Monster Fish Keepers Book

[Pond Pioneer]

Hello Monster Fish Keepers,

Long story short, I think now is the time to create the ultimate guide to keeping monster fish. Why do you ask? Through youtube, we see the increased interest in monster fish keeping. There is a great opportunity to support this new wave of interest and sustain it through proper education of handling these animals. And the outcome that i believe will happen is it will expand the hobby, support MFK, and make the hobby cheaper. My justification is below.
Opportunity
There is an absolute rise in the exotic fish keeping hobby. This is probably obvious to all of you but to just have data for data sake, here are some channels that focus heavily on monster fish keeping listed from most to least subscribers with their channel starting dates, subscribers, and some graphs of the youtube verified channels.

Catch Em All Fishing: Started 2016, 2.31 mil. subs. , Subscriber and Views Projection Graph​

RAWWFishing: 2014, 2.16 mil, Subscriber and Views Projection Graph​

Joey Slay Em: 2011, 425K, Subscriber and Views Projection Graph​

CoralFish12g: 2010, 330K, Subscriber and Views Projection Graph​

• PREDATORY FINS: 2016, 93.2 K, Expanding to wholesale
• Barbs Buzzin: 2017, 85K
• Luke Dombrowski: 2014, 64.7K
• IFG: 2014, 54.6K
• Matt’s Monster Fish: 2018, 17.1K
• SC Fish Keeping: 2017, 14.8K
• Unconventional Aquatics: 2014, 5.65K

There are good and bad sides to this, however, if we act now, we can ride the momentum and protect the hobby at the same time. First of all, I'm grateful for all of these creators and I’m sure my critiques may not be 100% correct but they’re my genuine impression and there must be some kernel of truth within them.

The Faults: Sensationalism

Since the main focus of any channel is entertainment, sensationalism will occur. The downside is for the fastest growing channels, the focus is on making viral content rather than learning the proper care to keeping the fish successfully. This instability could lead to poor education on what actually necessary to keep these fish. Also, since some of these fish varieties can actually cause some harm, as soon as a newbie makes a mistake that cost’s their health severely, that could create a negative feedback loop calling for government regulation.

The Benefits: Popularity Increase

This is creating more eyes and interest in the hobby! This allows for more passionate people to discover the hobby which will lead to innovation, stability, and expansion. I've heard from unverified sources that sales in the koi market internationally is near a billion. However, the most popular dedicated koi influencer is The Koi Partner and he only has 71.6K. This just shows how much more interest there is in this niche, and we can tap into that!

Mitigating the Downside

Provide as much education (MFK Book) on keeping these fish to not only these creators but also everyone that they will inspire to keep the fish. This will give a great foundation for the hobby to be built upon as well as giving legitimacy to what might be seen as irresponsibility. I believe that the creators will want to learn in order to grow the largest and oldest fish as this will inevitably bring more eyeballs to their channel. Plus, they can show the bond for animals that they have successfully kept for years which will create even more of an audience. We saw this with Frank the Flowerhorn on the King of DIY.

Riding the Momentum

By providing the ultimate learning source for a small fee, we can use that money to further stabilize the hobby. Such as supporting fish rescues, breeders in the US, and of course hobbyists! This will strengthen the creators, making them more successful, bringing more interest to the hobby, that support comes to MFK, creating a positive feedback loop. Through the economy of scale, fish and equipment will become more widely available and therefore cheaper.

Even if I’m totally wrong with my justification, my gut tells me it’s the right thing to do, that’s why I’m making this post, and that’s why I want to help. What I am asking is for help on gathering the top experts that would be willing to write this textbook. All I know I can offer is a newbie perspective as well as the pond construction and design assistance. I have some ideas of approach but I want to see what you guys think about this idea in the first place.

What do you guys think?

 

[islandguy11]

Catch 'em all, Rawwfishing and Joe Slay Em are jokes who don't know jack *hit about properly keeping monster fish. They just do it for the views (as do so many others), which inspires newbies to go out and buy these monster fish, and with no good knowledge gleaned from watching these fishermen turned 'fish keepers'. Imho the results are not good for the hobby.

And while Joey King of DIY certainly knows more about keeping fish than any of those dudes, he's arguably not exactly a good inspiration either: he didn't treat Frank properly when he got sick and blamed his death on something else. Then (in order to keep Frank's fans around) he went out and got another one, then a bit later decided he didn't want to keep either of his FH's and re-homed them both. He recently lost one of his Aros due to bad tank design lid...did he try to correct it or learn/teach from the experience. Not as far as I could see.

Then there's types like that annoying couple from KGtropicals, who esp. during livestreams talk 90% about their channel and themselves and 10% about keeping fish. Then they often go on about the morality of this or that fish keeping practice, then the clueless wifey starts up a betta sorority tank (which unsurprisingly has had lots of trouble) and now is talking about setting up a 300-500 gallon betta sorority tank. Lol.

So while you make a good point that many of these creators could benefit from the knowledge of a MFK book -- because their questionable practices can inspire others to do the same -- sorry to be negative but I kinda doubt any of those peeps are going to actually buy a copy, they're too busy selling themselves. Also Joey has his own e-book (on fish keeping in general) which he has been pandering for years.

Finally while I certainly admire your enthusiasm, writing, editing, publishing and marketing a book is no small endeavor, I wonder how many of our experts would have time to participate in such a project, most have jobs, businesses, family, lots of fish etc. with not enough time in the day as it is.

