THE NOAH PROJECT: INTRODUCTION

Was that dramatic or what? Welcome. Welcome. Nice to have you. Shut that off right there. Woo. Right. Goodness sakes. All right. Back to where we were. Where were we? I got to move this. A little housekeeping here. All right. So, who's here? Greenwood. James Green. The Tower of Naphtali. FreshTropic Canada. Richard Reynolds. Elizabeth Kaiser. The Last Box Hero. Cody Fuller. Hello, Cody. Let me give you a wrench, so you're not feeling left out. And Sarko! Hey, Sarko. Nice to see you guys. Good to have you here. This is going to be a kickoff to a project. Let me take these off until I get somebody on here. A project that I'm wanting to develop called the NOAA Project. Turn the fan off. It is developed pursuant to the amendments to the Lacey Act, But it really goes well beyond that or should exist whether the Lacey Act is approved or not. It's based on the idea that what so many of us are doing is maintaining populations of animals that otherwise become threatened in the wild. There are any number of species currently in captivity which no longer exist in the wild. It's curious because that being the case, one wonders what the government would do about such a thing. I mean, for example, the axolotl no longer exists in the wild. Its environment has been completely destroyed. It's been polluted. Its environment was a lake under the city of Mexico, Mexico City, that has been polluted to the point where the animal no longer survives. And that's the only place that it was ever found. It now exists in such huge quantities in the private sector, in people's hands, that it is no longer threatened or in danger. And at such time as it becomes possible to reintroduce it to a natural environment, it would be a simple matter to do that. That's not the only such animal. There are others, many others, countless others. And they exist by virtue of the efforts of people like you and me. people who are maintaining a series of tanks, typically, who have been doing it for a minimum of, well, my arbitrary number is five years. In five years, you learn a lot of things that don't work, that you really don't know about in four, three, two, and one year. Now, I'll admit there There are things you learn in 10 years that you didn't know in five years. But I'm just using that as a kind of an arbitrary break-off point at which anybody who's been maintaining not just fish, but other kinds of small animals, pets as well, has a pretty good handle on what they're doing, if they do. And we're interested in learning what it is they do. Okay, so what is the NOAA project? Well, very simply, it's a way of acknowledging, of recognizing, of supporting and encouraging people who are doing just this. People who are maintaining populations of animals, learning how to breed them and raise the fry. And that's really an important part of this, because until you do that, you're really not sustaining a population of animals. You've got to be able to get them through the process of laying eggs, hatching eggs, and raising the young. Once you do that, once you've got like F1s, you know, a first population, then it becomes a lot easier and a lot more deliberate and a lot more dependable being able to continue that process, being able to keep that animal going long term. And that's really the issue here. So, featuring such people is going to be an important part of what I want to be able to do on this channel. I had asked someone to come up tonight. They can't do it. I'm not going to tell you who it is. Somebody you all know and love, who has an astounding ability to maintain and populate fish. Couldn't do it tonight, because his wife is sick, and he's just focusing on that, but he'll be up later. I'm going to do this. My current plan is Mondays and Wednesdays, twice a week, and basically what I want to do is go in-depth, maybe spend the entire hour with that person and what they're doing in their fish room. I was just noticing the comments here. ADHD is here. Now, she doesn't meet the five-year rule, I don't think. But by God, this woman is amazing. What she's been able to put together is really remarkable. And there will be an opportunity and a time when it will be appropriate to bring her up and talk with her about what she's doing. Because it serves as a template for what can be done. Really, for the maximum, if you will, of what can be done in order to be able to create an environment where it's possible to maintain species of small animals, in this case tropical fish, long term. And that's the whole issue here. There are people who have been doing this for years. Kili people, all of the Kili people are maintaining populations of animals long term. Now, the reality is very few of those animals are brought in from the wild. So many of them are traded and sold and shared with other members of the American Killifish Association, for example, that these fish are stable in private collections and are in current numbers to be able to be released in the wild. Unfortunately, here's the problem. The efforts that are ongoing right now to be able to do just that are efforts that are being brought about by hobbyists and other people connected with the hobbies who are putting their time and money and effort into establishing, cleaning, and maintaining those biotopes, those natural environments. With the passage of this legislation, this proposed legislation, all that comes to an end. So it becomes even more vital for us to be sure we have in place an increasing environment of people working at sustaining these private collections. The failure to do so will mean the ultimate demise, the extinction of countless species. We're faced with that now. That would put it on steroids to the point where countless thousands of species would be lost to extinction really in a very short time. Okay, that serves as a basic intro. So you get the idea. What I want to do is bring people up one at a time and spend time with them talking about how they're maintaining their hobby, what they're doing, what the issues are mechanically, husbandry wise, personally, psychologically, emotionally, economically, in whatever