BUILDING THE AMAZON: Planting, Clear Water, Adding Fish - The Tapajos River

We are now well into the process of building the new Rio Tapajós tank, it's doing so good. It's actually four days ago now that we put in all of the botanical, they're not even botanical, well I suppose they are, just loads of crunched up leaves that we found under a hazelnut bush someone said. So you were right, it was hazelnut, remember you said? Then you was like actually chestnut. No, I thought it was chestnut, but it is probably hazelnut. Yeah, because it's hazel. But yeah, I was expecting to come back today because it was Friday when we put all that in and it's now Monday, and it just to be a complete brown sludgy mess, I'm very surprised because we haven't even put any protein cotton into the filter or anything yet which has arrived. So this stuff is a game changer, I think it's basically the same as Purigen, but you get loads of it. Oh, the bag wasn't quite sealed, that's all right, look at that amount, and you get your bag as well, so that is ideal. I'm going to use the whole lot in this one though because... It's you. Well no, because, yeah, I just don't want it to like over time start changing, you know. So yeah, let's get all this in, open up the filter again, but that's absolutely fine, it's got the shut off valve, and it's survived. That's a good point. Any signs of leakage? Zero signs of leakage. Some people were concerned that this was going to fail and will come into like a flooded studio. I mean, if it's going to fail, it would leak, surely, and as long as you don't knock it... He says, pulling it around. It should be fine, I think it'll be fine. If it's not, so what? What's the worst that could happen? Yeah, you should mop up the floor, don't you? Would it drain the whole tank if it happened over the weekend? It would drain the whole tank if the whole thing failed, but that's not going to happen, is it? We were banging it off camera as well to make sure that it was actually solid. Yeah, we gave it a full quality control test. Which probably weakened it. Yeah, we drove over it, we dropped it off a building. It's all good, it's all good. Anyways, shut it off and get it going. You can say shut up. Right, whatever you do, don't take this off aggressively. Oh, yeah. Well, if it's going to fail, I want it to happen now when we're messing about with it. So it's all good. Should I just order another filter? Probably a good idea. We should heed the advice of the viewers. Yeah, I will order another filter. It'll be fine for the time being though. I mean, this has had its day, hasn't it? Oh, it's been a good filter, this one. I remember when she's done us proud. Yeah, so the section I'll put it in, not in the foamy goodness. That one there. Probably should have got a bucket, shouldn't I, Steph? Bucket acquired. Stick that in there. I have got... Oh, there's a great spot for it. Right there, look. Right now, can you do this without spilling it everywhere? Oh, yeah. I have done it before. Good techers. Great techers. Eh? Ah, you spilled two bits. That's all right. Done. I'm going to give it a rinse first though, because it does have like a powderiness. Oh, I feel it. It's like memory foam. Oh, wow. I'd sleep on this. It smells amazing. It smells like marzipan. No. It smells sweet though, doesn't it? Like sweets. Smells like chemicals. Oh, yeah, Stefan. Post arrived this morning. Ooh, I know what that is. You know what this packaging means. You know what time it is. It's new merch time. Okay, we have two shirts. Yeah, one's for you, one's for me. Medium. Medium? Yeah, you're a medium. Should be a medium. Is it not? Oh, no. Large, actually. Because we like a looser fit, don't we? I like it like hangy. I like stuff all tight on you. I can't repeat what Stefan just called me. Yeah? Is that a good reaction? Why are you getting changed? You're going to put your pants on as well? Box fresh. Okay, this is the new shirt. Honestly, we've done a lot of stuff and we've gone for just plain in the front, because people like that. And then on the back. Whoa. What do you think? Do you like it, Stef? I do like it. But do you like how it's turned out in the flesh? It's bolder than I thought it was going to be. No, I wanted it bold. But I like that. Yeah? Yeah, I think it looks good. It's cool. There we go. Available now from? nbcx.com Yeah, so are we doing it on the front? If you've got... I don't know if we have at the moment, have we? A lot of people want it on the front as well. But I quite like the... Me and Stef walking around like this. It's quite professional. And then boom! Party at the back. That's like a big back tattoo. Is it good? Yeah? I can't really see it. I'll see it in the video when I get it. Anyway, available now. Follow us on the site. Click the link below or what I've just put up. And yeah. Help yourself. Great to support the channel. Well, massive costs coming up. We are very grateful. We'll watch you do that though. If you want to at the end get something as well. Extra and you can. There we go. And I have found it's actually perfect. Yeah, it's not bleaching anything, is it? No. And I found a really good way of... Because you can recharge these. Because basically it's just whole tannins, yeah? And so I was always like trying to... You can put it in bleach and shake it. Some of it doesn't go quite as well. Found that if you buy chlorine tablets that you put in, say, a hot tub or something. Oh yeah, my hot tub. My hot tub. And then you... And then... Because I put a Purigen in my hot tub at home. And everyone's like, how is your water so clear all the time? I'm like, ah, just keep it. And basically the Purigen in there stays almost perfectly clean because of the chlorine in the hot tub. So I took the chlorine tablet, put it in with one of these before. Goes so clear. Then you can wash it all off. What you did there, MD, is put two and two together to make a