What stage of fish keeping are you?

[WhistlingBadger]

From 11 tanks some years back, now down to three and now moving house and going down to 2 tank.

If one of them is a 5g with a Spongebob theme, you have arrived.

 

[DoubleDutch]

If one of them is a 5g with a Spongebob theme, you have arrived.

Yeah is that THE END ?
Could because last thursday I became granddad of two beautiful newborn granddaughters. Yahooooooooo

 

[Ellie Potts]

Yeah is that THE END ?
Could because last thursday I became granddad of two beautiful newborn granddaughters. Yahooooooooo

Congratulations!!!!

 

[Lainie]

between 9 and 12 lol x

 

[sharkweek178]

I'm not good at keeping journals but it would be interesting to see how thinking evolves over time of being a fishkeeper. Not just the things we learn and how we put them into practice. I used to have an idea that I wanted community tanks with a little of everything. Like grabbing a little of each from a salad bar. Now I like having fewer species but more of each.

 

[Ellie Potts]

I'm not good at keeping journals but it would be interesting to see how thinking evolves over time of being a fishkeeper. Not just the things we learn and how we put them into practice. I used to have an idea that I wanted community tanks with a little of everything. Like grabbing a little of each from a salad bar. Now I like having fewer species but more of each.

It's fascinating! Part of the reason I like this forum-if you stay on it for awhile you can see what you were getting into awhile ago. I mean scroll down to the really old posts and you'll know where the hobby was about that time. Not a perfect method, but better than nothing.
Many people I see joined up before I was born!!

 

[GaryE]

It's a journey, for sure. I've been very into the hobby since I was 8. I don't know why, but it fascinated me. The evolution of our collective interests is as interesting as our individual ones. The hobby moves like a slow tank leak across the floor, taking directions that we might not expect.

There's an excellent local tropical plant place nearby, and that's a new interest of mine. From talking to the staff there, it's a lot like the aquarium hobby, with its fads, flareups of popularity for plant families, swing between large and small., cultivars and natural plants.

Fish watching adds a whole new level to people watching - when you start realizing many people you know behave much like your fish, you're at level 26.

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE That’s what I would like to know. What is it that drew people to this oddball hobby in the first place ? I was in fourth grade , age 9 , and I was enthralled with my guppies I first got. Other kids just didn’t get it. I’ve had lots of hobbies that fizzled out after a little while and I never went back to them but even during times I didn’t have an aquarium I couldn’t pass by one without stopping for a good look. There’s the question for you @Ellie Potts .

 

[WhistlingBadger]

It's a journey, for sure. I've been very into the hobby since I was 8. I don't know why, but it fascinated me. The evolution of our collective interests is as interesting as our individual ones. The hobby moves like a slow tank leak across the floor, taking directions that we might not expect.

There's an excellent local tropical plant place nearby, and that's a new interest of mine. From talking to the staff there, it's a lot like the aquarium hobby, with its fads, flareups of popularity for plant families, swing between large and small., cultivars and natural plants.

Fish watching adds a whole new level to people watching - when you start realizing many people you know behave much like your fish, you're at level 26.

That's funny. I used to describe the denizens of my SE Asia tank in terms of kids I knew in Junior High. The pearl gouramis are the popular kids: Beautiful, envied by all, but stay at the top level and don't really pay attention to anyone else. Pentazona barbs are the nerdy girls: Stay out of sight, don't like attention, but still beautiful if you care enough to look closely. Amano shrimp are the teachers' pets: Always busy, but never really seaming to accomplish much. Red tail shark? That one jock who gets what he wants by simply running over everybody that gets in his way. The dwarf chain loaches are the class clowns. And so on.

 

[GaryE]

@GaryE That’s what I would like to know. What is it that drew people to this oddball hobby in the first place ? I was in fourth grade , age 9 , and I was enthralled with my guppies I first got. Other kids just didn’t get it. I’ve had lots of hobbies that fizzled out after a little while and I never went back to them but even during times I didn’t have an aquarium I couldn’t pass by one without stopping for a good look. There’s the question for you @Ellie Potts .

I've thought about that. I was also fascinated by bugs, and my ambition for a while, around Grade 6, was to be an entomologist and study beetles. Why beetles. Such mysteries, even our own minds. I probably have a secret farming gene buried in my generations of urban people background, and beetles and guppies were as close as I'd ever get to a cow or a horse.

I look at things fish do, and see people around me doing the same things in a human way. Instincts seem to run deep in us, although we try to deny it. Maybe that did it.

 

[Ram419]

I've skipped around on a few of those. Just bought duckweed (waiting on it to arrive). Am I doomed?

 

[GaryE]

Buying duckweed is like shopping for bubonic plague, although the plague is easier to get rid of.

 

[Ellie Potts]

I've skipped around on a few of those. Just bought duckweed (waiting on it to arrive). Am I doomed?

welllllll.... not necessarily, some people love it. But it can come on a litttttttle strong

 

[sharkweek178]

I'm at getting a webcam so I can look in on my tank when I'm not home stage.
It has night vision too, so I can watch them at night.

 

[GaryE]

I'm at getting a webcam so I can look in on my tank when I'm not home stage.
It has night vision too, so I can watch them at night.

The aquatic surveillance state has arrived. Level 30, I would guess. I've always thought loaches, with those moustaches, have a 70s secret policeman vibe to them.