Does your tank give you hours of pleasure?

[Daniel]

I recently changed over my big aquarium. I sold the fish to my LFS and I am starting again.

Why? Because it was not the tank I would sit down in front of with my cup and coffee and just watch for 1/2 an hour. 

My wife was highly skeptical. 'That's the best aquarium we have ever had. Nothing ever goes wrong. It is easy to take care of. What possible benefit of can come of getting rid of the angelfish? I like those fish!' And she was right on every count.        

I like(d) them too. Back when the parents were spawning and then growing the babies, there was excitement and even a little risk everyday. But after 4 years the tank had settled in to a happy monotony. Breeding wouldn't happen again as there were too many adult angels for a territory to be defended. It wasn't bad, but it was one big school of angels, almost like a school of tetras, very pretty to watch and very predictable.

I need a challenge, I want a project, I want some risk.

So now there are 11 discus in the big aquarium. The tank is new to them. I feel their apprehension as they are exploring the nooks and crannies of the driftwood. Each day they venture a little further and with more confidence. The biggest fish is the leader of the pack and initiates foraging runs and also serves as chief look out.

Now the old excitement is back. That's the tank I want to be watching now because now that tank gives me hours of pleasure again.

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Daniel

[Cory]

I definitely run into this. I’m a firm believer that if you’re tank doesn’t interest you, sell the fish and get something that does. 
 

this is why the 800g goes through changes. So that I can experiment. I love tacos, but if I eat them every day after a few days I need a change. Doesn’t mean tacos are any less good, only that I need variety. 

[Ben Ochart]

Daniel, Will you be getting any tank mates for those discus, like Rams?  I had a similar experience with a twist.  I went from Discus to African Cichlids.  Wife loved the discus.  She thinks the ACs are too ornery.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Ben Ochart

[Daniel]

2 hours ago, Ben Ochart said:

Daniel, Will you be getting any tank mates for those discus, like Rams?  I had a similar experience with a twist.  I went from Discus to African Cichlids.  Wife loved the discus.  She thinks the ACs are too ornery.

Not sure about other tank mates, it sure makes it easy just to keep 1 species in a tank. But I am sucker for Corydoras and Apistos. I can see little breeding colonies of each. But once something goes in your pretty much not getting it back out without draining the tank.

Now that the discus are in the tank, she is warming up to them. Her gripe about discus is discus politics. The pecking order is just like chickens and sometimes the least discus gets crap from everyone else, but has no one to pass it on to. She always feels sorry for that fish. In this group so far (and I think this is because they are still very young) it is still all pretty egalitarian.

In theory I should want some rams, but I am at complete loss to explain my disinterest. Right now this is like the early stage of a budding romance. I think about discus. I walk over and look at the discus. I think about what a wild discus might be doing in the rainy season. Are they swimming amongst the flooded forest. Is that why they lay eggs on verticals, because that is a substitute for a tree trunk? I think they eat a lot of detritus and small fruits and berries in the wild, why don't mine do that? What did the discus habitat look like that @Cory and @Dean’s Fishroom saw on their last trip to Peru?

Okay, don't laugh, promise not to laugh. I sneak around the corner and watch them with high-end birding binoculars from 12 feet away so as not disturb them. When I am too close, they make eye contact and just watch me. Right now they float around the driftwood like birds, pecking on everything to see what it is, learning the new layout.

This is what is really bothering my wife, she's seen it before, she knows that I have a diagnosis of stage II discus fever. She wishes I was thinking about our beekeeping business (and I do some). But she knows I will go deeper down the rabbit hole before coming out the other side.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Daniel
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[Ryo Watanabe]

This is so cool! I love how you’ve got the tank in the middle of the room. Some Corydoras and Apistos would really add to your tank and give it a more natural, biotope feel in my opinion. 

[Nataku]

Yes I love watching my tanks! 

Our living room has a large TV in the middle, but four feet from each side of the TV is a fish tank. The husband likes to watch shows or play video games, but me? I'm sitting next to him on the couch watching the fish tanks. I don't care what's on the screen. I don't  know when the last time I really cared about what was on the TV. He's not a TV addict either, I see him regularly watching the tanks too.

It took him some years, but eventually he asked me to set up a tank in his office too so he could have one to look at while he's at work. I take care of it but he has chosen all the stocking. I'm so proud, he's been converted to an aquarist too! I know, its a silly thing to be proud of. But I am.

I have positioned tanks strategically around the house so that any place I am regularly sitting or standing I am able to watch a fish tank. So the dining room? Tank. Living room? Two tanks. Bedroom? Tank. Library/study room? Two tanks. Really the only place I don't have a tank is bathrooms or the kitchen. But I can see the living room tanks from the kitchen. I just love having my eyes on a tank if I don't have to be visually focused on something else. 

[StephenP2003]

37 minutes ago, Nataku said:

I have positioned tanks strategically around the house so that any place I am regularly sitting or standing I am able to watch a fish tank.

This is exactly my approach. Bedroom, living room, dining room, and one each in my two kids' rooms. I bounce from hobby to hobby, so I keep the aquarium hobby integral to daily life. If I had a "fish room," it would need to fit one of two extremes: Either very hands-on requiring lots of attention, or self-sufficient enough to withstand long, inconsistent periods of neglect. 

[Fishoutawater]

i have come in and out of the hobby a few times in the last 20 years and its usually the same thing i just lose interest in what ive got.i got back into to it 2 years ago now with an oscar who i put in a fully planted tank full of neons that was running at least 3 years happily and easily but i was over it. thats one tank i can watch for hours having a jade perch, oscar and tandanus catfish that all interact with each other and more importantly me.thats the tank im allowed in the house so can sit and talk to them for hours sometimes(the oscar has me convinced it understands). my other tanks are in the garage and while i enjoy them its not to the same extent in general although my betta tanks keep me entertained with their varied personalities.