clean hot tub. Now, I don't actually know now if this is going to fit because this is massive. There's a little bit of lava rock in there that's not really doing anything compared to the amount of stuff we've got in here. So... Go on then, get in there, you. You get in there. Should be good. Make sure I put it back in the right way. Just spackle, just get it in the eye. Yeah. Nice. Right, that went in. It always overflows now. And not a drop on the floor. Okay. Good. There's a lot of water coming out of there. Like, I don't know if that's just the seal, but it's definitely leaking. My bad. I don't think I seated it right. Yeah, it's still coming out. Clean up on aisle five. I think the bag was too big that I put it in, so nothing's, like, fully seated properly. Check the seals. Seal is good, seal is good. Yeah, it's not the o-ring, so it must be just too much. I can fix that, it's fine. Oh, another thing's broken. I don't know what that is. This thing's falling apart. It's definitely already falling apart. Is it part of the little handle? I don't even have a clue where that's come from. I think it's snapped off the bottom of that, isn't it? The bit it slides into. Maybe. But it must be this one. Because you rammesteined it in. No, that's fine. Oh, just a random bit of... It's actually, like, rubbery. I don't even know what that is. Underneath, like a little foot underneath or something? It's not on anything. Oh, this is a much better one to put it in. Oh, let's put the lever up back in as well now, then. Yeah. There we go. Linking amateurs. It's like you've never done one before. It's got a squirt head in the eye. I've got that one. God knows where that's come out from. Oh, there we go. Is it a little foot? It's like a little thing that goes there. Oh, a little stopper, yeah. But I don't know why. Did it just get... I don't know. It just slides in. It wasn't even broke, thankfully. Well, that's all in now. Let's try again. Some serious editing needed on this. No, I'm keeping it all in. It's all real. Yeah? Sometimes you get things, don't you? Problem solving, troubleshooting. No, I meant just because I haven't... I've been recording non-stop for ages. Oh, that's all right. Real time. Let's not over-edit. Yeah, you know, sometimes it can look, because I'm a cross-respect on the videos, that, like, everything went smoothly. Like... Excuse me. Keep that bit in. Yeah. Rarely does everything go smoothly, does it? There's always something. Always. Not normally broken equipment, to be fair. Well, no, I always break equipment, but I don't usually chance it like this. You are taking a big, big risk. I don't think I am, but, you know, I can see why it could look that way. I'm pretty sure, though, Sniff, I have got another one of these pieces. Yeah, but are you looking for it? I'm going to look for it in a minute. Okay, now... Yeah, we're looking. That's more promising. Water is not flooding out of it. No, we've got some drippage, obviously, where it's wet, but... Yeah, but it was flooding. Yeah. Real good. He just wasn't seated, was it? I'm soaking. Yep. Wet knees. You know, we keep walking past that amazing spinny mop, you know, where you press... Yeah, yeah. I think we need to invest. It's less crusty than it was the other day. That's true. Yeah. It was just a ball of pure crusty mop. Is this good footage? I'm not sure. It's real. It is real. It's quite the puddle you've made. And the floor's getting clean. That's true. Kind of. One of the best things about flooding your studio regularly is that you then mop it up, and in doing so, it cleans it. Oh, there's a lot over there. Yeah, it's quite... That's what I'm saying. Crikey, the tank needs topping up now. That's the wrong one. You chucked me the bucket. This is not working. Look at it. This is gross. Yeah, we're doing that. Lunchtime. We're going out. We're getting... We're going to do it. We're actually going to commit. The Mopper 3000. Well, it'll be useful, won't it, for the new studio? It'll be very useful. Kate will be happy as well. She hates this mop. We all hate it. She bought it. That's true. Oh, that's gross. We're good. Oh, it stinks of fish, though. What, the mop? Why? That's getting in the bin. Smelling it. Just smell it. I'm not smelling the bucket. The mop bucket. Oh, that's bad. This isn't jackass. Yeah, just put it back. We'll sort it later. That's what we've been saying for the past, like, three months about that mop. I know. That's why it smells of fish. I keep forgetting. Ready? Yeah. Right, on she goes. A bit of air should come out, but here we go. I was going to drain it all down and fill it back up again, but I think if we just carry on, because it's going to get dusty and murky anyway, and that filter is going to do a great job of just clearing it over the next few days as we're building things up, putting fish in as well in this video. Fish are going in. And plants. Lots of plants. And we were going to do more malmy stuff as well, weren't we? The malmy stuff has been brewing for four days. Yeah, so if you look at the moment, I love that mid-ground section that we've got it all in, but if you look at the background there, it looks a bit weird. We're going to fill up the background as well and it will just hide that horizon line and instantly makes the whole tank look so much deeper. Nice. Mop up day. What are you mopping up now? It wasn't the moppest tank, was it? Oh no. So over the weekend when we were doing the brew for the leaf litter, I must have accidentally unplugged the freezer and fridge and all of the meat, fish, food, everything in there was completely defrosted and just a liquid. It smelled heinous. And it's been warm this weekend as well. Yeah. Which means we can keep it. The crusty mop prevails. We will get a new one. Anyway, let's get on with some planting. Oh, firstly, we should probably point out one of the little fungusy globules on the wood. Yeah. So it's