Paul B
NJRC Member
I posted this thread 3 years ago and just found it. I wanted to re-post it because I thought it would be interesting and stir up some conversation:
I don't know everything and I don't want to. For me it is the challenge of the unknown that excites me and the more knowledge I get, the less challenge there is. If we knew how to definately cure ich with say a pill or eliminate hair algae in an hour how boreing would this hobby be.
The same thing happened just before fish keeping began in the 1800s. Women in England would collect ferns. And eventually their fern collections grew to include all of the ferns in Europe and there was nothing left to collect. They had all the knowledge there was to know about ferns, how to keep them, how to identify them etc. There was drawings of all the various varieties and their hobby stagnated as the thrill was gone. Then they started walking around in the shallow tide pools and started to collect marine sea creatures. That is how this hobby started.
But when we know how to cure everything, keep everything and raise everything there will not be any reason to get excited if your bangai cardinal spawns because it will be a normal, almost daily occurance.
When they build powerheads, lights, and skimmers to last forever it will be very boring, for me anyway as I love to experiment with new things.
I am sure that any time now there will be no need to dose as they will most likely make ASW with time release nutrients as they do with pills. Nitrates will most likely be eliminmated with some device like a catylic converter that removes pollutants from car exhausts.
So I think that if we feel we have a problem with something in our tank, we should view that is an exciting, learning experience and not a harbinger of doom as most people view it.
I personally like it when something goes wrong and I can find a way to fix it and discover ways to stop it from happening. I don't just want to view my perfect tank forever just the way it is with no changes and all the same creatures living forever. In my living room there is an 8' painting of an undersea scene. I may as well just stare at that.
People ask me all the time why I don't raise the fish that spawn in my tank. The answer is simple, I already raised a number of them so the thrill is almost gone. The first fish I raised were some blue devils. After the eggs were laid I would sit up all night with a flashlight waiting for the eggs to hatch. Then I would try to count them and feel really sad when I would lose some. I nursed them to adulthood and waited for them to spawn. It was a big thrill and an exciting time in the hobby for me, especially because that was way before the internet was invented so the few people I told about it were amazed. Now of course thousands of fish have been spawned and raised and written about so if it happens in your tank, very few people would even care. The more we do in this hobby or life in general, the less excited we get. It's just life. I still very much love this hobby but now my "goal" has changed. I no longer buy a fish to see how long I can keep it because I know how long (if at all) I can keep most fish. I know which corals I can and can't keep and the ones I want to keep. Many people in this hobby feel the pinnacle of success is a tank full of SPS. I also did, but now my interests have changed. I now go for oddities, unusual creatures we rarely see.
How do you feel about al this?
I don't know everything and I don't want to. For me it is the challenge of the unknown that excites me and the more knowledge I get, the less challenge there is. If we knew how to definately cure ich with say a pill or eliminate hair algae in an hour how boreing would this hobby be.
The same thing happened just before fish keeping began in the 1800s. Women in England would collect ferns. And eventually their fern collections grew to include all of the ferns in Europe and there was nothing left to collect. They had all the knowledge there was to know about ferns, how to keep them, how to identify them etc. There was drawings of all the various varieties and their hobby stagnated as the thrill was gone. Then they started walking around in the shallow tide pools and started to collect marine sea creatures. That is how this hobby started.
But when we know how to cure everything, keep everything and raise everything there will not be any reason to get excited if your bangai cardinal spawns because it will be a normal, almost daily occurance.
When they build powerheads, lights, and skimmers to last forever it will be very boring, for me anyway as I love to experiment with new things.
I am sure that any time now there will be no need to dose as they will most likely make ASW with time release nutrients as they do with pills. Nitrates will most likely be eliminmated with some device like a catylic converter that removes pollutants from car exhausts.
So I think that if we feel we have a problem with something in our tank, we should view that is an exciting, learning experience and not a harbinger of doom as most people view it.
I personally like it when something goes wrong and I can find a way to fix it and discover ways to stop it from happening. I don't just want to view my perfect tank forever just the way it is with no changes and all the same creatures living forever. In my living room there is an 8' painting of an undersea scene. I may as well just stare at that.
People ask me all the time why I don't raise the fish that spawn in my tank. The answer is simple, I already raised a number of them so the thrill is almost gone. The first fish I raised were some blue devils. After the eggs were laid I would sit up all night with a flashlight waiting for the eggs to hatch. Then I would try to count them and feel really sad when I would lose some. I nursed them to adulthood and waited for them to spawn. It was a big thrill and an exciting time in the hobby for me, especially because that was way before the internet was invented so the few people I told about it were amazed. Now of course thousands of fish have been spawned and raised and written about so if it happens in your tank, very few people would even care. The more we do in this hobby or life in general, the less excited we get. It's just life. I still very much love this hobby but now my "goal" has changed. I no longer buy a fish to see how long I can keep it because I know how long (if at all) I can keep most fish. I know which corals I can and can't keep and the ones I want to keep. Many people in this hobby feel the pinnacle of success is a tank full of SPS. I also did, but now my interests have changed. I now go for oddities, unusual creatures we rarely see.
How do you feel about al this?
I accidently found it and figured I would re-post it in case I run out of things to say.