Have you ever had dreams or nightmares about fish tanks?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I had a dream that all the little snails I'm raising climbed out, and we were having a party and they were at risk of getting trampled by people.  I was racing around trying to save them all and put them back in the tank.

Also I have had a dream where fish were swimming up above the tank in the air, slowly, gracefully, business as usual. 

And also I have had dreams where I've kept multiple tanks in basements and stuff and then forgot about them, and when I returned to them, the water quality was so poor that fish were laying on the bottom gasping and stuff.  And as hard as I tried, I couldn't recall the last time I even fed them or looked in the tank. Those dreams are awful!  (I don't even have a basement anymore, but I did when I lived up north)

What dreams have you had about the aquarium hobby?

@Katherine ,  & I were discussing this and found we have some common dreams, so I decided to create a thread.

@Guppysnail

Edited August 3, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[PotatoFish]

I once had a nightmare that the fish tank (17gal) broke and flooded the livingroom.

Now, with hundreds of gallons of water in the livingroom, I had to figure a way to get enough food to the fish because they might not be able to find the food I dropped...and oh. my. God...what the heck would I do about filtration and algae management?!?!

First thing I did when I woke up was check EVERYTHING in, on, and around the tank.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2022 at 9:53 AM, PotatoFish said:

I once had a nightmare that the fish tank (17gal) broke and flooded the livingroom.

Now, with hundreds of gallons of water in the livingroom, I had to figure a way to get enough food to the fish because they might not be able to find the food I dropped...and oh. my. God...what the heck would I do about filtration and algae management?!?!

First thing I did when I woke up was check EVERYTHING in, on, and around the tank.

LOL.  The 17gal broke and resulted in "hundreds" of gallons. 😂

[TheSwissAquarist]

Kind of a weird question, but I'll play the game.

I once dreamt that I was a fish (maybe a brine shrimp?) and that I was being attacked by shrimpzilla. While I was being eaten I was trying to count its legs.

[billango]

I had a dream my normans lampeye killis had a baby with a golden eye instead of the typical blue and I was excited to breed that guy. I've since found out theres a lampeye with an orange eye which is similar to my dream and hope I can someday get some.  

[nabokovfan87]

Yes. These worms really made me unable to sleep for a little bit. LOL.

When the tank has issues, or when I know things need work it's hard for me to sleep.  Not that I'm "worrying" but I've always had the mindset of get up, get it done, get the fish happy.  When that isn't possible and you're forced to wait and resolve the issues.... that's when you have worm dreams.

[Hannah Parker]

This question is such good timing lol, I just had one last night. Does anyone else ever have crazy detailed and real-feeling dreams that you can't wake up from because you think it's actually happening?? Every once and a while I do and get trapped in them 🤣

Last night (really this morning since I was semi-conscious) I dreamed about watching my two fish tanks, and then for some reason they were suddenly combined (small tropical community with a betta fish and big fancy goldfish suddenly in the same tank, not good!!!) Then all of sudden this huge pink fish materialized in the back of the tank and mauled my poor betta 😭 The huge fish looked like something from the ocean, like a flowerhorn mixed with a pacu. But my betta was still alive see, so I was going to put him in another tank. Apparently in my dream I had a fish room with beautiful planted tanks. I should've figured out it was a dream at this point LOL. So I was looking for a suitable tank to move him in, but all these tanks had super weird stocking. One had so many inch-long golden dojo loach babies that they covered the entire substrate. Another was a perfectly stocked tropical community, but already had another male betta occupying it. Another one had some sort of big, injured cichlid in it. So I didn't know where to put my poor betta. And then I noticed another tank with a turtle in the bottom of it, and a parakeet in the top part. And I was like "wtf is this". And then I started looking around the room and there were more cages with other kinds of animals in them, like cats and dogs. One was a chubby, old Yorkie. I took him out of his cage with the intention of doing something, but never figured out what it was once I got to the backyard. Things quickly got out of hand and spiraled into more of a nightmare, with a barbeque turning into an explosion turning into an apocalypse and being separated from my fiancé!!! 💔😥

Dream are wild lol

[AnotherHumanPerson]

Last night I had a dream that 4 strange fish were in my 29 gal. In the context of the dream I did not put them there nor did I know who put them there. They had the body shape of a tiger barb with an entirely deep orangey-red body, and they were 3-4 inches long. Guess I found my new dream fish lol.