basically what you see on all wood when you put it in there that hasn't been underwater before. Interestingly though, it's coming out of like little nodes, do you know what I mean? Which is kind of interesting. But I think we should probably brush that off. Maybe I'll just leave it for now. It's going to come off in time anyway. I'm going to do a water change anyway before fish go in. Yeah. Let's crack on with some planting. First thing I want to do though for the planting is get the biggest stuff in first. We've got some huge echinodorus dotted around that I want to be placing in that back section. That'll get styed and we could just sort of grow from there, expand from the same. Yeah. And you're going to put more leaf litter and stuff in. Yeah. I'm kind of thinking after I've put the plants off and put it all around the bases, because if I do it now and then try and plant into that, it's just going to kick all up. But yeah, I definitely will be put more in. I mean, this is going to transform the tank. Something's germinated. Oh, wow. I don't know how, but there's like a little... Oh, I mean, there'll be... Life. That's come from like the stuff we stuck in. Look, because it's got this weird little fungus thing and then this has grown out in the last like four days, isn't it? That's quite cool. Yeah. Interesting. I wonder what that is, because it's not an aquatic plant, so... It seems fine in there. Yeah. It looks like Glossostigma, but it's not. It looks like Cress. Yeah. I mean, does that grow underwater? I mean, it's a very... Yeah. Well, not... I mean, it's... You can definitely water grow it. I don't know if it's... Anyway, let's crack on. So this Echinodorus here is one that we pulled out of the tank when we broke it down. Shake off the aquasol. There's a lot of Echinodorus in here and I'm going to use all of the good ones. Some of them are trying to bounce back. But for this tank, I do not need all the weights on. That was just to hold it together in here. I'm going to actually plant it, free the roots, take off the paper, take off that leaf. Oh, it's two plants. Brilliant. Nice. Looking healthy. Oh, yeah, yeah. These are so good. And bear in mind how dark that tank was as well. So this is what we say. Everyone thinks you have to smash a ton of light in your tank to get plants to grow. You actually don't. Unless you've got full CO2 and you want it to look like a proper high-tech setup. But for a realistic amount, then, yeah. Look at that rootage as well. So good. Healthy, healthy, healthy. This one's not as good, but it's still good. But it's a smaller plant, so... I need a stool. Or do good... Stool sample. No. That's what I like to do when you've got really long roots like this. It's just a gentle little wrap together. Keeps all of it intact, except for that bit. Problem is, if you just rip off all those roots, these plants have grown, or these leaves have grown, with that amount of roots. So I always find just keep them on. The plant does really well when you transition it. So I want to go right in that middle section there. Now, I find when you're plugging something as big as this, tweezers are not a good option. You're far better to just plant it as if you were a plant in your garden. I'm off centre step there, aren't I? You are just, yeah. So now I can push it into all that gravel, and then backfill with my fingertips. I don't know if you can see that, can you? No, but keep describing. You know what I'm saying there. People can close their eyes and imagine. Look at that. Yeah. Oh, we're already getting there. Yeah, done. I mean, it's going to transform it. Like, that's what the tank was lacking, was the plants. Yeah, definitely. Oh, I could already... Me and you are very good at visualising stuff without seeing it, aren't we? Yes. We know what it's going to be like. And the other one, I'm going to put right next to it. I think that's a great idea. Just in here, look. You've got like a continuation of it then. Okay. Nice. And I'm going to put other sprouty stuff in between it all. Now I want to take this to an overall sort of more pokey-uppy, grassy feel. So now we're going to go with Vallecenaria, just dotted in lots of different places, like it's all sprouting up to give us like a grassy effect in the background. I think that would be cool. Then we can have shallower stems in front of that, and then shorter Echinodorus in front of that, and shallower, you know, like staged out. Tapered. Tapered, yeah. That's the one. Anyway, this is a good spot because at the moment, we can never see the shrimp because all of it is growing forward really well, and it's so healthy. And it's just about the right length I want as well, because I don't want it like looping over. It will get to that, of course, but for the start design, I want it to be just grassy sprouts. Shrimp are very happy in here. Yeah, but I fed him earlier. You can't really see them as much, can you? Because they're so overgrown. There's also another giant Echinodorus in here. You can see some of the older leaves are dying off, but the brand new leaves coming through look absolutely brilliant. That's a big boy, that, isn't it? Yeah. This is the one that grows right up out the water. I think I might leave it for now because it's kind of recovering. It's not there yet. Yeah. Just keep it going. Some of these smaller ones have recovered really nicely. Harney's helping out. Yeah, thank you. Sorry, let's carry on with the Panasonic. Excuse me, shrimp. So many. So many shrimp. Yeah. That's what I mean. You can't tell until you get rid of all this stuff. It'll dust it up completely, but it'll come back in no time. Well, quite the haul. Yeah, we'll have to separate all of these. They've all got their own really good root system, so it's all good. That's a Lempthium tenellum, that one. Like a baby version of the... Val. Yeah. God, it's so thick back here. We've got loads to play with. That's