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Fish Room Tour

By King of DIY on

Joey: Look how big he's getting. Look at that one. [unintelligible 00:00:04] now. Just turned the lights out, that's all it was. [unintelligible 00:00:08] want to come out to see you if the lights are out. What are you doing? You come to see me? Are you going to give me kisses? Here, fishy, fishy, fishy. Here. Come on up here. Jump for the hand. [unintelligible 00:00:23].

Hey, there. My name's Joey. Some of you might remember me from way back a long time ago when I used to make videos on YouTube consistently.

I missed a couple of weeks of videos. The last video we made, I went to my local fish store and we went fish shopping. Basically, I went there to get ideas, show you guys what's available. We had four aquariums to stock. I never bought any fish that day. I wanted to take a couple of days, gained a lot of your information, comments, suggestions, et cetera, and go from there.

One big problem though. We ended up getting this massive storm warning, a big storm that was coming through. In fact, I think it was the entire East Coast. For those that don't know, I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. It was a massive storm that technically never really hit. We got a lot of rain one day, then a lot of snow, and then a lot of wind, but not all at once as advertised, because of that, there was no way I was going to go out and buy a bunch of new fish with an impeding massive storm coming in like that, but like I said, it never showed up.

With that said, my local fish store is about an hour away, so it's not like it's an easy trip. When there's a lot of snow out there, it's not safe to drive on the highways, especially if you're just going to get some fish. I did have to wait for some good weather to get out there. I didn't want to order and have fish shipped in, et cetera. We're going tomorrow. Why? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm turning 36 and I want some new fish and plants. It's as simple as that. Don't we all as hobbyist want that for our birthdays and holidays and so forth?

Anyways, with so many tanks on the go that are going to be getting stocked and changed, we're not going to be updating or taking a look at existing aquariums for quite a while, so I decided today, before we do a reveal of the new fish that we're going to get and plants, I thought, "Why don't we do one last tour of the gallery, take a close look at some of the fish and perhaps go over some ideas for the first tank or two or further your suggestions?" Let's start out there.

First tank, the 375. This is the tank that needs to go on a diet. This is a tank that needs to skip a meal. This is the tank that I'm buying a gym membership for. Why? It's a bunch of fat-ass-- Is that my first curse word? Bleep that out. This is a bunch of fat-butt fish. Look at the Loaches. Bunch of chubby little buggers, and a little cute little guy, still chubby. Wait until you see some of the male Boesemani. Look at him. .

This tank needs to be cleaned up a little bit. It's actually the next tank in line to go. The vieja, all getting pretty big. Man, I do need to clean this tank up. I haven't done it for about a week or something like that. It's due. Really, I just got to clean up the glass here. This tank is getting a lot of big and fat fish. Let me show you something right quick.

Look at the nape of this fish. Isn't he pretty? That's a Hartwegi Vieja. Where's the other guy I was just looking at? I think it was this one right here. He's starting to get a nuchal hump. That's definitely a male. They'll get a bit of a nuchal hump. If you look at his dorsal and anal, they're pointed as well. That's very indicative in Cichlids in general for the most part. That's something you can look for.

Down here, we've got a nice little pretty female. Nice big male of a synspila up top. The moral of the story there is that these guys are getting bigger and we're being able to sex them. Not 100%, but we're getting there. Out of all of them, my favorite of the Vieja in this tank is the argentea. It's just that black and white. Isn't it pretty? I wonder if this video's even picking it up. I wonder if you guys are seeing the colors I'm seeing in person. I wish that I wasn't colorblind, I could actually make videos, color grade them and make them so much better. I guess you just have to deal with what I can do here.

The red rainbows, definitely doing well for colors. Loaches are doing well. Everybody in this tank is just simply doing well, but it looks really full. I love this tank. I love it. I love the scape. They don't like it, they're making a mess of it. Look, they've emptied out the back. They're ripping the plants apart. They're just plastic anyways. Maybe not plastic, but silk. Imagine real plants in there, they would just destroy it. That's the problem with the Vieja. I don't know. .

A lot of people say this is their favorite tank as well. Look at the [unintelligible 00:04:47]. Man. Isn't he pretty? I like you. The camera's washing him out. He's darker in person. Male. Watch this. Male, female. For the first time in history, the boys are prettier than the girls. Isn't that perfect? .

