What is it about this hobby?

[techman81]

Since taking up this hobby just over a year ago (not including the year of research and learning) I find that, more than any other hobby I've had, it has sucked me in and become the central focus of my free time. I spent years home brewing but that hobby never consumed me like this. I was into rock collecting and polishing but that lasted only a few years. I've been an avid golfer all my adult life, but I never spent so much time thinking about that as I do this. My other big hobby has always been camping, and while that has been a true love, I've spent less and less time doing it the last few years, and now with the aquariums and all the side projects that go with them, I see myself wanting to take long camping trips diminishing even more. I wonder, if I'd taken up this hobby a few decades earlier, if I would have saved the money spent on those other hobbies, or just spent all on this instead.

It was 75 degrees in KC today . I pulled my tiny teardrop camper out of the garage to wash it. I'm prepping it to go up for sale soon. I'd always planned to get a slightly bigger camper when I sold this, but now, I have no plans to buy another. I do plan to travel when I retire, but that will be the occasional trips outside the U.S. and hopefully by then, I'll have someone trained to take care of the aquariums while I'm away. My friend mentioned the other day, I'm like a farmer now, I can never go anywhere because I have crops to take care of.

 

[Gwad]

I've had a similar experience with this hobby becoming the central focus of most my free time and attention. I think it's partially because it covers so many different things: crafting, science/learning, nature, visual arts, tech, gear hoarding, etc. It's like an all-in-one hobby I can spend a stupid amount of time online reading about it, and I think many of the folks here are in the same boat.

 

[VJM]

For me, it’s creativity + science + escapism. We dream up this little, beautiful worlds and then we have to learn how to bring them into reality and maintain them. There is so much to know that you never reach the end, and you are evolving and growing as an artist/gardener/fish keeper as you go. It’s never perfect, it’s always changing, so you have to embrace that and respond.

 

[techman81]

Oh, I guess there's also the pet aspect of it. While fish may not bond with us the way dogs and cats do, it's still feels good to see how excited they get at feeding time.

 

[Art]

I think is has to do with the call of nature in all of us. This hobby is an outlet for that.

Note, I don't mean "nature calls". I mean the instinctual longing for nature and how it makes us feel.

 

[techman81]

I think is has to do with the call of nature in all of us. This hobby is an outlet for that.

Note, I don't mean "nature calls". I mean the instinctual longing for nature and how it makes us feel.

hence, my love of camping as well.

 

[JacksonL]

I think is has to do with the call of nature in all of us. This hobby is an outlet for that.

Note, I don't mean "nature calls". I mean the instinctual longing for nature and how it makes us feel.

Very much this!
The same reason our house is full of indoor plants, paintings and photos of the ocean, forest and animals.
Me and my partner love animals and being in nature, it is only natural that the fish tanks become a focus of the house, as they combine all of this. Planted tanks give us an inside garden project, pets and a nature window to look at.
My partner isn’t interested in the hobby side, but absolutely loves the tanks. I love the science, creativity, problem solving and learning that comes from keeping them.

 

[Koan]

an inside garden project, pets and a nature window

With nothing in it that can kill you..

 

[Aquajack]

Agree with all 100%. One of the things so interesting about this hobby is it uses all different parts of our brain. We are basically fusing the technical side with the artistic side of the brain. Not something you'll often see. Most would find one or the other challenging. So working both at once, it forces us to look at the hobby from a different perspective.

Also, there are so many different facets of the hobby as some have mentioned, the technical side along with all the gear, we all love that haha, the nature side, the animals of course, the DIY side and the never ending challenge of putting it all together......then thinking the next day how you need to change it of course!

Then there is the wonderful community aspect exactly like we have here full of passionate people that all share our hobby.

Finally, and maybe I like this aspect as much as anything else, is the diversity of the hobby and the fact there are numerous ways to achieve what you want. There is no one way or the other and we all accept that which is great.

 

[Aquajack]

With nothing in it that can kill you..

What do you mean we only have friendly cuddly creatures like koalas. Oh hang on even those would rip you apart if they had the chance

 

[Koan]

only have friendly cuddly creatures like koalas

Hey I've been peed on by a koala, not something you forget

 

[JacksonL]

With nothing in it that can kill you..

Being Australian, I came to terms with the 1000 things in my vicinity that can kill me at any moment in time!

 

[techman81]

With nothing in it that can kill you..

As long as you don't have a freshwater stonefish in your tank.

 

[techman81]

Ha! This just came across my FB feed.
Dad's Inspection

 

[Fishstery]

Aquatic critters have always piqed my interest, even as a kid. I spent the majority of my childhood and teen years growing up in the more remote areas of the Pennsylvania mountains, naturally there wasn't much to do but spend all day out in the woods. We lived in a community built around a man-made lake, oddly very common around the Pocono Mountains. There was so much aquatic wildlife around the lake, various ponds, streams, and waterways. I'd go out in the morning with a bucket, net, and wader boots my mom got me, and I'd spend all day catching different critters. Spring peeper season was my favorite. The waterways would be filled with millions of tiny black tadpoles, which would emerge as millions of tiny frogs, smaller than my pinky nail.

I didn't take up the aquarium hobby until I was 19. My ex boyfriend refused to let me ever get a fish tank, so when I dumped him, moved out, and started living solo, my current boyfriend bought me a betta fish one Christmas, and that was the beginning of the end. It spiraled very quickly.

It's really no surprise that I'm obsessed with my tanks, both fish and amphibian. My parents were very lax with animals, and I grew up with a zoo in my home. I've never lived a day of my life without some kind of pet.

Now that I have my own kiddo who is also very nature-driven, you can pretty much find him and I wading down the local creeks with nets and buckets from spring to fall. He also always wants to help me with water change day.

There's just something so magical about aquatic animals, getting to take a piece of that and keep it in my home just adds to the whimsy. That being said, I find this hobby equally as frustrating and mentally draining as I do rewarding.