going to work. It's going to look so good in there, isn't it? There we go. I think that's a really strong start. There's lots of upright. And how I've spaced it out, usually I wouldn't space it out like this, but I'm trying to make it look like it's sent its own runners. Do you know what I mean? I know exactly what you mean. Because I said it. Yeah. Normally I bring it all in big groups, but it kind of looks like it's done its own natural runners. I just said that. You're repeating yourself. I like how... I love that, how it's growing through the... I can't speak now. It's contagious. Through the mould, you mean, like, yeah? Yeah, exactly. Which is what you're trying to create. It doesn't get more natural than that, does it? I think it looks fantastic. Yes, and to some of the people in the comments previously that were concerned at how... Does it look? Just come on, give me a, you know, have some faith. We're still not there, remember? This is just, again, I'm just setting out a grid, if you like. Now we've got a grid, I can go for different plants, like more fluffy plants. Oh yeah, those fluffy ones. Sassily flora. What do you call me? So given the composition of the tank, I'm thinking a big area here of Limnophila will be like a big fluffy green cushion in that zone that can taper down coming forward. I think that'll look amazing. There we go. Now we've got our fluffiness working and then I'm going to fill out just behind it with Mariaphyllum, which I think is a South American plant, actually. But look how good that all looks. It's very bright because we're right by the door, but it's going to look great as well. Come and have a look, Steph. Steph's been working on some more merch designs. You see what I'm going for and what I've got? Oh yeah, nice. That sort of straight up bush that we saw. Straight up bush. Yeah, and I think I'll just do a completely different texture this side. It's going to be difficult because we're so shaded. I can do something more sort of in the foreground coming up. Yeah, it's really coming together, isn't it? But I feel like this is one of the most natural looking tanks I've ever made. We say that every time we do a natural tank. Yeah, that's true. It's easier to do, isn't it? It is easier and it is very entry level. People can do this quite easily. I'm a fan of it as well. I think as an aesthetic, it feels less contrived. I mean, most people don't want a realistic slice in their living room, do they? But we do. Yeah. There we go. That is looking a lot different from even a day ago now. I think if you look at the pictures, it's quite similar, you know? Getting the vibe that we had. The natural rawness to it. The blue poking through. It's not super clean or anything like that. I think it could do with more plants, but then that's just me, isn't it? So at the moment, look, the edges are quite bright still. And if we put in our emerged plants, the peace lilies, either side of all those roots coming down, I think it opens up that little area in the middle a little bit better. And it'll just make it seem more like a little section like we've seen in the photos. Let's give that a go. Might not. Well, they look great when we put them in the tank over there, didn't they? It was just like a happy little accident. Yeah, they were close. I don't think I want them here. I think I want to do it here. Yeah, so the roots sort of like trail out the back and fill those corners. You'll still see it. Yeah. Let's give it a go anyway. Scissor holder. Well, let's start with this one, which was holding that one up. That's all right, we'll get to that one in a minute. Oh, there's just a couple of dodgy leaves. Like we said before, I think the light has sort of messed up that section, but that's fine, it'll sort itself out, won't it? Yeah, look, this should work really well. Some floating plants there, that's all right. Post that down. Post. Get the hook on. What's that? That can come down low. Yeah, a load of it's got stuck. It's just looped back on itself a bit, but yeah, that looks good. Natural and raw, because you remember there was like, to the sides of some of the shots we've seen, it's like real sort of mouldy and browny. So I'm kind of getting that simulation there, and it's darkened it out, so then the focus is more on that central blue. And one on the other side. Yeah, this one's massive. Maybe I should, no, that's probably the right size for there. Wow. Let's go right in the corner. I can't find my clip. There we go. Push these back. The sticks are actually working quite well to hold the leaves back from the light. How's that looking? Yeah, it looks good. See what I mean? Now there's a bit more, yeah, and there's different colour changes and tones, you know? It's like every time I do one of these tanks, so I'm thinking, does it need more? It needs more, it needs this, it needs that. But then when I put the fish in, it transforms it completely. Also, I've got to remember that there is a decent amount of plants in already, and they're going to grow fast, especially with that substrate system, and the great LED lights. So maybe it is a case of, I mean, I can still add stuff after the fish if I really want to, but we might not need it. So much foliage at the back for them. I think they're going to behave in a really interesting way. Yeah, there's lots of like refuge points, open areas, like flow up there, and then like more still spots. I guess like you were saying just a minute ago, Steph, I think maybe the one thing is if we put a bit more val in each side. Yeah, I think that'll help. Leave the gap in the middle, and you've got that sort of like distant tunnel. Yeah, let's do it. Here we go, look, if I add this nice big group down there, flick it across a bit. Yeah, that helps. Yeah, it's giving it like a tunnel-y look, isn't it? Yeah. We've got another one for this side. Might not need it, but... Why not? I'm going to do