 

[Pond Pioneer]

Catch 'em all, Rawwfishing and Joe Slay Em are jokes who don't know jack *hit about properly keeping monster fish. They just do it for the views (as do so many others), which inspires newbies to go out and buy these monster fish, and with no good knowledge gleaned from watching these fishermen turned 'fish keepers'. Imho the results are not good for the hobby.
I understand and yes I agree it's not good for the hobby. However, we can't stop them, so we have to join them. And if we do this right, they can change the way they run their channel, and if not, at least we give them opportunities to do so. Plus, when the kids grow up who no longer watch that content, they can educate themselves. I still stand that they are a net benefit, but only slight. We can increase it if we help support them.
And while Joey King of DIY certainly knows more about keeping fish than any of those dudes, he's arguably not exactly a good inspiration either: he didn't treat Frank properly when he got sick and blamed his death on something else. Then (in order to keep Frank's fans around) he went out and got another one, then a bit later decided he didn't want to keep either of his FH's and re-homed them both. He recently lost one of his Aros due to bad tank design lid...did he try to correct it or learn/teach from the experience. Not as far as I could see.
I don't know anything about properly caring for flowerhorns so I can't speak to that. But I respect Joey immensely for what he's done to the hobby. But he hit a limit of how much money he could make and he decided the only way to grow was to fit Youtubes mold.
Then there are types like that annoying couple from KGtropicals, who esp. during live streams talk 90% about their channel and themselves and 10% about keeping fish. Then they often go on about the morality of this or that fish keeping practice, then the clueless wifey starts up a betta sorority tank (which unsurprisingly has had lots of trouble) and now is talking about setting up a 300-500 gallon betta sorority tank. Lol.
I respect your thoughts and I agree on a lot of what you said, however, I want to discourage discussions like this to happen on this thread as it won't solve the problem. How we solve the problem is expanding the hobby, and like it or not, these channels are doing that. Even with channels with the highest prestige and ethics like Veritasiam. He now feels that he has to sacrifice his integrity to make a living on what he loves doing. Here is a link to his explanation of how the Youtube algorithm is damaging Youtube, My Video Went Viral. Here's Why. Once the algorithms are changed, when Google is broken up and Youtube becomes its own private entity, that's when quality channels will rise out of the ashes. The more that we understand this, we can help these creators by supporting them through donations, so they don't have to make the sacrifices. You see this in political youtube channels Like Sam Harris or Jordan Peterson. They can be free from the Youtube monster by their fan support. We only need one Yout
So while you make a good point that many of these creators could benefit from the knowledge of a MFK book -- because their questionable practices can inspire others to do the same -- sorry to be negative but I kinda doubt any of those peeps are going to actually buy a copy, they're too busy selling themselves. Also, Joey has his own e-book (on fish keeping in general) which he has been pandering for years.
Maybe not, but they can at least let people know where to learn this stuff. I'll do my best to convince them.
Finally while I certainly admire your enthusiasm, writing, editing, publishing and marketing a book is no small endeavor, I wonder how many of our experts would have time to participate in such a project, most have jobs, businesses, family, lots of fish etc. with not enough time in the day as it is.

I really do appreciate you pointing out the problems, this needs to be a realistic look at the project. I understand it's a huge undertaking and I've never written a book. However, it has to be done. And we can just start, with one species at a time. I suggest the Redtail Catfish as it seems to be the most popular. Then we will go from species to species from widely available to rare. Only talking about species-specific traits like size, water quality requirements, growth rate, lifespan, etc. I'll start with that Red-tail. But I don't know what it's like about caring for them so i can only get raw data. Other topics that could be discussed are mitigating aggression within tanks and good practices. Finally, our outcome is to present all the information about keeping monster fish so a newbie can build their own habitat, give proper care. I don't think publishing isn't necessary at first, and marketing can be done by these channels. I plan to make this my career so I'm dedicated to making this happen.

 

[A201]

I know that Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod's many books regarding fish & fish keeping are probably considered obsolete ancient history to most, but IMO still very relevant. My point is that the information you wish to publish is already in print. Although there have been vast improvements in fish keeping equipment & XL tank construction, the fundamentals of keeping a fish of any size really hasn't changed.

I could see a possible MFK book of fishkeeping testimonials from those experienced with certain species. There of course would be all kinds of legal issues & contract hoops to jump through. What a potential nightmare.
Who knows, maybe you will be the next Dr. Axelrod.

 

[RD.]

Who knows, maybe you will be the next Dr. Axelrod.

Or the next TheReefer .

 

[islandguy11]

Long story short, I think now is the time to create the ultimate guide to keeping monster fish. Why do you ask?

Well yeah, cynics or skeptics might indeed ask why now is such a special time? It wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you are "becoming a pond builder" and have expressed interest and asked questions about creating and selling the "Ultimate Predator Ponds" in other threads, now would it? Convenient timing indeed

"We can use that money to further stabilize the hobby. Such as supporting fish rescues, breeders in the US, and of course hobbyists! This will strengthen the creators, making them more successful, bringing more interest to the hobby, that support comes to MFK, creating a positive feedback loop. Through the economy of scale, fish and equipment will become more widely available and therefore cheaper."

Lol, you will be the savior of our hobby! Sign me up! And let's try to recruit RD. -- he can handle the Nutrition section. And kno4te you can get to work on the Health & Treatment section. thebiggerthebetter -- you just take whatever you want bro. Now as to individual species assignments...

 

[Chicxulub]

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.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

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.

 

[RD.]

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.

 

[Pond Pioneer]

I know that Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod's many books regarding fish & fish keeping are probably considered obsolete ancient history to most, but IMO still very relevant. My point is that the information you wish to publish is already in print. Although there have been vast improvements in fish keeping equipment & XL tank construction, the fundamentals of keeping a fish of any size really hasn't changed.

I could see a possible MFK book of fishkeeping testimonials from those experienced with certain species. There of course would be all kinds of legal issues & contract hoops to jump through. What a potential nightmare.
Who knows, maybe you will be the next Dr. Axelrod.

I didn't know of such a source! I'll look up his books! Thank you