What do the others in your life think of your fish?

[Allivymar]

I'm curious if others here are in the same boat as I.

My hubby professes not to care too much about the fish. That being said, he is more obsessed over their behavior, sneaks them food when I'm not home, and has currently taught my gouramis to nibble his fingers and let him pet them (eeek!). Most recently, 2 of my angels have started some pre-pairing behavior, and I get updates about what they've done during the day when I get home from work LOL

 

[Electrobes]

Well I have a 45 gallon tank with 2 4-5 inch oscars (One a tiger and the other a red), and soon will have a pleco in there. My roomate and fiance both think my babies have been quite beaten by the ugly stick. Myr oomate did get excited that I was going to add a pleco, but thats about it. When they heard I was actively searching for a much bigger tank, a 100+ or so... they got REALLY excited thinking I was going to add more fish... which I actually never considered. When they heard me say that I wasn;t planning on adding more fish.. both frowned and my other friends and parents said that it was retarded to get more tank but no fish (aka they want me to get rid of the oscars and make a community tank).

My oscars are funny.. especially one and the people in my life have seen them do crazy things like Gringo (the red oscar) trying to swollow my pinky after accidently getting it instead of the food stick. Apparently I am a personality fish lover whiel everyone else are scenery fish poeple, if hey were to be fish people at all. Oh well :?

 

[peterp]

Wife likes them just as much, but likes to complain about the high costs of buying all the stuff she finds at the lfs's.

Cat is fascinated by them, and watches the tanks more that the TV.

 

[myriam]

Husband: Thinks they are just "okay." He definitely likes the Platies/Mollies/Catfish much more than the guppies I had 8 yrs ago. Tonight he spent 1/2-hour trying to take pictures of them for my (future) Gallery here, haha! Is also amused (alarmed?!) at the mounting costs of this new hobby of mine I told him my dream was to one day have a 100-gallon tank at the foot of our bed so we could watch that instead of the TV!

4 1/2-yr old: Loves the fish as much as I do, especially when she gets to feed them and they all go crazy at the surface. If I left it up to her she'd be feeding them every hour! She's my big helper when I am moving plants around the tank.

17-month old: Goes too crazy for them, and it scares the fish 8O She goes right up to the tank and sticks her face an inch from the glass, then starts yelling "Na! Na! Na!" The fish all go swimming behind the rocks and stay there till she leaves.

 

[LondonGman]

My wife. Not bothered. She grew up with huge fish tanks which her parents kept for almost 15 years until she and her sister left home. She remembers the cleaning bit and she is staying well clear of it. Her parents are the ones that gave me the old skool advise of "if s*** sticks to there arses its fed too much."

My 7 year old daughter fascination for the tank is shared with her fascination for toy dolly homes, toys, books, computer games and those silly McDonald kiddies toys. Fleeting.

The 8 year old cat (been in family before my daughter) not intrested. I actually bought the tank for the cat (!!) as I thought it would be fun watching the cat trying to get at the fishes thru the glass. LOL

 

[fishfreek]

My wife calls me a freak. hense the name i use here.

But secretly I know she likes them aswell.

 

[Cherry Barb]

Oh, you're gonna love this story guys! My hubby says to me, they're just fish Rose. What can you possibly do with fish? Of course, then he sneaks into the kitchen (where my 20 gal community is) and just stares and stares. So, I got him good a few days ago.

See, I've been sick for over a week and haven't been able to go to my lfs. (I'm usually in there at least once a week) So, on Thursday I was feeling a little better and headed on up to Sandy's. While there I saw these beautiful little cardinal tetras and bought 5 of them. Well, I happened to have overheard my hubby once saying he thought neons were cool. And since these cardinals are twice as cool, I plcaed them in the tank and didn't say anything. I just wanted to let him notice on his own.

He sees them and tried to act like he had no clue! I told him I bought them for him to enjoy. He says yeah, right and tried to act all nonchalant. Of course, then he went and fed them Brine shrimp! And I hear him on the phone tellin his buddy about "his" new fish! Go figure!

 

[Terry]

One minute my wife likes them and then the next she don't, but that is a women for you. Never will understand women hahahahah.

I have had many fish tanks over the years, from 8gal (12x10x10) to 450gal (144x36x24) this is UK-gallons of coarse. At one time i had 14 tanks in my house and the wife was getting a bit cheesed off with it all, so we come to a compromise and now i only have 2 tanks at home but i do have a shop so no complaining on my part.

 

[TankGirl]

My husband appreciates the fish and comments on new behaviors, and asks questions about what I am doing, but he basically thinks of them as a lovely thing to look at, like art, and does not care about the chemistry, compatibility and balance that I am so concerned with. He actually got me my 55-gal tank for my birthday one year, and the next Mother's Day he got me a 12-gal for my desk.

