I meet a lot of very interesting fish keepers in my time in the hobby and especially during my travels and about eight or nine
Months ago I was in Chicago speaking at the Greater Chicago cichlid Association and while there. I toured a few fish rooms today
I'm going to show you one of the most interesting and inspiring fish rooms that I've ever visited
The reason being is simple and you're going to see in a minute now not everybody wants to be on
camera when I show up with a camera not everybody wants to talk or do anything like that so I did a silent tour and
I'm going to watch it again with you guys for the first time, so let's get started
my friend's name is Mario and
When you walk into his fish room or at least come close to it on the outside you're going to
Man I remember this before walking into his fish room?
You're just plagued with all of these plaques and awards and certificates of all the breeding that he's accomplished over the years
absolutely
mesmerizing how he's able to do so much so this is kind of what it would look like
Just such an accomplished hobbyist now look at this. We're walking into his utility room. I'm gonna do a brief overview here
I believe and then you know we'll look at each tank individually
But just look how small this little area is there's this hot-water tank his heart his heaters his washer and dryer
Guys you don't need a massive gallery like like I have and although I hope to inspire you guys with what I'm doing
Let this serve as a point that can show you you don't need a ton of money or space to truly accomplished a tremendous
amount in the hobby mario has accomplished much more than I ever have
So now we're gonna take a look at some of these tanks. Individually. This is some Crenn ich EULA's
I believe and as we move through this tour
there's a few things that are coming to mind that I just already seen in this video that stood out to me the most and
These guys are beautiful aren't they and you guys are going to see some of the things that he does?
with each one of his aquariums
So those stickers on each tank look at he's got them stuck everywhere the reason they're over here and not on the tanks is very
Interesting you see once he breeds a fish
He takes his stickers off or the magnets and sticks them to you know his hot water
His blowers and that sort of thing clearly he's running out of space
He's bred over 200 or 300 fish at this point
And they're confirmed breeding so once you breed them you have to donate them to the club the club auctions them off
It's a process to become proven like that so we've got a tank of front toza
And a few other little interesting fish. Oh look at that guy on the base on the bottom
I think that's a lion head cichlid on the bottom
I hope I look back down at him because there's such an interesting look there we go
Look at that
They're so ugly that they're cute those big lips on them a little bump on his head
And they stay near the bottoms as well, so these striped fish are front toes. I've kept front toes. A-- in the past
pretty rewarding fish
But these guys are really small and they have a tremendous amount of growth to
Go through still
So this is a little egg tumbler here and notice that when you call it an egg tumbler the the eggs and whatnot don't really
Tumble they're moving around and keeping water flowing around them at this point there's fry attached to the yolk sacs
So I believe he would have turned the air down a little bit at this point or perhaps something different
But club members of the Greater Chicago cichlid Association
I have to admit are some of the most talented
And you know knowledgeable hobbyists that I've met if you are in the Chicago area at all
I highly suggest joining that club
I think that bottom tank was just empty and waiting a grow out or awaiting new fish no doubt
So what Mario does though is he will grow these fish out?
