The single most important skill to learn in the fish room is siphoning. If you learn to siphon everything involving changing water, cleaning waste, catching fish, and emptying tanks will become simple and mess free. Watch and learn as Father Fish teaches the basic skill of sucking water into a hose without getting it into his mouth. Once you learn this skill the world of water in aquariums will open up to you. Learn to siphon and you too will be respected as a Master Aquarist.
Louis Foxwell, known on YouTube as Father Fish, is an old-time fish keeper with 70 years of experience. His simple, easy, and guaranteed methods insure healthy, happy tropical fish in your aquarium.
Lou adopted the role of Father Fish many years ago when he opened a tropical fish store as a retirement business. Prior to this, he served as a missionary for 25 years, following in his father's footsteps by ministering to a congregation of deaf worshipers. Lou fondly recalls his grandmother in Berlin, Germany, who inspired his love for fish keeping as a child.
As a founder and original board member of the National Aquarium, Lou played a significant role in its development, serving as chair of the Community Relations Committee and participating in the Search Committees. With extensive experience across nearly every level of the fish industry, Father Fish offers a wealth of knowledge and products, including plants, soil supplements, and more, to enhance your aquarium experience.
All clips and images are used for illustration purposes only.
I'm going to do it quick, like that.
Lower the water level, it comes out.
Evolve the water level, it stops.
Now, let's watch.
I'm going to release it.
Yep, you got it.
Hello, come right on in.
You're at Father Fish.
The most difficult part of fish keeping
is learning what to do with this.
This creates more trouble and costs more money
and is responsible for more gagging and vomiting
and spitting than anything else anybody does in a fish tank.
And all it is, it's just a little piece of hose.
In order to make it possible for people
who don't know to use a siphon, they've
invented a ball that they put on the middle of the siphon.
And the theory is, if you squeeze the ball with one
end in the water, it starts the siphon.
Well, it may or it may not.
But let me show you a trick.
This will be an easier one to do it with because it's longer.
This is about a 6 foot, a little 8 foot.
This really is my favorite hose.
It's flexible.
It's not hard to handle.
And it allows you to do what you need to do.
Now, to do siphoning, you have to understand
what you're doing.
What is the principle of a siphon?
Principle of a siphon is to fill a hose like this with water
without any of the water coming out of the hose.
Doesn't make sense, does it?
Let me show you what I mean.
If we will open this up, one end in the water.
Now, I'm standing about a foot and a half
above the level of the water.
And I have a loop that goes down two to three feet
and comes back up again.
So what I'm going to do is, very quickly,
I'm going to do a quick like that.
I'm going to inhale just a small gasp.
That's all I did, a small gasp.
And look, look, look, look, look.
Watch it.
That is a siphon.
Now, if you hold both ends up like this, it's full of water.
Look at that, full of water.
Let's do this again.
We're going to dump the water back in the tank.
We're going to hold the hose in the water a few inches.
And then we're standing a foot and a half
above the level of the water,
holding the hose up that high with a big loop in it.
One quick inhale, gasp.
Look at that.
Did you see that?
How much water did I get in my mouth doing that?
It wasn't even close.
There wasn't even the possibility
of getting water in my mouth.
I used to give new employees one chance
to use a siphon and get water in their mouth.
After that, if they did it again, they were fired
because there is no reason at all
to ever get water in your mouth when you're siphoning.
Hold the hose above the level of the water.
You take one quick inhale,
enough to get the water over the edge,
and just start it so when you put it below the water level,
it comes out.
Below the water level, it comes out.
Above the water level, it stops.
That's what a siphon is, running, stopping.
And it's really that simple.
There's no reason to ever even get a drop of water
on the floor.
And those little balls, meaningless.
Once you learn how to do this,
it's the simplest thing in the world.
Now, I want to show you, let's see,
let's look in here and see if we can find something
that needs to be siphoned up.
How about that right there?
Okay, we're going to hold it there.
Now, let's look at the other end of the hose.
Going to drop it down below the water level.
Now, watch what happens to the dirt.
Go back to the dirt.
Look at that.
It's picking it all up.
And it's putting it in the tank.
Now, we come back up, and it stops.
Sleek as a whistle.
Here's a little more.
Over here, let's do this.
Put it down to it.
Bring the water level down.
Just move the hose along a little bit,
and we get every bit of it.
Bring it back up, and it stops.
Is that hard to do, boys and girls?
Can we do that?
If you're five, you can do it.
If you're 50, you may struggle,
because you've got so many bad habits
that you have to unlearn.
Now, I want to show you something.
We're going to take this.
I think I'm going to get out of this wrap I've got here.
So, I'm going to show you how to catch
the most difficult fish there is to catch.
Do you know what that is?
It is a coulee loach.
Now, look.
See this?
This hose is full of water.
See the level of the water?
Okay.
I've got some coulee loaches in this tank.
So, I'm going to put one end there.
I want to hold my thumb over the other end
and hold it down low.
Then, I'm going to move this around
and see if we can find a coulee loach
and make him come out front.
You see him?
There he is.
Now, let's watch.
I'm going to release it.
Whoop.
I may need a bigger hose.
Right there.
Yeah.
Just turn him around.
Yep, you got it.
There he is.
We can refill that.
So, it's really quite simple
to be able to catch the hardest fish there is to catch
by using the miracle of the fish room, a siphon.
If you learn to use a siphon,
it really does become your best friend.
You can work all kind of magic with it.
You can take specific amounts of water out of the tank.
You can put water back in the tank
by holding the bucket up above the level
of the surface of the water in the tank
and just use that siphon trick
without ever getting a drop on the floor or in your mouth.
This is Father Fish, tips and tricks for the fish room.
Learn to use a siphon.
It will be your best friend ever.
That'll do it.
Love you all, bye for now.
No, not doing that no more.
People love when you, they get mad when you don't do it.
Love you all, bye for now.