The rest of my family and friends think I am crazy and obsessed, and don't really understand MTS. It was fine when I just had one tank, but when I started getting more and more they thought I was out of my mind, and gave me my nickname!

 

[ostrichkiller]

i got into this after i went to a meeting at my district office and my boss had set up a small 30 gal. i father works there and told me that it is alot more work than i could do and i could never have the fish live longer than a couple weeks. first time he saw my tank was after i had just gotten a light case of ich and he got to see one of the fish dead and kinda said i told you so. well last night he got to see my tank flurishing. he told me he was told from my boss that you should only have 1 fish per 10 gallons of water, and kinda looked cocky that he knew that and i didn't. i told him in my bosses tank that will work because of the fish he has but i have more of a cummunity tank with tetras as pretty much the main fish. and showed him this websight and got to rub it in nicely how much i know (thanks to all of you)

 

[e-cat]

my g/f likes them untill i bring home a long recipt of stuff that i bought then she dislikes the aquarium a lot and my 8 month old daughter really loves watching the fish swim and she has started too say fish now but its more like fiiiiissss

 

[Guest]

My wife likes the big tank (90 gallons) in the living room, but it must be spotless at all times! A little algae on the glass, overgrown plants, and she is on my case. " I let you have this big tank up here you better take care of it!" So she likes it, but has no interest in doing a single thing to maintain it, other than feeding if I go away for a few days.
I catch her watching the fish instead of TV all the time.

My basement tanks, she couldn't care less cuz that's my room and she thinks it's too dirty for her to even step into. (prolly right too!)

Oh yeah, I have occasionally hidden lfs receipts from her, she thinks some of the expenditures are ridiculous.

 

[e-cat]

Oh yeah, I have occasionally hidden lfs receipts from her, she thinks some of the expenditures are ridiculous.

lol, same here, iv even said that just grew out of the live rock i didnt buy it.

 

[TankGirl]

My hubby is pretty understanding and has bought me quite a bit of stuff himself, but the price of Bio-Spira just blows him away! He has to draw the line there!

 

[stresco]

My wife actually called my tank an eyesore once. That was when my tank was first put up and was in the middle cycleing, so i had a bad algea bloom, with Cyano.

Now she acts like she doesnt care about it, but she is quick to point out Aptasia in the tank, and tells me to kill it. I gave her a Squamosa clam last weekend and she loves it. Wont admit it, though. But i know

 

[MACATUA]

My g/f was all excited when I said I was starting a SW tank. Then the reciepts came! I heard her mumbling about I could spent that money I spent on new lights on some jewelery or something . But I think she really likes them, just way deep down. Or at least she acts interested when I bring something new home.

My roomates get sick of my babbling from time to time, but they love to see all the new stuff, and it wuickly became the place we sit and shoot the bull at night.

The new puppy was oblivious to the tank, but the yellow tang was curious to know what the face in the glass was.

 

[Allivymar]

OMG Some of these are TOO funny! The hubby phone call to his buddy about his "new fish" and the "they showed up with the live rock" have me on the floor!

I'm actually kinda surprised at how many folks have friends/family who are almost as obsessed but won't admit it *grin* very telling comment on the human condition IMHO

 

[An t-iasg]

These are all great stories! I would say that my hubby liked my bettas a little. But after one died, I noticed he's paying more attention to the remaining one. My husband leaves for work in the morning about 6:15 am. I'm rarely, if ever, awake at that hour but one time I came downstairs to get a drink and my hubby was talking to the betta. (I talk to him too, but didn't think my hubby did!) Anyway, he said they have their "man-to-man" talks in the morning! My mom loves to feed the betta when we go away, even for a weekend, and on their birthdays (well, what I thought was a good guess of their birthdays!) my dad used some Word clip art and made the bettas a birthday card! So I'd say my family loves my betta as much as I do!

 

[Madame_X]

My husband gets aggravated when I fuss over the tanks too much. He doesn't care for my community tank much but he likes the rams.

I think if we get a bigger tank so he can put some cichlids or predators in it, he'll appreciate the fish a little more. :?

 

[Crow]

LOL! I voted "couldn't care less" but after reading these stories, it clued me into some things. I first got a tank b/c my gf wanted something to entertain the cat while we were away. Since then she says she's "created a monster." But now that I think about it, she'll watch me do maintenance and listen to me talk about the fish's behavior and water quality and whatnot the whole time I'm doing it.

And she never balks at an opportunity to stop by the lfs. She picks out fish and I think she gets frustrated that I won't buy any fish without first researching their needs. She mainly picks out chiclids, and I have a community tank. I told her I'd set her up a chiclid tank awhile ago, but I've been too busy with work and classes to do it. A couple of weeks ago, she picked out a spot for it and asked me when I was going to set it up. I might just be a few hours spare time away from being in the "just as obsessed" category. One thing I know though, is that I'll still be doing the maintenance!