For a long time I've wanted a fish room, and when I moved last August I rented an apartment with an extra room so I could finally set one up. Now I find that it's full and tanks are back in all the other rooms too. It seems that the more space I have to put them in, the more fish and tanks I want. )
I find that keeping fish, despite all the expense, work, and sometimes heartbreak, is a strangely addictive hobby. It's relaxing to me in a way nothing else is. There is music in the sound of water flowing from the filters and watching a school of fish swimming in unison is like watching a well choreographed ballet.
It makes me feel great to look at my tanks and see a perfectly tuned environment, full of healthy fish, even though I can't claim much success with keeping plants in them for any length of time. And when it comes to watching a batch of fry grow from eggs to adults, there is just no words to express my pride. I'm like a doting grandma, just wanting to spoil them with treats.
How does keeping fish make you feel? Does it fill some place in your life that would be empty without them? Or are they something you view in a more distant way? If you never kept fish before, and knowing what you know about the hobby now, would you start?
I find that keeping fish, despite all the expense, work, and sometimes heartbreak, is a strangely addictive hobby. It's relaxing to me in a way nothing else is. There is music in the sound of water flowing from the filters and watching a school of fish swimming in unison is like watching a well choreographed ballet.
It makes me feel great to look at my tanks and see a perfectly tuned environment, full of healthy fish, even though I can't claim much success with keeping plants in them for any length of time. And when it comes to watching a batch of fry grow from eggs to adults, there is just no words to express my pride. I'm like a doting grandma, just wanting to spoil them with treats.
How does keeping fish make you feel? Does it fill some place in your life that would be empty without them? Or are they something you view in a more distant way? If you never kept fish before, and knowing what you know about the hobby now, would you start?