ways it really impacts them to be able to share that. and then i'm going to create a library of these which will be available on Patreon so let's let me see what's what's in gonna say it's a lot of conversation going on here uh let's see Richard Reynolds hello hello let's see Cody i got Cody the Book of Enoch they're talking about the Book of Enoch. Yes, it certainly is. Donna Tomek, Cleaning Tanks. ADHD loved the new video today. That was wonderful, wasn't it? Naresh created that and didn't include the names of the people. I really wanted to have that. So we've got them in the text below, but we'll try do it again and make sure we have the names on on everyone so we know who's whose tanks they are so my apologies uh that they're not there if you know uh if one of those tanks is yours and we haven't uh we haven't given you credit please let us know so we can include that in the credits thank you for that cows would not exist without people same with chickens yeah same with a lot things same with hundreds of species perhaps thousands of small animals and ADHD says she loves cows well Rob's aquarium hello Rob say ADHD is from Maryland another another Maryland girl i'm from Maryland as well so there's it's a definite archetype a definite archetype Turning a basement into a fish paradise Last box here, it says about ADHD She sure is. 13 weeks pregnant now Exciting stuff. You need to be in the community for five years to go on live. No, you need to have been keeping fish or whatever it is you keep for five years And I'm not going to be real hard about that But I don't want to get people up here who are just starting out as examples of what to do I want to get people up who have been through enough experience to have a sense of what works and what doesn't for them I mean, it's a personal thing, but I just think we'll be better served by having people who have really got a basic handle on what they're doing I've tried a few things that I haven't worked, learned a few tricks are doing some things that they're excited about. ABC, making a breeding project. Well, you're a perfect candidate ABC, for spending an evening with We'll get you on the list, and let's plan to do that ABC has an 18-month son and a six-week son. First, last box says, Emily, your baby's the size of 11 Well, Emily has 11 Well, Emily, maybe. Vanoxsky. Hey, Vanoxsky, good to see you. We got a bunch of people here right now who are, you know, pretty skilled fish keepers. There's Scott. Hi, Scott. Thank you to Wendy for helping out Friday night. That was, she did a good job. That was really good. Hey, Sarko. Okay, so you got the idea. um now as you all know i have a particular approach to being able to uh to how i maintain my tanks i'm not going to sit on that real hard because i'm i know there are lots of people who are maintaining fish very effectively and successfully without using this method so i'm not looking for method here i'm looking more for style i guess i'm looking more for experience You know, looking for people who learn how to do some things, learn how to maintain some fish in order to give us, in order to give everyone else a chance to be able to develop their own fish room or hobby room or collection or whatever it is you want to call it. It need not be by happenstance. I think seeing what other people are doing who are effective and successful and being able to get an in-depth understanding of that can put us light years ahead, particularly a new person. Light years ahead so they don't have to relearn everything that other people have learned before. So that's part of it. The other thing I want to be able to do is maintain a list of species that are being maintained in the hobby. Now, it really ought to be anything. I mean, guppies, for God's sake, you know, common stuff. And particular strains, perhaps, of guppies that are not always easy to maintain. I mean, I've seen guppies come and go. There are strains of guppies I saw as a kid that no longer exist. And not just guppies, but other kinds of livebearers as well. Mollies, platies and swords. There are mollies, platies and swords that existed, strains of them, when I was young, that no longer exist. No one maintained those strains. And so they've disappeared. They no longer exist. So that's important too. The other issue is going to be, if this legislation passes, it's going to be really difficult. But we're going to have to find ways to deal with it. Number one, to be able to exchange things across state lines. Now, that's likely to be a matter of federal law. So we're going to have to find ways to contest that in ways that will give us the ability to be able to be able to exchange items within the law that will allow us to maintain these species. And we're likely if this passes, we will wind up in court. There will be countless court proceedings. In fact, it probably will be able to get it put on hold until any number of court issues are resolved. But it would certainly be preferable to not be facing that kind of gargantuan and very expensive eventuality. So maintaining lists, maintaining species, knowing where they are, what they are, who has them, and being able to exchange them. Hopefully we'll be able to do that in an open environment. If not, we're going to have to fight. But by creating this kind of an organizational structure that acknowledges what hobbyists are doing to protect species can go a long way toward creating a positive attitude of the law, of government, and of people in general for what it is we're trying to do. In other words, I think we need to come out of the closet. I think that's really what this is going to be forcing us to do. So this is a way to begin to do that. Yeah, I agree, Glassbox. Swords don't look nearly as beautiful as they did 25 years ago. Tower of Natali, the animal apocalypse makes me think of Father Feith, the extinction that is coming to the natural world. And the reality is it's already here. The extinctions are already coming and they're running apace and there are efforts, albeit limited efforts, minimal efforts really, to protect species. The more we can get these animals into private