it. No, I feel like we... No, it's good. It's good, it's good. Leave it at that. Cool, let's get some fish. There is a little bit of, what do we call it? Algae, but it's like a string algae. I forget the name of it. I should know the name of it. It's like that really cottony stuff. It came in on some of the pearlweed. I can get rid of it. I'm not going to worry about it for now though, because yeah, I don't want to start treating the tank or anything like that. You know, just as we're about to put fish in and things. What's quite nice as well is that this has actually been running longer than it seems. Well, it's just over a week now in total, I think, since first fill up. So the filter has been running a half decent amount of time as well. And that's quite good because obviously it's a fresh new canister filter. Obviously it's not fresh because it's like nearly broken, but it's fresh as in we cleaned it right up. So the good thing is we're not overstocking this. There's not going to be a huge amount of fish in there because you could quite easily ruin the look of it if you do that. But we've got so many plants in here as well. Plus I'm going to add beneficial bacteria and keep an eye on like, you know, the water chemistry and things. I'm looking for nitrite or ammonia spikes. It's not going to happen, especially with these peace lilies and this many real fast growing plants in there. Probably put some floating plants in as well, actually, but not too many. Be quite cool because they'll get caught up in different areas. Yeah. It's not like they're just going to be like flowing everywhere. I don't know if you've realized as well, Steph, look at the flicker now. I raised the outlet. Oh yeah, yeah. So we get a bit more of a shimmer going on. Gentle shimmer. Very river-y. I think it is, yeah. Like if you're set up close and you can't see the edge of the tank, you could be tricked into thinking you were at a riverbank somewhere in... It's come along nicely. Now what fish are we going to go for? So if I look up the exact fish that's in that area, it's going to be a bit limiting. I don't necessarily have them or I've got to go on a buying spree when I've already got fish that, you know, can have a nice space like this. So I'm going to try and keep it South American in general. I think that's the best bet because we've got some good selections. So we recently set up this tank here, which is supposed to be an easy one. Problem is, when we planted all the Glossostigma at the bottom, half of it, well, more than half of it, I'd say 90% of it melted back. And even with water changes, it's just caused like a disastrous effect in the whole tank. And just so you know, this is called a diatom outbreak. Look at the brownie algae there. It's actually very normal. It can happen to a lot of tanks. I've experienced it many times before. It can burn itself out, just water changes and manual removal. But, you know, the moment is fine. It looks a lot worse than it is. Now, this will sort itself out in time. In the meantime, I think I'm going to get the X-Ray Tetra out. I'm going to move the gouramis to a temporary tank. I'm going to treat the tank and give it like a bit more. I need to be vigorous with it, basically. And I don't really want to do that with the fish in there. So the X-Ray Tetra will be really cool in there. A bigger space room as well, because they're actually bigger than I thought. I mean, they've grown fast, I think, because they weren't... I don't think they were that big when we first got them. No, they have grown really quickly. It's almost like they've been nibbling on algae, maybe. Gouramis are all cooler, actually enjoying it. But again, I don't want to... I might not need to treat it with any chemicals, if I'm honest. I think, though, the thing is, if I put some Amano shrimp in here, they will clear this out in no time. I'm just thinking the gouramis... Might get a bit peckish. But we've got big Amanos, to be fair. The Amanos are nearly as big as those. We've got some big Arnolds, yeah. So that might be enough. But I think the X-Ray Tetra, though, will definitely do better over in another tank. They seem okay at the moment, but sometimes they're quite hidey from the gourami. Yeah, I think they've just found their spot at the back, haven't they? Yeah. So we're fortunate now, because they're coming forwards. But they're great-looking fish, and we've just not seen them. No, I think the gourami... Maybe keep this as a dedicated gourami tank. It might be because we've got two males and a male of the gourami. When they do get aggressive, they just clear the Tetra out. So yeah, I think that'll be maybe the best bet. But I definitely want those in there. They'll look wicked as that school moving around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's now been even more days since that last shot, because I don't know if you can tell in the last part of the video, I wasn't very well. No. I was really struggling. I was like, Steph, I can't do this. I need to go to bed. So it's now been a few more days. I'm actually glad of it, because all the plants are looking even more luscious than when we put them in. So that's how I know this tank is going to grow supremely well. That said, I think before we do now put fish in, I just want to test the water, make sure everything's all right. There we go. Testing complete. No ammonia, no nitrite. I don't know how the ammonia level or colouring looks on camera, because white balance can throw things a little bit. But I know by looking at that, that means there's nothing in there. Definitely no nitrite either, which is great. We can now put the fish in. So first fish coming in is the X-ray tetra group. There you go, guys. All the temperatures in the studio match. So they're, you know, the more subtle of all of them, I'd say. But they do school really well together. And it'll be interesting to see how they behave