[Bev C]

 I got to admit have not had any, dreams  but I have  lost sleep worrying over a injury fish this past 2-3 weeks I felt like  bad fish Mom not knowing what to do 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Bev C

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2022 at 2:52 PM, Bev C said:

 I got to admit have not had any, dreams  but I have  lost sleep worrying over a injury fish this past 2-3 weeks I felt like  bad fish Mom not knowing what to do 

Have you started a thread on this?  I'm sure you could get help with ideas for how to treat your fish.

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/3/2022 at 11:39 AM, Hannah Parker said:

This question is such good timing lol, I just had one last night. Does anyone else ever have crazy detailed and real-feeling dreams that you can't wake up from because you think it's actually happening?? Every once and a while I do and get trapped in them 🤣

This is a certain type of dream, but also can be categorized under a specific instance.  Think of the matrix, also.  There is a movie called waking life, might be worth checking out.  It's about the topic of exploring dreams and lucid dreaming as a conversation philosophically.  Dreams as reality and dreams as being able to be controlled.

On 8/3/2022 at 12:06 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Have you started a thread on this?  I'm sure you could get help with ideas for how to treat your fish.

Yes, she did.  We tried to help, there was some slight improvement, but pretty bad internal damage to the fish 😞
 

[CorydorasEthan]

I've had dreams where I "discover" more tanks in my room, like I'll look behind the window curtain and there's one. Turns out the tank was neglected yet all the fish survived, so I tried to find ways that I could combine them all into a big tank haha.

[Bev C]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea thank you I appreciate it,  yes I started a thread thinking my bristolnose was sick, and everyone on the thread including @nabokovfan87tried their best to help, but he was  hurt  and would not get better  I decided to put him to sleep .. It was hard to let Marvin my bristolnose go, but it is for the best 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2022 at 3:34 PM, Bev C said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea thank you I appreciate it,  yes I started a thread thinking my bristolnose was sick, and everyone on the thread including @nabokovfan87tried their best to help, but he was  hurt  and would not get better  I decided to put him to sleep .. It was hard to let Marvin my bristolnose go, but it is for the best 

Aw, I'm sorry you lost your friend, Bev. Those decisions are never easy. 🐟

Edited August 3, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Flumpweesel]

I had a dream were a African dwarf frog was sat in the tank eating all my fish and getting stupidly fat . Like something from a studio Ghibli film. 

Can't even look at ADFs in the shop now without getting heebie-jeebies.

[Tanked]

On 8/3/2022 at 10:28 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I once dreamt that I was a fish (maybe a brine shrimp?) and that I was being attacked by shrimpzilla. While I was being eaten I was trying to count its legs.

My kind of dream.  It's good to have priorities in an emergency.

[Guppysnail]

I have dreams of finding rooms of tanks or moving into houses with tons of hidden tanks. The fish multiply and grow so big they burst the seams but are starved from neglect and become predatory to me. So I have to rush about trying to find tons of food while being chased about by hungry angry fish. Reminds my of my friends ginormous murderous Oscar. 🤣 Never fails there is always a huge alligator in at least one that has escaped. I even had one dream where one of the tanks had baby hippopotamus the size of apples in it. 
 

I chalk this up to watching animal planet documentaries before bed 🤣

Edited August 4, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

On 8/3/2022 at 2:39 PM, Hannah Parker said:

This question is such good timing lol, I just had one last night. Does anyone else ever have crazy detailed and real-feeling dreams that you can't wake up from because you think it's actually happening?? Every once and a while I do and get trapped in them 🤣

Last night (really this morning since I was semi-conscious) I dreamed about watching my two fish tanks, and then for some reason they were suddenly combined (small tropical community with a betta fish and big fancy goldfish suddenly in the same tank, not good!!!) Then all of sudden this huge pink fish materialized in the back of the tank and mauled my poor betta 😭 The huge fish looked like something from the ocean, like a flowerhorn mixed with a pacu. But my betta was still alive see, so I was going to put him in another tank. Apparently in my dream I had a fish room with beautiful planted tanks. I should've figured out it was a dream at this point LOL. So I was looking for a suitable tank to move him in, but all these tanks had super weird stocking. One had so many inch-long golden dojo loach babies that they covered the entire substrate. Another was a perfectly stocked tropical community, but already had another male betta occupying it. Another one had some sort of big, injured cichlid in it. So I didn't know where to put my poor betta. And then I noticed another tank with a turtle in the bottom of it, and a parakeet in the top part. And I was like "wtf is this". And then I started looking around the room and there were more cages with other kinds of animals in them, like cats and dogs. One was a chubby, old Yorkie. I took him out of his cage with the intention of doing something, but never figured out what it was once I got to the backyard. Things quickly got out of hand and spiraled into more of a nightmare, with a barbeque turning into an explosion turning into an apocalypse and being separated from my fiancé!!! 💔😥