He'll spawn them and then he switches to new fish. I believe that's what he told me so
He's just constantly constantly staying interested evolved and spreading out these fish to local hobbyists
And you know just making them available, and he's got some really rare fish here. These are just some
some bro out cybo leave these few little tanks here and
Wait till you see as you can see they're so simple he's got a small heater a sponge filter
He's got some substrate some very minimal decorations, but at least you know they're all set up beautifully very clean very tidy
This is a very small space, but at the same time he's doing so much no
I love this so if you look at that. He's got the
Latin name the common name where they're from their preferred temperature ranges
and ph's
And you know and so forth for every single tank and you know
getting to see all these little fish rooms and stuff and that's kind of why I love showing you guys this because I
Personally get inspired whether we take you to a public aquarium or to these little fish rooms
There's always something you can take away from and you know get know
Relatively inspired by I think that's in a care of some of some sort
Seeing these fish again for the first time is interesting now. This was a cool little thing
This is like a fry grower hang on the back. I wish I would have looked at that closer
I think I do later on in the video though, but that stood out to me
So he actually has a preference for Lake Tanganyika fish as opposed to Malawi
oh, and you'll also notice on those little cards that they it states what type of a
Breeder they are for example mouth Brodeur or egg scatter or something along those lines
But yeah
this is by far one of my favorite fish rooms simply because I've done stuff similar to this before my time on YouTube and
Before you know I was just doing one video a week, and I would never do anything else, but a do-it-yourself project
You know and after about two or three hundred of those I decided I have so much more
I want to talk about so much more. I want to show I started doing so much more
But we missed all of those gems in the in the beginning of my youtube career where I was doing so many
Interesting things, but they weren't really relative to do-it-yourself project so I refused to do that and you know do it yourself
I love it, but I find at times it restricted me and held me back from so much more
Which is interesting these these fish are absolutely stunning his water is so clear
Fish are all healthy
You know I dare you to find a sick fish in one of those guys tanks not going to happen
But if you look these are these are 2x4 stands sitting on some styrofoam basic aquariums
You know basic lighting everything is so simple now to have all of these fish and all of these tanks at once would definitely be
Overwhelming there's a crib in there
Somewhere at Lake Tanganyika canned fish. I'm not sure I'm pretty sure these are Kara's, but I'm probably wrong
I'm just judging based off their the nape their head
It's been so long since I've kept a lot of community type fish and smaller fish, but
There's just so many out there. He's got an alibi. I know, but she knows pleco in there. You know
I'm sure you guys will will spot some really cool fish, and if those are so kelvis I believe I
Was moving here through here so quickly because I didn't know if he was going to talk or anything like that so
you know I didn't even let the camera focus at times and
Pretty frustrating these guys are awesome. Oh, there's a rainbow up top
That's interesting top right you guys see that I think that's an Australian rainbow. They're
Interesting probably just a random fish he had he needed to put it somewhere
But yeah, it's definitely
Definitely an inspiring fish room for sure. I mean the simplicity behind these things and
What he's able to accomplish, and how many fish. She's bred was as it has been absolutely you know
Inspiring to say the least now. I'm no longer interested in breeding fish myself
You know just gone through the motions so many times, and you know bred so many different types of fish that you know
I just want to look at them and enjoy them at this point and I think a lot of people can relate to that but
There's always always rewarding to breed fish as well
so
at this point he's running out of room and
He's got some on his
Tanks on the floor. I've done that too, but with sponge filters
I mean I'm surprised he has heaters in here because his hot water tank and everything else is in there naturally heating the tank
Oh, so this is that hang on the back
fry holder
Really really really interesting. It's almost like a it's almost like a refugium for
fish and
Fry very interesting he was pointing those out, I remember
He kept making those a focus and how how much he liked them?
And you know not having to set up another breeder tank or a grow out tank and keeping the water parameters the same
I think they're air driven as well, so water is pumped into it and then clearly they would overflow out of it
Just like a hang on the back filter in fact. You could probably
modify a
aqua clear filter to some extent
and do the same
Although now that I see these again. I'm not sure if the aqua clears would have enough room in them
But it wouldn't be difficult to build something like that although they were like a thin plastic so I suspect they were cheap as well
But very interesting stuff
Adelaide mouths Broder so I was wrong on what these guys are from me a wrong way
Look Oh see look at the top right top left. Sorry see that red rainbow
That's what I have
That's what this tank is filled with and I've been trying to explain to everybody that these guys are gonna get bigger and a lot
Taller, but you know, it's difficult to explain that look at him look at them
I think that's an Iranian red rainbow
But aren't they beautiful that's what I envisioned when I set this rainbow fish tank up
I didn't envision tiny little feeder fish looking things this tank is going to look absolutely stunning although
You know I think I'm going to have to dwindle the stock out here. Eventually I
Noticed that in his tanks he's using a lot of those rocks with with the whole pre-cut into them interesting
Giving them all all all spaces to to item whatnot
But
We have up here
Festive ohms, so festive zooms are up top
They're also called flag cichlid. I want those
I want them in my water tank because they're often found with waru discus and flag cichlids
So this is one up front. These are relatively small. This is a these actually get quite large
Probably six seven inches, but that takes a couple of years, but they look absolutely stunning when they achieve that size
Yeah, so I remember feeling like I was in a rush, and I was intruding on his fish room. I asked to film it and
I
Didn't know what to do when he said he didn't want to be on camera
But this guy was an awesome guy really friendly very knowledgeable and very laid-back
I mean it's really weird when it comes to fish keepers who are really passionate about it
Is that you wouldn't even guess they kept fish until you till they open their mouths about aquariums, and you can see them
Just brighten up and lighten up, and I'm kind of the same
I think that's a Julie up front here so again another tangy Eakins cichlid
Just beautiful fish
I'm not sure if he's breeding these ones or not usually they're gonna be a species only tanks for the most part I
Have small sizes
You know a lot of fish all the same to an extent so it's really difficult to
So we got some Rams in here. We is really difficult to
Determine, what's what and?