differently. Now there's not three gouramis. In a small space, yeah. They're already at the front, which they weren't doing before. Straight to the back before, so that's a good sign. Right, okay. We need a colourpop tetra now. And for that, I'm going to be using something that's mixed at the moment. Next up is our bentosie tetras, or candy cane tetras, I think, in America. These are so big. We've had them for a long time. Look at the colours on them. It'll be interesting to see if they stay in their own groups, actually. But yeah, these are, they do get bigger. They are a bigger tetra. I'd say somewhere between x-ray and Colombian. Yeah, the Colombians are massive. Imagine them in here, that would be cool. But they're in the eight foot. There's no way I'm catching those out, and they're really settled in there. This, the eight foot's good for the Colombians because of the size, but this is kind of like, look at that. They are going together. Yeah, yeah. But not ones. Yeah, they're working each other out. That is so cool. And the candy canes will colour up a bit more as well. Yeah, we have just stressed them a little bit, trying to catch them around the whole tank. But they're actually pretty easy to catch, weren't they? Yeah, I think that they got really accustomed to us, like when they were in... Because we used them as diller fish for the Pleco tank, didn't we? They're very well trained for feeding as well. So I think when our nets went in, they sort of thought... Hmm, that looks delicious. There was one just acting strange there then. And I just put my finger to the tank, just to see if I could, like, get a reaction. But they play dead, don't they? Yeah, yeah, they do. Which is exactly what I was doing, because I was like, oh no. And then it was fine, yeah? And then it was absolutely fine, yeah. Just, I'm on. Yeah, I mean, you can clearly see the health of these guys. Yeah, they're incredibly healthy. So I'm guessing the males are the ones with, like, the black spot, are they? Or is it the other way around? Maybe the other way around. Like, normally you get a big dorsal fin, but look it up, but... I mean, yeah, this one looks like a daddy. Yeah, it's a tough one. Normally you expect the bigger dorsal fin, but it could be just... And sometimes, though, the bigger and wider a tetra is, the more female that would be. And the more torpedo it is, is more the male. So maybe it's the other way around, maybe. Because if you look, all the ones with black spots are kind of, like, slimline, effectively. The other ones are quite sort of chunky. That's true, yeah. So yeah, it's more than likely that. They look so good in there, don't they? Yeah, already. Oh, there's a bit of flirting going on there. Yeah, look, there's male and female going, doing stuff at the back. Already? Doing stuff. Well, it's like a response. The environment's changed, it's time to breed. So that could well be what's going on. I know how they feel. Like when you get a new house and you're like, okay. It's time to unpack. So I do want to put a few more different tetra species in there, just because I'm a massive fan of community tanks. I just think they look way more exciting and more interesting. Smaller groups of fish, for me, looks fantastic, unless you're putting in some sort of art installation in your house. In which case, what do you say we now put in a couple of feature fish? We're talking dwarf cichlids. So we've literally got a dwarf akara and we've got a vanakara as well. So two different types of akara. They come around because they're here right now, not too fast because there's the vanakara. Let me just, I'll tease them up, look. So there is the dwarf akara. Whoa, it's going to look really good in those lights. Oh, here she comes. Looking good. And they might really like the vanakara. Yeah, and they get along well with smaller fish, look, because they're in there with swordtails of all things, which are normally quite aggressive, or can be, the males anyway, but an absolutely loving life. Might be a tough catch, this one, Steph. Yep, especially this fella. Stroke lady. I think that is a male, you're right. I'm going to get the nets, I'm going to do the food, and I'm going to do a swoopy swoop. Whoa. Yeah, that's what I mean, they're territorial, but they always just, they're fine. Especially, this is a smaller tank and he's redoing, doesn't it? We sort of let this one go after we pulled up all the substrate several times. Yeah, let's catch them. Gotta catch them all. Are you supposed to sing it with me? Oh, sorry, I missed the memo. We know our rules. When one starts the song, if the other one knows it, we sing. Okay, I'll try again. Gotta catch them all. I've got a duckweed in there, there'll probably be more. I need to make sure that does not go in the new tank. You've got a duckweed in there. I've never been a fan of Pokemon. Have you not? No, never ever got into it. Not even on Game Boy? Never. Not the cards, I wasn't a card, oh, I was a collector, but not a player. No. The Game Boy game. Just never, just, I miss that bit. I always had Pokemon Yellow because I was always Pikachu. Anyway, the problem, duckweed, do not get duckweed in your tanks. If you've got like a tank that's just completely clear on the surface, it's very easy to scoop it out and get rid of. However, if you've got a tank like this, that's got things that it can get trapped in and stay and keep growing, and yeah, you never get it out. So we have to be absolutely thorough in this, which we can be, it's fine. It's not our first rodeo. No, we're duckweed removal professionals. Very excited today because we just had a massive update on the new studio. Oh my goodness. Okay, go, good luck. Let's see if we can do this, right. A little bit of food. Move that before I knock it in. Tap, tap, tap. I can see her there. She's seen the net. She's a clever, clever thing. Here she comes. She's at the back. No, come to the front. Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's a pouch there. Okay, there appears to be a log in the way. Ah, she's gone. Yep, she's gone. She's so smart. All right, plan B, rip this thing up, which I was going to do anyway. I'm just hoping we could just shortcut the process by doing that. I could maybe try and entice her out first before you rip it all out. With? Another net. Oh, with sweet nothings. I thought you, yeah, entice her out. Come on, come on. Oh, that went very well. She went straight in. Oh yes, she's looking good. There's a bit of duckweed in there. Yeah, I know. I'm just going to get that out. But I want to get her in quick. Now she's very shy initially, and I've got a feeling she will go and hide straight away. I kind of want her in her first before the dwarf acara. Okay, when she sees some other fish though, she should be all right though. Look at the colour change instantly. So she goes black when she's kind of like happy. Normally it's the other way around, but they change colour so fast. Yeah, she's got colouring coming in on her head. Yeah, it's weird. They're almost like chameleons. It's like, wow, look at that, because of the stone behind. It's nuts, isn't it? Absolutely bonkers. It's chameleon, yeah, isn't it? Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, chameleon. Oh, copyright strike. Let's leave her for a bit. Let her get settled, and then we can put the dwarf acara in. We've got to catch it first as well, which seems to be hiding completely now. It's amazing how she has got better, because she wasn't very well. She's not better. Here all day. Because she had a weird little growth, didn't she? Yes, she was. So the very first, I got a pair, male and female. The male, literally, even had a lid on. There was a tiny gap where the airline tube was, and literally within the first few days jumped out. I was like, oh my God. And then she wasn't looking good for a very long time. She had a massive growth thing on the back, put her into her own tank, completely clean, and was trying to treat it all. And I wasn't holding out much hope, because it was quite a big thing on her. But it completely healed up. She's just grown massive. She was tiny as well. She was that big. Now she looks great. I think that is the maximum sort of size they get. I could be wrong, though, but I've never seen them bigger than that in the shops or anything. Yeah, she's gone. Yeah, she has gone. Goodbye. Finding her spot. Yeah, exactly. This is just the sort of thing she's going to love, though. Like this whole area, coming in and out. They love territories, you know. These kind of cichlids are very clever. They like a little home. Not like a tetra that's just happy going everywhere. Yeah, the cichlids, they look at you, don't they? And their eyes move. Yeah, they know you're there. Yeah. Whereas these guys, they're not even bothered. Mind you, they are very, very used to us, aren't they? Yeah, they are tame. We've tamed them. We have. Right, it's been a little while, and you can just see in the back there, the Alvanacara. She's been sort of floating around that log in the back. And just a minute ago, I came over, right bang in the centre of there was like perfect. It was like, this is my home. I am claiming this. There we go. She's doing it again. But she was much more forward than that. She was literally, I'm not as close as I look. I'm zoomed right in, but I just did a little tap on the glass because obviously she's trained as well. She knows to tap on the glass. And as soon as I did that, she popped her head up to have a look. You want to come? It's all too new at the moment. Okay, our car is at the front. It's come back. Oh, I just got dust in my eyes. Careful. This could work. It might not. Ah, it's very, very wise to me. Come right round the back. He, she, she, he. Absolutely. So fast. Let's try and entice again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we'll go from there. I don't think it's going to work with food. I think you need to do what you did with Alvanacara, which was just put your hand down the back area, sort of gently tease to the front. And then I can just really gently scoop. Again, when you're getting... When you're catching fish, don't do this. It can actually kill them. Well, don't do that. Tetras. I mean, these guys, the bigger the fish, the more they tend to be cool. But like, don't thrash around at your fish because the stress can kill them. They can literally have heart attacks. So don't do that. Well, I'm assuming that's what it is. So yeah, if you can come, just do it. Just put the camera down, Steph. If you just come round with your hand right in the back area, just gently come forwards and I'll hide in the corner and then come out nice and gentle. Hide that big, ginormous white net. Right, she wasn't playing ball. So we've taken everything out of the tank. Otherwise, it's just too much stress. Need everything to settle now. There's quite a lot of molm in the water. The good thing about molm, though, is it does settle quickly. So that should be okay in a minute. In the meantime, though, I do want to put in the ember tetra that are in here. I mean, I kind of want to put in the green muspora as well. That's Asia. Can we mix them? What do you think, Steph? I didn't hear what you said. I was too busy tapping on my keyboard. Well, you know, ember tetras are from South America. Yes. The musporas, the neon greens that are with them, are from Asia. That's a very different part of the world. Yeah. Do we say, it doesn't matter, they all look good, or do we just keep it specific? People are either going to hate us or go, do you know what, it's your tank. I think, because we've gone quite specific with the theme of the tank in terms of the escape. I knew you were going to say that and everyone's going to go, great call, Stephane. And you know that as well. Okay. So in go the ember tetra and