Ian086
Aquarium Advice Addict
Has anyone thought of what the future of this hobby holds. What will it be like. I was just speaking with Sk3lly and I told him what I thought the future may hold for our hobby. Here's what I think, add your thoughts too please....
I think the way the planet is going, the stock in it will become next to impossible to acquire or afford. Only the super rich will have actual tanks. The rest of use will have digital/virtual tanks. May sound crazy to us(late twenties) but with the way technology is going, it may catch on or become necessary because of stock availability/cost. Think about it, no feeding, no cleaning, no water changing, no illnesses/diseases, generally no maintenance, just change the chip and you can go from freshwater to planted to saltwater in seconds. You could have ANY fish/critter/plant/coral available today or maybe extinct. Will we see this in our lifetimes, I think so, maybe even just the start of it but I think we will. Sure we will always have aquarists who have actual tanks but think how much the hobby has changed in the last 20-40yrs. I'm sure many members here can remember(or maybe not) the 'old days' when you had to read up(limited) books or know someone who kept fish to get advice from. We can still do those things now of course but we can also sit on our backsides and let google do the searching for us. The internet has been the biggest thing to hit this industry....ever and maybe always will be, even in a different way in the future. These things like all our technology advances doesn't happen over night and is so gradual that it happens with us really knowing it's happening. Does anyone remember the first canister filter and when it came out or when LEDs first hit the hobby.
I'm not saying this will ever happen and is probably unimaginable to most of us. I know people will reply(if anyone does!!)...."I love my fish and looking after them. The feeling of water, feeding them, cleaning the tank, planting etc etc" but we may have no choice/say in it. I'm talking 20-50yrs here, so no need for anyone to panic....just yet!!!
I think the way the planet is going, the stock in it will become next to impossible to acquire or afford. Only the super rich will have actual tanks. The rest of use will have digital/virtual tanks. May sound crazy to us(late twenties) but with the way technology is going, it may catch on or become necessary because of stock availability/cost. Think about it, no feeding, no cleaning, no water changing, no illnesses/diseases, generally no maintenance, just change the chip and you can go from freshwater to planted to saltwater in seconds. You could have ANY fish/critter/plant/coral available today or maybe extinct. Will we see this in our lifetimes, I think so, maybe even just the start of it but I think we will. Sure we will always have aquarists who have actual tanks but think how much the hobby has changed in the last 20-40yrs. I'm sure many members here can remember(or maybe not) the 'old days' when you had to read up(limited) books or know someone who kept fish to get advice from. We can still do those things now of course but we can also sit on our backsides and let google do the searching for us. The internet has been the biggest thing to hit this industry....ever and maybe always will be, even in a different way in the future. These things like all our technology advances doesn't happen over night and is so gradual that it happens with us really knowing it's happening. Does anyone remember the first canister filter and when it came out or when LEDs first hit the hobby.
I'm not saying this will ever happen and is probably unimaginable to most of us. I know people will reply(if anyone does!!)...."I love my fish and looking after them. The feeling of water, feeding them, cleaning the tank, planting etc etc" but we may have no choice/say in it. I'm talking 20-50yrs here, so no need for anyone to panic....just yet!!!