Aquariums

[Dannyalcatraz]

Aquariums of various kinds are my favorite parts of zoos, and I like the freestanding attractions and the tanks that show up in some stores, restaurants, and office spaces.

I grew up with tropical freshwater setups in the homes of my grandparents on both sides, plus our own. When he went into private practice, Dad added one to his office. The office tank was the pinnacle of our time in the hobby. Not only did we have beautiful fish of many species, we even had a nice array of live plants.

But after many decades in the hobby, for a variety of reasons, we no longer have one. Kinda miss it though, and I often check out the tanks in the pet stores when I’m shopping for my dogs. And I’ve checked out some of the high-end builds on Youtube,

Anyone else here into keeping fish & other aquatic life forms?

 

[Aeson]

I've thought about it. I don't know if I want to deal with the upkeep.

 

[prabe]

Heh. My wife has a smallish (20-gal) tank with roughly twenty fish--mostly smalls because she likes the visuals of the schools--and some live plants. I've been ... recruited as a maintenance assistant.

 

[Umbran]

Back in grad school, one of my roommates came by a rather large aquarium that he put in our apartment. Our other roommate was allergic to things with fur, so he thought the aquarium was a good idea.

Of course, when he moved out, he left it behind, so I inherited it. Which meant I was keeping fish until they all died off naturally... and one, Schwa the Lichfish, carried on for several years. He's the only pet fish I know of that has stories about him...

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I loved large-scale aquariums. Very peaceful. Hopefully all the animals are being taken care of now, even in the absence of paying customers, like it was in Before Times.

I always thought one of the best setups was at places like the Boston Aquarium. View the aquarium, get up some hunger, and go to Legal Seafoods just outside. It was both so wrong, and so right.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The one at my Dad’s office was 90 gallons. We had it for a decade+ before he moved into a building with a clause which prohibited it. He sold the setup instead of bringing it home.

And by that time, we had gotten rid of the house setup becaythe new house we were in didn’t have a good space for one that didn’t also clash with Mom’s interior decorating goals.

So no more fish pets.

 

[Eltab]

My childhood doctor had an aquarium in the waiting room.
It gave the kids something to pay attention to, other than thinking about getting a shot.

 

[Istbor]

I like fish. They are cool. And really passive pets.
The upkeep on tanks especially if you want a big fancy one for equally big, fancy fish though is rough.

We used to have on in our house and it was always unfun to clean. And you have to keep that regimented or the fish can come down with a variety of ailments. I have seen Ick and fin rot.

For now... well sorta... I just watch fish at the zoo or one of my favorite bars. Once they open again that is.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We used to do most of our disease control proactively by buying from sellers who knew what they were doing. One place we frequented usually did a good job of quarantining & treating his stock before sale. The only thing we KNOW that got past his measures was some kind of tiny, brownish soft-bodied invertebrate that roamed our tank for a month or so. Never saw it attack any fish, though, and after a while, it disappeared. (Probably someone’s dinner.)

We did have the odd ick problem, but the copper solutions* usually took care of that pretty quickly.


* as I recall- it’s been a while

 

[prabe]

I might have sounded as though I resent helping my wife maintain her aquarium. I really don't mind helping her move water around once a week, and the fish are aesthetically pleasing. Not something I would have chosen for myself, but nothing I'd seriously complain about, either.