a female epistogramma hong shloi. I will get a male as well. There we go. So she's not going to look. A vanakara just went round as well. They'll be absolutely fine together. It's a massive tank. You know, each of them have their own territories. But I just wanted the ember tetra, just for that little, you know, orange poplet. Look how well they stand out there as well. The candy canes had a little look there because they are a little bit bigger, but the fish won't fit in their mouths. They won't even bother with them. So that's all good. Right. Can I get this dwarf kara now? I got her, Steph. I got her. She was hiding right in the mole. Yeah. Clever little girl. Clever girl. You put her straight in. She might hide. Or straight where the vanakara is. Yeah. You're going to learn very quickly that that will not be your home. Oh, I can see them around the back here. They'll square up and then they'll just go their own separate ways. Like we've seen it so many times, haven't we? Yeah. A little bicker, then they just separate. They've got more space in here. Cool. Where's all the embers? They're all over there. I was like, where the hell have they gone? It's quite interesting, actually. All the fish are still staying in their own groups to a degree. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? All the x-rays at the top. Bentosias at the bottom. Embers over the side. Yeah. I don't think we need any more fish right now. I mean, I've got more South Americans that could go in there. I've got some cardinals. Oh, there we go. That's such a good little nook, isn't it? Yeah. In the middle. They'll be arguing over that. But there's more all around that side and around the back. So yeah. Do we go cardinals? I just like a cardinal. I think they'll look good in there. I think they'll look great in there. I've got a small collection, so it won't be anything too crazy. Well, I've got a massive collection if you take the whole studio into account. Yeah, that's true. There's a bit much. But yeah. Okay, I'll catch some more. Gotta catch em all! Right, I managed to get a little collection of cherry tetra, which are basically like larger embers. There's some cardinals and some neons as well, just for a bit more of a colour pop look. Not too much. There we go. And I think that's just enough now. We don't want to go too crazy with the cardinals, adding that little bit of interest in the middle. I might get some more cardinals. You know, just to bump the numbers up a bit. I think I've got about four there and four neons. Three or four anyway. They kind of school together, to be honest anyway. But yeah, okay. That's added a little bit more, just the odd touch of little interest, colours here and there. Now, for obvious reasons, if you've just set up a tank like me, you know, in this instance, don't go putting this many fish in there. Like I say, I'm very experienced now. I can test the water very regularly. And if there's any issues, I'll spot them and just make the changes that's required. But to be honest, with this amount of fast growing plants, we've got all the peace lilies and everything drawing any nitrite and ammonia out of the water. There'll be absolutely no problem at all. I actually tested the water again today because it's a separate day from when I last did. And it's all absolutely perfect still. So that's great. What was quite interesting then I saw is that the cherry tetra are schooling with the ember tetras as well. Because it's like, oh, you're just mini versions of us. And they literally are. I guess they call them cherry tetra because they've got those really sort of reddish fins on them as well. Yeah, see, there you go. Just an interesting little pop up of a little cardinal. Another one coming back there. Just adds a little bit of interest, doesn't it, to the tank other than just your standard fish. And I'm a massive fan of tanks that have, you know, nice mixes of fish. As long as you've got a good few of each one, they'll, you know, look at that already with the neon. Love that. And remember, we were saying in the other tank, the x-ray tetra kept hiding at the back. There's something about this tank and the naturalness of it, I think, that makes them just far more confident. You see the fish sort of interacting with all the sticks in and out of dark parts. They kind of like follow the lines as well. So I keep seeing them swoop over this way and then they'll swoop back over the other way, dart down along the plants there into that section. So they're like fully interacting with the environment. And that is probably the most interest you can get in the hobby is seeing that. You can sort of sit in front of this for ages and just work out their little behaviours, their little zones. Obviously the candy canes are bosses of the tank. This is our area and it just happens to be everywhere. But the good thing is, of course, they're not aggressive fish. So if they want to take up loads of the tank, they absolutely can. And no one's going to be bothered by it. Because believe me, if the Ivana Cara didn't like them being there, she'd be letting them know straight away. She's chilled somewhere. So there we have it. A pretty accurate rendition, I think, of the Rio Tapajós. Okay, the fish. No, they might not be exactly right for the area, but that was never going to be the case. For me, it's more about like creating an amazing environment for them. What I would call somewhat natural and really, really interesting to watch. I just think it looks great. It's very different from something I would usually do. Very raw, but hopefully you've enjoyed this. It's giving you some inspiration for, you know, trying something like this yourself. Just go for it. If you've got an idea in your head, it doesn't have to be perfect because nature isn't perfect. But the overall effect, I think, is absolutely amazing. Thanks for watching and I'll see you guys on the next one.