hands and learn how to maintain them, keep them long term, the safer these species are going to be. Because that's the salvation with the kind of chaos that's going on, particularly in precious, pristine environments, the kind of disruption that's going on. Let me give you an example. I've watched videos of Native culture. We all enjoy that, I'm sure. One of the things that I saw a few years ago was a video about a native culture of people who had discovered ways of using the sap of certain plants to put in the water and stun the fish so they could collect them for food. Well, that sounded interesting until I discovered much more recently that this process is known worldwide, is used worldwide, and it creates a permanent death in that little biotope. In other words, it doesn't just stun the fish, it kills everything. It kills the microfauna, it kills the fish, the crabs, the snails, it kills everything, it kills the plants. It is a death sentence where it is used. I have no idea. As a result, as we get back into pristine areas, we find everything is dead. there's nothing alive because they poisoned it in order to do a single harvest. Or maybe they've done it a few times in order to really knock everything down. Shocking stuff. So it's not just loggers and miners and farmers. It's natives trying to support themselves, trying to find food and using techniques that are profoundly destructive. It says to me that this is not by any stretch an old technology, because if it were, there would be historical lore. There would be an acknowledgement that this was not a healthy approach to being able to harvest, because it would create dead environments. Certainly something undesirable by any native population. So my sense is this is something fairly new that has been promulgated probably by video, by YouTube, whatever, teaching people how to kill all the fish in their creek in order to be able to harvest. Well, in any case, and whatever, it simply demonstrates what a razor's edge the species we care about are on. You know, finding something that's brand new, that's never been seen before, going back to collect it, and it's gone, been killed, gone, doesn't exist anymore. Was in one small area, a new population of fish or whatever species disappeared, gone, no longer exists. That happens daily, minute by minute. It's happening every day. It is critical for us to be able to acquire as many of these animals as possible and maintain them in captivity so that they will not go extinct. And it's the second part of that, the maintaining them, that this is an effort to do something about. So I trust you're all on board with this and we're going to, excuse me, we're going to make it happen. Bass Queen is here. Hello, Bass Queen. There goes Scott. Who else? Purple Jagger. Can't wait for this project to take off. I will be back on Wednesday and we'll do our first interview. I'm going to try to set them up beforehand so that we can, so we're not casting about. I wanted to introduce the concept to you with this video tonight, kick off a little bit, get some discussion, answer some questions, and then when we come back, I will announce who it's going to be. If you want to be part of this, please contact me. Um, there are any number of ways you can do that. You can go on Discord. My phone number is available here on this site. You can call me, send me an email. My email address is available. Get to me and we'll, we'll start creating a, a list and get people built into it. I want to crank at least two of these out a week and see if we can't see if we can't get a library built pretty quickly and and try to go in depth, try to do something that I don't think anybody really has made an effort to do this. So hopefully this is going to be something that will be worthwhile. Hey, T-Bone. Nice to see you. James Green, unfortunately, my son's Neolamprologus multifasciatus tank has only been going three years. We're open to hosting endangered species. If he's got F1s and F2s, if he's been able to raise babies to the point where they become breeders and have babies, that's the kind of thing we want to be able to teach. And we want to be able to look in depth at how people are able to do that, because there are lots of little tricks and understanding that grows out of going through that process. So I'm not going to sit on the five years hard. Mainly what I want is people who have been able to maintain a species of fish long term in a system that is a serious system, not just, oh, my goldfish lived 15 years. I'm not interested in talking about somebody whose goldfish lived 15 years, has never kept another fish. That's not the issue. The issue is, have you been able to maintain spaces that might otherwise be difficult to maintain? Have you been able to raise it, learn how to feed it, bring it to maturity? Have you been able to breed it and then find ways to feed the babies and raise them up so that they become breeders? That's what we're looking for. It doesn't have to include breeding, but it really should. Because, you know, when these fish die, if they're not being replaced, we're really not doing any good. We can keep them alive longer, and they live in the wild. But until we're learning how to breed them, we're really not saving them. I just saw Isabella is here. Hey, Isabella. Isabella is here and leaving. Rob's aquarium room. Princess Neolamprologus, they're brashardic. Yeah, brashardic are fun. Yeah, brashardic are a great fish. Really easy fish to breed. And such a good introduction fish because it just teaches you so much about being able to breed these Africans. And particularly the Tanganyikas. Let's see. Hello, Benjamin Morgan. Nice to see you. Love to come talk better. Oh, I know. We're going to get some better people up here. We've got some amazing better people on YouTube that never really have a chance to go in-depth. And I absolutely want to be able to do that. Bath Queen, private landowners in Florida are having problems with the government bringing sheriffs with guns onto their property and spraying poison in their ponds and killing everything. I know it's true. It's absolutely