Monster Fish Keepers Book

[Pond Pioneer]

OP,

I love your enthusiasm and initiative.

Unfortunately, I am forced to agree with the others above who have stated that most of the crowd who's drawn to the videos referenced above would be unlikely to search out more than a surface level understanding of the hobby. I feel that we could make a pretty compelling argument that the creators who are going viral mostly possess little more than a surface level understanding of the hobby as well.

MFK actually has a YouTube channel with about 13k subscribers. We've not been utilizing that outlet for the past decade or so, but we have it. In my discussions with MFK's Social Media Team, the idea of firing our YouTube up again has been discussed. Doing so simply isn't feasible for us at this point, however; though it is on the radar.

The hope is that people will research the stuff they find on YouTube and find MFK, leading them to learn how to actually care for fish. The idea of a book on the subject has been floated since at least 2013. Hopefully, this is something we could bring to fruition. It shouldn't be terribly difficult either, as most of the raw data and experience is collected into this community, with much of it already written. I suppose getting some sort of book completed could fit into the MFK2020 initiative.

All in all, I like the tenor of this post. MFK needs this kind of energy I think.

I appreciate the recognition. As wanting to be a pond builder, I can build these creators ponds. I'll give them a good price only if they go through the teachings of the MFK book. I have faith in these guys. For example, if you watched how Zack Catchm almost killed his redtail you could see he was really distraught. Now I'm sure it was his fault and he shouldn't be documenting it but that has to change one way or the other. In the end, he does care about the animals, he's just got mixed priorities. This is all opinion as I never met the guy. Maybe forget the book. Maybe we just have a Youtube series talking about the care of each animal. The end goal is to inform the populous in the easiest manor. This might be even better as these creators can just link the channel. My point again, these creators are not going away and they are inspiring more every day. The time to act is now

 

[Pond Pioneer]

I think your biggest issue is going to be writing an actual book. I took up trying to write a better book on sharks/rays in captivity a year or two ago, and actually got decently far with it. It's hard - really hard. Species profiles took much longer than I thought - formatting them, deciding what info to actually include, making sure that things didn't constantly repeat. Pictures were tough to get - you need credit and permission if they're going to be published. Then you've got to figure out how to format things through the rest of the book. There are some things you can talk about for pages and pages and need to thin out. Then there are other things that you can't even fill a page with, and need to find another section to include them in.
This takes a lot of time. I rewrote that book at least two or three times before realizing I just didn't have the time or energy to write it.

islandguy11 covered the Youtube guys pretty well, I really don't have much else to say there - he spoke my mind.

Here's my suggestion to you. Write a draft of a care profile for ONE fish. Redtail cats, tiger shovelnose, arapaima, arowana, whatever you want. Choose a single fish and write a full profile on it, post it here and see how it goes. See how you like it, post it and let others see how it turned out.
I don't have any of my book pages left, but I remember pretty much how I had them set up. Feel free to PM me and I can help you with a format.

Thanks for the offer! I've actually already started lol. MFK Book: Red-Tailed Catfish. Maybe scrap the book idea and just do Youtube videos.

 

[Pond Pioneer]

This is just MHO, but what I think MFK needs is more people with actual hands on experience, that are willing to share that experience. Not more people talking about, or in this case writing about, things that they have no experience in. Seems to me there is already plenty of the latter on FB, Youtube, etc.

I agree, lets have the people with the most experience create these videos. I vote thebiggerthebetter ! Lol, I know that's quite rude to just volunteer someone. So if not Victor, someone of his passion. I would love for it to be him as he was really the first to help me that also has an extensive Youtube channel. Idk

 

[Hendre]

I like the idea, curious to see how this would turn out. If you want to include MFK in the book just talk to the man above neoprodigy

Talk to members on here that are heavily experienced on the fish in question, there are several lurking around so just search.
Best of luck.

 

[dan518]

If you were going to do a mfk book why would you need to write it. All the material is on the website, there are fantastic debates by very knowledgeable members on all aspects of the hobby, plus all the build threads, filtration, etc. Give yourself a year or so to trawl through past post, find the best ones and assimilate in to some sort of order. You could probably make a very educational and funny book.
Trouble is most of the people that would be interested in it are members on here and have already read or participate in these debates.

 

[Pond Pioneer]

If you were going to do a mfk book why would you need to write it. All the material is on the website, there are fantastic debates by very knowledgeable members on all aspects of the hobby, plus all the build threads, filtration, etc. Give yourself a year or so to trawl through past post, find the best ones and assimilate in to some sort of order. You could probably make a very educational and funny book.
Trouble is most of the people that would be interested in it are members on here and have already read or participate in these debates.

Because I want more people in the hobby. I want the people that wanted to keep monster fish but didn't know how. And have too much anxiety to go through a forum. Plus people don't have the time if there is a complete, easy access guide, written for complete beginners. That's how we will grow the hobby. And not true, there are new babies being born every day that grow up to watch these Youtube channels. I work at a water gardening store and we have a big mud pond with koi that people can feed. I always have kids come in, ask about ponds, and I ask where they heard about them, and it was from Youtube

 

[dan518]

There's more information on this website then you could ever hope to put in a book.
Most people lurk around the website for a while before becoming members reading through the past post's.
The people likely to buy a books probably searched on the Internet first and came across mfk.
Mfk YouTube channel getting back up and running would be something I would like to see.
Yes new people come into the hobby daily and they face the problem of finding a trustworthy source. There's a few good and lots of bad, but the chances are they will start off searching for these online fist.

 

[Pond Pioneer]

There's more information on this website then you could ever hope to put in a book.
Most people lurk around the website for a while before becoming members reading through the past post's.
The people likely to buy a books probably searched on the Internet first and came across mfk.
Mfk YouTube channel getting back up and running would be something I would like to see.
Yes new people come into the hobby daily and they face the problem of finding a trustworthy source. There's a few good and lots of bad, but the chances are they will start off searching for these online fist.

I'm starting to consider that maybe the Youtube channel is the way to go. but the MFK book could just be a template to make the content. and it's something that's never published. Or even recommended as a guide. not because of lack of trustworthy info, but because Youtbe videos are easier to digest and spread

 

[fishhead0103666]

C Chicxulub If there is a possibility of the mfk youtube becoming more active then can someone check up on the guy with the 50,000 gallon? I haven’t seen him active in a good while and I believe that if he’s still around and willing then more videos of his monster would gather a good bit of attention on the mfk youtube.

 

[Lepisosteus]

We've not been utilizing that outlet for the past decade or so, but we have it. In my discussions with MFK's Social Media Team, the idea of firing our YouTube up again has been discussed. Doing so simply isn't feasible for us at this point, however; though it is on the radar.

Send me the account details and password. I got you