At times you know when when fish are so small they certainly don't
You know show you what they're going to one day look like and it's ironic
seeing that red rainbow in this video because I at that point in time I didn't really have a plan to have a
375 gallon rainbow fish in fact they were going to be dwarfed
Neon rainbows like dwarf blue neon rainbows tiny little ones that probably would have looked pretty cool
But you know I absolutely had to have these red rainbows
I knew what they were going to be like one day take a look at this look how simple
This is this is just a very small rack of 2x4
Tanks. I think most of these tanks are like 30 gallons 20 gallons that sort of things some of them are 5 and 10
All different sizes kind of looks chaotic, but you know very organized and clean this was his upstairs aquarium
And this tank caught my eye for two reasons one I had a bunch of Oscars
And I think it's got five Oscars in it they've got Tiger Oscars
Which would be like what you'd see in the wild like these guys here, so they'll call them Tiger Oscars, but to me
They're just regular Oscars, and oh wow yeah, this is a chromis from Lake Tanganyika
I believe it's the only one that exists there
Tell me that's not a beautiful fish
We should just sit here and look at it, it's beautiful, then we got some red rain, but I'm sort of red Ravens red Oscars
More of a rustic look on them these were at one point one of my favorite types. The glare is killing me. They're
So just like a mixed mess of
Mix mash of fish in there, but clearly it's working out really well the Oscars are pretty
Docile you know interesting to see them up top all of them, but I
guess that's it I
Hope you guys like that video. I mean, I really love reliving these videos perhaps
I should have like researched or watched it a few times to memorize
What was in the video and what the fish are but I mean, I just really enjoy watching this with you guys
I kind of envision like you're sitting what one of you guys is sitting here with me
And I'm showing you some things that I'm excited about and you know I bought at the end of the day
I wanted you I want for the takeaway here is
He's just in his utility room a bunch of little tanks, and I know some of you guys will see my
2003 75 or a wall of 120 s and think you know
I'll never have that I can't relate to that that's not the point out here. It's just you know each tank represents something different, but
For me, it's it's all about just showing you
What is possible and?
Mario this one comes in really handy right now because I've been showing you so many big tanks and so many different
Types of bigger fish and some of them are expensed some of them are more affordable
And you know some of the equipment and etc etc like you know I know not a lot of people are gonna build a 2,000
Gallon tank and whatnot but to show you Mario's setup and to show you what he's doing in such a small area
And you know in my opinion
He's probably one of the most accomplished breeders in the world and remember Rick we went to Rick Bernstein's place
Those two guys are friends. I mean that's what that Club is made up of and I you know
It's it brings me joy to be able to promote clubs
Aquarium clubs that's where my beginnings were before
YouTube was within my own Club on the board of directors vice-president president and so forth
And it's so important to me to not only promote local clubs and give them some love local fish stores
You know just the heartbeat of the Hobby is the hobbyists and the people that keep it going and we can't forget that
but like I said I
Hope you enjoyed today's video
I hope you got some inspiration out of it next time you look at your tiny little aquarium if you have one or you just
Got a bunch of little ten gallon tanks. It means nothing the
The you can accomplish just about anything you want if you truly put your mind to it
just like Mario my friend from the Greater Chicago cichlid Association has