375, fish are just going well, fish are growing. They're doing really well in this aquarium. We're not doing this in order, we're going to do it in the order that I like them or something or that I want to show you. Next one that I've really been dying to show off, and I've been showing him off a lot on Instagram. If you're not following me there, you want the updates and you want more, go to my Instagram, link is in the description below. You search @uarujoey, Joey Mullen, The King of DIY, I've got all those on there.

This is the guy that is quickly stealing my heart. I love him. This is my giant gourami. I still have not named him. I don't know if I want to name him. I have so many fantastic suggestions. Notice that when we walked up to the tank, he's out, he's looking at us. Let me back up. Let me show you something. We'll stay back here for a second, he'll come out, he'll look for me, and he'll watch me. If you look closely, on one of his feelers, there's like an ankle bracelet. I pressed charges for him watching me. He's such a little pervert. I'm kidding. If I come up to the tank, he goes and hides. He thinks he can hide behind these branches. I don't know what he thinks he's doing. It's like he's playing hide and seek.

Then we've got the Sunshine Pleco back there. That's where he hides. If I feed the tank, he'll come out, but he stays behind there because he thinks I can't see him either. Then we've got the Vampire Pleco right up in there. He stays there almost all the time. A lot of people ask me about the Plecos. I still got them all. You never see them, the big guy. Look. This is what he sees. This is what he thinks I can see, like I can't see him. Come on, man. Come right over here.

This tank needs a bit of an overhaul. This giant gourami's not going to last in here much longer. I believe this guy is also male. Typically speaking, when it comes to the giant gourami that reaches two feet in length, probably weighing 15 to 20 pounds, I don't know, I've never weighed one, I'm just guessing by the size I've actually seen adults in. Typically speaking, it takes two, three years for them to sexually mature. Sometimes a little bit longer. If you go look at this guy's dorsal fin, it's already pointed. I would suggest that this is a male. Of course, there are other sexual differences between and a female, but a lot of the times, even that's not going to be telltale. These guys do get a bit of a nuchal hump.

Look at that. That was a perfect example of a labyrinth fish. A labyrinth fish is a fish that has a labyrinth organ right behind his eyes up in his head. It's basically an organ that enables him to take in gulps of air from the surface and essentially dissolve them and get his oxygen in that way. A lot of the times, if you ever hear somebody ask me what's the best beginner fish, I always go towards labyrinth fish, because with new hobbyists and new aquariums, a lot of the times they're dealing with problematic water quality. If you have a fish that can gulp air from the surface, a lot of the times, they can live longer in the aquariums, although clearly you need to learn the nitrogen cycle as fast as possible.

That was just an interesting thing that just happened right there, an interesting fact about the labyrinth fish. For example, the beta fish is a labyrinth and all gourami are. The paradise fish. The paradise fish is a labyrinth fish. In fact, it's arguably the first fish that was ever kept in captivity as a hobbyist fish, a tropical fish, besides I think carp, goldfish.

I have no clue where I'm going to put him, but he ain't going anywhere. I'll build you a tank. I'll do what I've got to do to keep you. I like you. I love you. Be with me. Next one. All right. You gorgeous. You're so pretty. Look at the red on that. Mind you, again, the camera's not picking up the color and I don't know how to grade it, but man, he's just gorgeous. Notice that this is the fish that had drop-eye. The arowana that had drop-eye when I bought him. We talked about some remedies and one of them was simply just giving him time. Ultimately, I said that in order to repair the drop-eye, he's going to require cosmetic surgery.

I say cosmetic because that's exactly what it is. He's not hurt, he's acting normal, he's eating. He doesn't need his eye corrected to save his life, but he definitely would look a lot better. If you don't notice, his other eye is falling out type of deal as it's dropping down. There's fat deposits behind his eye causing that. What I would do is I would medicate him until he's unconscious. I've done this before with operating on Asian arowana. I would medicate him, knock him out basically, pull his eye down. Just look at my finger. [unintelligible 00:10:04] and I cut out all the fat deposits behind it. Give him some antibiotics, pop him back in the tank, and he'll be fine. It'll repair him. I'm making that sound way easier than it is. I guess the discussion can now turn to whether or not I would actually do that and that's something that I'll decide over the course of time.