Dream are wild lol

I hate these types of nonsensical real feel dreams that are all over the place. It always takes an extra cup of morning coffee to shake the bizzare feelings that hang about afterwards. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I came up with my rack systems and the dog pool pond in dreams first. I keep a notepad next to the bed and write whatever i remember down on wakeup. The projects  then develop from there 

[Nate710]

All the time lol

[Goldie Blue]

ALL.THE.TIME!  Actually last night I had a nightmare, totally thought it was real. I have these disgusting rhabdocoela worms in my newest tank, and I dreamt they were all over my pillows, but the dream felt real like I was awake. In my own bed and all. Yeeeesh. 🤢

I also have dreams my fish (especially Goldie Blue) have died quite frequently. Mainly because I have had so much illness with him. But I have also had dreams where I wake up to a fully stocked, beautifully planted aquarium that was somehow mine. I guess that is my subconsciousness projecting my goals lol.  

[Wrencher_Scott]

All the time. Just last night I had one where I decided to drill a hole for a sump and for some reason I did it on the bottom on the tank and it was full of fish!!

I have lots of "stress dreams" I think they call them. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/4/2022 at 3:23 PM, Goldie Blue said:

ALL.THE.TIME!  Actually last night I had a nightmare, totally thought it was real. I have these disgusting rhabdocoela worms in my newest tank, and I dreamt they were all over my pillows, but the dream felt real like I was awake. In my own bed and all. Yeeeesh. 🤢

 

Don't tell @nabokovfan87 that!  LOL

 

On 8/3/2022 at 2:03 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yes. These worms really made me unable to sleep for a little bit. LOL.

When the tank has issues, or when I know things need work it's hard for me to sleep.  Not that I'm "worrying" but I've always had the mindset of get up, get it done, get the fish happy.  When that isn't possible and you're forced to wait and resolve the issues.... that's when you have worm dreams.

 

On 8/5/2022 at 12:57 AM, Wrencher_Scott said:

I have lots of "stress dreams" I think they call them. 

Yeah, I think the the stress dreams are when you are trying to solve a problem, but you can't ever seem to do it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

So the one last night was fun.  It was about forum members and journals.  Every person on the forum had a breeder box in their tank, but inside these breeder boxes was air, not water, and no fish or critters.  Whatever journal I was reading last before I went to bed, I was teleported into that person's fish tank, but I was miniature (like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), and transported into the breeder box where the fish were swimming around me.  The same thing happened to other forum members.  Whatever journal they were reading last before going to sleep, they teleported into that tank.  I ended up in @TeeJay's cory tank, and the cories were swimming around the breeder box and I could see all of their cute whiskers. 

[TeeJay]

On 8/25/2022 at 8:14 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

So the one last night was fun.  It was about forum members and journals.  Every person on the forum had a breeder box in their tank, but inside these breeder boxes was air, not water, and no fish or critters.  Whatever journal I was reading last before I went to bed, I was teleported into that person's fish tank, but I was miniature (like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids), and transported into the breeder box where the fish were swimming around me.  The same thing happened to other forum members.  Whatever journal they were reading last before going to sleep, they teleported into that tank.  I ended up in @TeeJay's cory tank, and the cories were swimming around the breeder box and I could see all of their cute whiskers. 

I don't believe I have had a dream about my tanks. At least not that I can remember. Now I have woken up many times worrying about the snail clutch or waking up thinking one of my tanks hand cracked and was leaking. Jumping up and running to them and inspecting with a flashlight. But if I could be shrunk and put into one of my tanks I would want to start with the shrimpy sanctuary to see what they do when no one can see them. Probably having poker games I suspect 🤣