach the heater at 110. The only thing left after a nuclear holocaust is going to be cockroaches and Malaysian trumpets, nails and water bears. What's a water bear?

Speaker A:

It's these little tiny microscopic creatures. They can live for like 150 years. They can survive the vacuum of space.

Speaker B:

I want to see you get a study on that.

Speaker C:

I feel like that's how you make kombucha.

Speaker B:

That's like breweries and kombucha.

Speaker A:

Maybe their water bears waste is kombucha. Just waterbear waste.

Speaker B:

There you go.

Speaker C:

Well, check it out, guys. If you got more questions or follow up, certainly join us. According to Podcast.com bot on the website, you can find any ways to contact us. Join our discord, enjoy the live streams that we do of the podcast. We try to do these Monday nights at 07:00 Central. Last week we were unable due to health issues, but jen is all good now. So certainly come join us. We'd love you to join the party. And thank you to our sponsor, Joshua. Yeah.

Speaker B:

And it's been fun with everybody adding and throwing stuff on the podcast, live chat, showing us pictures and stuff. That has been fantastic. Thank you guys for doing that.

Speaker C:

You guys are keep bringing in the doctor fish questions as well. We'll be doing that as a regular basis. We aim to do that once a month. Anything else, guys?

Speaker B:

No.

Speaker C:

Jimmy, put down the glue. No, you can't have the glue.

Speaker B:

Oh, I got to have the glue.

Speaker C:

Don't sniff glue. Podcast out.

Speaker B:

Bye.

Speaker C:

Thanks, guys, for listening to the podcast. Please go to your favorite place where podcasts are found, whether it be spotify, itunes, stitcher, wherever they can be found, like subscribe. And make sure you get push notifications directly to your phone so you don't miss great content like this.

Speaker A:

I never knew that a Minnesota access be so sexy until I heard adam's voice. Go frank yourself.

Speaker B:

Don't you know that's my boy? Don't you know.

Episode Notes

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We recorded it and lost it, but now we remade it to reach you that brackish tanks are just as easy as any fresh!

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