I'd like for him to be a little bit bigger before I medicate him just so he's able to handle it but ultimately, it's an easy procedure that I could do. Perhaps, someday I will film it, wait till he completely heels and then show the results. This is also a red. A little lower quality, though. Comes from different firms. You can see, they're both blood reds and then we have the Crossback. Where'd you go? Panda Crossback Supreme, I believe that is back there, if he'll ever come up to the tank.

This guy's face and coloration scales are absolutely phenomenal. I really love that red. So sexy. As for the rays. Look at this tank. Look at this. I haven't done anything else to this tank, at all, ever. Just absolutely phenomenal. Just looks good all the time. The rays. Rays are getting nice and big. I would estimate they're all over 12 inches for sure. We got the three leopoldis. Let me get to the other side.

Then of course the pearl, [unintelligible 00:11:34] then the three black diamonds. The arowana continuously follow me around. Fighting every once in a while, but as you can see, they're all healed up. At one point their tails were ripped apart. I knew that that was going to happen. We talked about that. The red is becoming the dominant fish. The crossback at one point was, the one up front now, he was the boss but the red is definitely taking over. Go figure red dragon.

Every once in a while though, I'll notice that they have torn fins. They all get into a fight but hey, roommates do that sometimes. Tank is 2000 gallons, 10 feet long, 17 feet wide, four feet tall. For those that do not know, made out of concrete and 1.6 inch acrylic front viewing panels that I've yet to release the video on how I did this. Someday. This is just styrofoam that I built as well. Built the tank, this, you guys know all that. We have a pair. This is exciting.

Everybody else is doing fine. These two are always together. Always. Female, male. How do you sex uaru? Actually, it might be female, male, now that I'm looking at them. How do you sex uaru? Again, kind of the same thing, pointed dorsal in the male. Wait for him to swing by there. See his dorsal? We got the female with the rounded dorsal. However, the anal fin can also be pointed. It can be difficult to sex these guys for sure. When it comes to uaru, female lays the eggs. Aren't they getting pretty.

It's been a while since I made a video. I need to get over this. There's Little Timmy, Timmy no grow. Those that don't know you, this is my stunted uaru. It just won't grow. I named him Timothy because he's just not growing. He reminds me in that Christmas movie, there was Scrooge McDuck I think or Scrooge or something like that and there was a little kid with crutches. I forget, anyways, I just call him Little Timmy. It's funny.

Notice that there are no leaves left in the tank. I didn't take them out. Remember I put all those top leave in there [unintelligible 00:14:04]. Look, we have one. What's wrong guys? You full? You don't want the last one? They ate them all. They're eating rotten leaves. Some people were like, "Joey, you got to put plants in there." No, uaru are an omnivore leaning towards a herbivore. They will eat plant matter. Man, they look good today.

I don't know what it is, but they look fantastic. Now, imagine these guys in the wild. This is about as close to a wild tank as I can get for these guys to an extent. Of course, they need some plants, but in the wild, they can eat all they want but in here, I'm not going to give them a smorgasbord of aquarium plants to choose from. They look good. Imagine a big group of these in the wild. Man, they look so good today.

Let's move on. Tropius, we have some breeding action in here. I believe a couple of these guys are holding some eggs. I have yet to be able to actually catch them on camera doing so, but if I were a betting man, this guy got a mouthful. See his chin? What's wrong with your chin bro? Got a mouthful eggs? Look at his chin. Not his chin, under his gill plates. Full mouth of eggs. Hanging out by himself. Doesn't want to be around anybody. I'm going to let all that happen naturally but at least we got some breeding action in here. Pretty interesting. We also have a couple of runts. Look at them back there.

See them right there, the spec, but I kept him because he's fitting in. I think he's part of the troop, he's part of the family and he's helping maintain balance. This tank took forever for me to get working and getting along. I started out with 60 mind you and these are not cheap fish. I have like 20 of them. I had to keep taking out males and dwindling the pack down more and more.