true. They need to be licensed as an aquatic farm in order to prevent that from happening. They're doing it because they're trying to control mosquito populations. There was a population of blue crayfish that had been developed over a period of 25 years. A beautiful strain of Dutch blue crayfish that were maintained in a breeding house and in a pond on a farmer's property. He had been working to build this strain for many, many years. One afternoon, a city truck came by with mosquito spray, mosquito with poison spray, and sprayed the pond. It was near the road, sprayed the pond, killed everything, completely wiped out that population. They no longer existed in a matter of just a foolish act, a thoughtless act. It happens, which is all the more reason for us to do precisely what we're doing and to be able to focus on it to talk about it to understand it and and to take actions to improve that whole that whole process support uh scott is saying discord can help with the noah project spreadsheets of who has what and to prevent introducing crossbatch yeah uh that's a good idea we could do we could do a noah channel um on discord on our discord or set up a new discord for that matter uh howard van tassel hello howard good to see you all right so we've been here half an hour um let me do this let me walk you through a few of my tanks show you what i'm doing we don't need to leave quite yet get my camera free here there let's see i have a dirty tank here that has three large Wairu in it. I'm trying to get it cleared up. It's gradually coming. What I need to do is put another inch of sand in it. These are Nematopus metropolis, these little guys. And the Wairu are hiding. They don't want to be seen. Wairu, these are smaller Wairu, and these are just as regular. Something wrong with the lights here. Oh, I've got the glass pulled back. Can't see very well. I've got the jar in the way. Anyway, I can move that without dropping it on the floor. Get the lights up here so we can see better. There we go. This is a group of about four-inch discus. They're not quite breeding size, but they're doing well in getting there. So I'm just real hopeful that we're going to get some breeding. I'm starting to see adult behavior, so that's kind of exciting. Let's see. I took the bettas out of this tank. The gouramis and the stiphodons and scarlet bettas, and I've also got some pygmy sunfish in here, are all doing really well. And I wanted to get the bettas out because they were just too dominant. They did spawn in here at one point. I've got a video of these little chocolates hanging right underneath the spawning bettas, snagging every egg they laid. All four of them just hanging there, waiting for an egg to fall. And they got every single one of them. But I'm hopeful that I have a pair. Don't know that I do. Maybe don't. It's hard to get pairs of these. If I do, they're not quite breeding size, but I've had them for about three months. And the stiphodons, which are impossible to find, they just sort of show up. I saw them today. They're about an inch and a quarter long, not quite an inch and a half. They're still juvenile. They're not adult yet. I do have a couple of adult males coming. I don't know if I really want to risk putting them in here, but we'll see how it goes. This tank has scarlet bettas. It's got some little rainbows. I'm getting some new Tetras. Phoenix Tetras are coming. They're going to go in here. Rams may be in here. I'll probably pull the Bettas out of here as well. the bettas are a scavenger is the problem any baby fish are going to be gobbled up they just won't survive the predation of the bettas and then this tank currently has these juvenile Probjenkins that are now about 3 months old I've raised 35, I'm going to get them all out of here and this is going to get a minimum of 2 inches of food web, two inches of humus, and in it are going to go mostly things like the Pseudomugil, like him, and also the little bettas like the phoenix and some other animals that are going to be able to live and thrive in that humus, humic substance, and be able to spawn and raise fry so that's the plan with that tank and that's going to happen this coming week i want to show people how to create a food web and we're going to do it in that tank got some discus in here i bought about two months ago i'm not sure they're growing they might be i didn't measure them when i got them in so i really you know you know you see things every day and can't really tell in the short term whether they're growing or not this tank doesn't have much in it um some uh some a few tetras some plants decent plants some um some otocinclus a couple of uh albino bushynose one or two tetras so i'm going to be getting more um fish in here and i'm going to do more with the with the food web in this tank as well so that's i've got four other tanks i'll show you quickly they're down below they're 15 gallons i can't see into them i can't do a thing with them i got two there and two there i need to figure out a way to deal with it and i think what i'm going to do is raise them up so i can get into them and deal with them it's kind hopeless they're just there there are some fish in the mostly livebearers, guppies and swords um that i just have a hard time dealing with so i gotta work on that i don't have the luxury of having tanks i can't do anything with i only have limited space the other issue i'm facing here is i i have to move i cannot stay where i am this house is being sold at some point in time um and i need to find another place to live and i'm having a very difficult time doing that partly because of money and partly because it's just hard to find anything right now here in southwest florida so all right we're gonna leave now let me do this um i love this thing let me do the logo one more time let's see we've got the music we've got to get the music playing and then we get this up is it playing yes see you all wednesday thanks for stopping in we'll we'll get this we'll get this thing going and we're gonna have somebody up here you'll really enjoy when nine o'clock on wednesday take care see you all later bye for now