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Is this mainly a guy hobby?


CalmedByFish
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No, there are plenty of women in the hobby and I'm proud to say that I personally know women in FL who are successful breeders of Betta's, Angelfish, and Discus. I dated the Discus breeder for three years and I helped the Betta breeder get set up and running.😊

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I just had to go back and confirm that I actually am the person who started this post. I was thinking I didn't start anything particularly deep, and it's true. I didn't. 😜 You guys just took it and ran with it, and you're pretty awesome for that! ❤️ 

Reading your responses has been really interesting. Kudos to the deep thinkers.

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On 8/21/2021 at 9:38 PM, CalmedByFish said:

I just had to go back and confirm that I actually am the person who started this post. I was thinking I didn't start anything particularly deep, and it's true. I didn't. 😜 You guys just took it and ran with it, and you're pretty awesome for that! ❤️ 

Reading your responses has been really interesting. Kudos to the deep thinkers.

Agreed!  Very interesting to hear such varying opinions and experiences.

it would not really matter to me what the demographic was on a panel as long as participants were knowledgable, kind, and courteous.  But I also see the value in reaching for diversity to show potentially marginalized groups that diversity is valued and anyone is welcome.

Thanks to the moderators for allowing frank, intelligent, and polite discussion. 

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One thing I've really appreciated about this hobby is it is very diverse.  People who would otherwise be in totally different circles would get along on just this one hobby.  

When it comes to the male/female breakdown, my personal observation is it is fairly even.  Even the Multiple Tank syndrome doesn't discriminate. 

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On 8/21/2021 at 11:23 PM, Gideyon said:

Even the Multiple Tank syndrome doesn't discriminate.

This seems very true! 😄

I also want to highlight something @KentFishFanUK mentioned—that the internet lets us interact anonymously without the automatic assumptions that might come along with race, gender, etc. That anonymity is a double-edged sword of course, but here on this forum where the mods do a great job protecting the community, I think it’s largely good because it lets us make first impressions based on our fishkeeping alone (and potentially our meme-making skills and emoji usage 😜).

Now I know that if I ever go to a fish event and find myself to be the only female, I don’t have to wonder if I’ll fit in or if I’ll be accepted. I can enter that space with confidence because a subset of nerms has already accepted me as one of them!

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I'm a 30 something female with a husband who thinks I'm in a Aquarium based cult online 😂.  It's hard to talk about fish things with someone who's eyes glaze over at the start.  The people who have aquariums that I know are about equal men and women.  I wonder if the types of fish are more gender based though.  Ive noticed more of my guy aquarium friends keep Oscars and chiclids and the women tend to keep guppies, goldfish and platies.  

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On 8/21/2021 at 7:41 AM, Pizzafan said:

I think it’s also a hobby that draws people who experienced it as kids… I know it did for me. Had fish when I was ten that I of course overstocked and gave ich regularly. Got back into it last year in my 30s wanting to do it right! My wife never had that experience so doesn’t quite get it (but I will say, is more tolerant than I’d expect!)

 I think that most gardeners have experienced long dormant seeds sprouting years later.  The family album indicates that I began gardening at age 5 and haven't stopped. 

I had the goldfish bowl as a small child, the 10 gallon aquarium as a teen, and now, MTS as an adult.    Fish keeping allows us to visit a world that most of us can never experience, without a snorkel.

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I googled it, and the top website results are reporting that YouTube's audience is about 56% male and 44% female. On my channel, my audience is about 75% male and 25% female. According to some of the other FishTubers that I've talked to, their male viewership is even higher.

Anecdotally, I think men and women both enjoy the art and nature aspects of the hobby, but maybe the science and technical parts of the hobby are what attract even more males. As a little girl, I preferred mammals and birds as pets because they are cute, fuzzy, and can be handled. As an adult woman, I shifted over to liking nano fish because (a) they're tiny and beautiful living creatures, (b) I love having a slice of nature in my home, and (c) I don't need to touch them because I've got cute kids and a fuzzy husband to hug.

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I believe it to be an equal spread. When you look at data, you also need to look at what would be weighting the data. For instance on youtube, there are "less" female aquarium viewers, because the algorithm is skewed by advertising and other interests.  A very basic example is, an advertiser for a baby related product will target females. If 20% of that audience clicks on that ad, it shows intent to youtube and now their feed will be more baby based. The algorithm then pairs finds like users, and shows them the same content. So someone who doesn't have a baby, but both watch cute animals videos, will both get served some aquarium videos.  Now expand this over thousands of categories of advertising.

 

In the retail store it totally seems 50/50. Every personality type, income level, race etc. A lot less outside influence on whether you'll go to an aquarium store as a person vs an online view.

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On 8/23/2021 at 6:34 PM, Cory said:

I believe it to be an equal spread. When you look at data, you also need to look at what would be weighting the data. For instance on youtube, there are "less" female aquarium viewers, because the algorithm is skewed by advertising and other interests.  A very basic example is, an advertiser for a baby related product will target females. If 20% of that audience clicks on that ad, it shows intent to youtube and now their feed will be more baby based. The algorithm then pairs finds like users, and shows them the same content. So someone who doesn't have a baby, but both watch cute animals videos, will both get served some aquarium videos.  Now expand this over thousands of categories of advertising.

 

In the retail store it totally seems 50/50. Every personality type, income level, race etc. A lot less outside influence on whether you'll go to an aquarium store as a person vs an online view.

Interesting - and almost scary how much we are, maybe not manipulated as such but how much we are led a certain direction so to speak in what we end up seeing on YouTube and everywhere else online with the intention of getting us to click ads etc. 

Just think how many of us perhaps wouldn't be 'suffering' with multiple tank syndrome if we hadn't stumbled upon the co-op YouTube channel this way haha. 

Edited by KentFishFanUK
Missed a word
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On 6/2/2021 at 7:11 PM, LaurieinIA said:

This might be easier to answer via a poll?  Not sure how to set that up though...

 

On 6/2/2021 at 10:53 PM, CalmedByFish said:

I actually was about to set one up, but knew I needed at least three categories, and honestly couldn't think of the right way to do that.

You actually don’t have to do 3 separate category’s. (Sorry about a second post. Didn’t see yours until now 😅)

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