Man, in-person, I got to tell you, their scales are so velvety looking and the color of the contrast between the black and the yellow especially this one that I keep following around with the camera is just absolutely gorgeous. I love their color contrast. These guys are not really that impressive, they've not really put on substantial size. This guy has, he's about four or five inch, something like that. These guys are just babies. Pretty much minnows at one point.

Doing really well now though. We have dwindled it down to the five that I think will do well in here. Ultimately, it might even go down to three. They're doing well. The basa, look at it right down there. Stays under that rock. You see him? He's in there and he's doing well. What else we got? The angels. We had eggs in here the other day. I didn't get to them in time but it's this two pair here. This one and that one in the back.

Male, female and they were laying eggs over on the back wall there. It's pretty interesting. Notice the difference between the female here chasing people off. Maybe they have eggs right now because they're chasing people off and this is the male. Look at his forehead, if this will ever focus. Perfect shot and I can't focus. There you go, look at his head. See that? He has a bit of a nuchal hump as well. A bit of a thump and she doesn't. You see that? What else do we see? We see him and her. Where's everybody else? Bro, let them come to the party. It's not your whole tank.

That's a breeding pair. This is the problem when it comes to breeding pairs, this can happen. Just separated. If I take these two out, this tank goes back to normal, everybody's up. They're even chasing the tetras away. What are you guys doing? How evil and mean can you be when tetras hug the bottom of a tank? Where's your eggs? You got more eggs somewhere. Show me. Anyways, angels are doing great. I'm excited to show you these guys.

I did know something like that was going to happen. I know a lot of you guys love this tank and I just call it the city of angels but it's now becoming the city of two angels and then the outcasts. It is what it is. The exodon, the bucktooth tetra. I love this tank but I do not want to put my hands in it anymore and it needs a overhaul. We've got some manzanita just sitting in here and a bunch of anubias. I want to get some more plans for this angelfish tank. I should have mentioned that.

These guys are doing absolutely fantastic. Great tank to watch. Very exciting all the time. This is their normal activity. They do this constantly. Very active tank. I drop in food or meat, they will tear it apart like the miniature piranha. They are in the family of the piranha, the [unintelligible 00:18:58] but being the bucktooth tetra I think that name speaks for itself. Mouth full of teeth. Let's see what else we got here. What else? Everybody else I hate you.

If didn't talk about you. No, I'm kidding. This is the first tank we're going to set up. I'm going to get fish for this tank. It's not going to look like this. This is how it looked like awhile ago but this is the first tank we are going to set up. We will quarantine here, setup. Next tank after this is probably up there. That's empty and then I want to do these two. Catfish, we already seen them and I just fed them.

Oh my gosh. He's like 18 inches or so. I know the blocks and I can see the creases in the blocks are two feet each. He's pushing two feet. He might be 20 inches now. This one here, you see him? Next time I do an update, I'll do a dedicated update to these guys. We'll get the underwater camera. Maybe we'll even try to net one and measure him, but man, they're getting big. They are getting big. The giant gourami perhaps one day will end up in here, but we connect, so he might go into the 2,000 one, who knows. If you look through the 2,000, that's it. That's all of my tanks. That's all I have? All right, well, tomorrow's my birthday. If you don't wish me a happy birthday, you don't count and you're not my friend anymore, and I want to break up. Wish me a happy birthday. I'm turning 36. I'm going through a mid-life crisis. I'm kidding. I'll see you guys on Sunday when I show you the new fish, plants and whatever else we end up picking up. See you then.

About King of DIY

Joey is THE King of DIY, and when he built his gallery of aquariums he chose the Custom Aquariums rack system with 120-gallon tanks...a lot of them!

Joey Mullen is also known as the king of DIY, uarujoey or the DIY fishkeeper on social media. Providing education and inspiration for aquarium enthusiasts on YouTube, he is also the author of The Ultimate DIY Handbook; for the DIY Aquarist. His channel is about educating all levels of fish tank hobbyists who are passionate about caring for fish and keeping an aquarium of their own. Joey's aquarium rack systems were custom made by our professional fish tank engineers, here at Custom Aquariums.

Please watch the King of DIY's videos for some helpful information and great tips on diy aquarium keeping.

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