Anyone else feeling the aquarium hobby drawing them away from herps?

[RoryBreaker]

At a recent trip to an aquarium shop, the owner said he has noticed a rise in reptile people going back into fish.

I certainly am enjoying keeping a few fish again, I know of a few others too. Some have got out of reptiles altogether.

I started back with fish just keeping a few natives, then started to tinker with a few Bettas.

Thoughts?

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I've kept aquariums non stop since I was 10. The way around the reptile vs aquarium dilemma is to keep aquatic reptiles. That's why I'm into turtles. Compared to most other reptiles which are pretty much inactive for most of the time, turtles never stop day or night, they're always busy and entertaining to watch unlike snakes. I keep many tanks with fish, several just with shrimp, others with crays and snails and obviously the turtles. Aquarium keeping has been a life long passion of mine.

 

[dragonlover1]

No interest whatsoever in fish. Reptiles all the way to the grave , mostly dragons but have some others as well

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I've always kept huge aquariums, 600 litres plus but for 2 years now I've gotten right into the nano scene with some tanks as small as 7 litres. So awesome.

 

[Nero Egernia]

I don't have fish myself but I do enjoy visiting friends or places with fishponds or beautiful display aquariums. I can literally stare at the fish calmly going about their business for hours. That, and I don't believe people need to acquire an often expensive, invasive and restrictive licence in order to keep fish like reptile keepers do.

 

[Barry]

I went the other way, always kept & bred fish in multiple tanks, now I’m down to 1 fish tank and multiple snake enclosures

 

[Sdaji]

I bred tropical fish for about 8 years before getting into snakes. Once I had a couple of snakes the fish went forever and I never looked back. I still like fish a lot, but I like reptiles so much more and they're just so much nicer to work with. If fish were as low maintenance as reptiles I'd still have a few, but all those water changes, the frequent feeding, keeping an eye on water chemistry, the greater potential for things to go wrong, the occasional broken glass and flooding and the constant risk of it, there were just so many more hassles involved. I can see the appeal of having a fish tank in the lounge room as opposed to a snake, they are more active and fun for visitors to watch, but if you want more than a very small number, reptiles are just so much nicer to manage.

If people are switching back maybe for some it is because snakes in Australia are moving from 'oh my god, what a bizarre pet, I've never even seen one up close, that's the most incredible thing I've heard of' to 'oh yeah, heaps of people keep them now'. I do still meet a surprising number of people in Australia who think of snakes as amazing and mysterious creatures who the concept of pet snakes is still mind blowing to. Much more in Melbourne than further north.

 

[nick_75]

I've kept fish and invertebrates periodically as well as reptiles. I would like to set up a new fish tank but I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice the time for maintenance. Reptiles for me, come first. I'm also dubious that my floors would support the tank I want to set up. I will do the calcs and see what weight the floor can bear between supports first. Then decide if I want to sacrifice the space and time for the fish tank. I haven't had a fish tank or invertebrates for a long while now, I do miss them.

 

[nuttylizardguy]

Hell no …. Closest I come to that is when I am keeping live yellowtail and mullet alive in a big 250L round tank in my shed inbetween jewfishing sessions in summer.
Been known to keep up to 50 yellowtail when I expect the jewfish to be feeding and when I expect a fresh to come down to the harbor mouth.

They're hard enough to keep healthy for longer than 7 days even with a 12V bilge pump blowing bubbles flat out 24/7. Despite my feeding them and replacing a good bit of the water daily , it's the build up of ammonia and filth and that usually starts killing them after the first few days , even if I'm replacing 30% of the water daily with clean seawater.

Too much bother to consider taking up keeping a display aquarium , if I did one day it would be a saltwater one with crabs , prawns , etc and I'd likely want to use some the weed for bait for luderick in winter.

 

[cris]

I can go to the Brisbane River and easily catch a well over a hundred different species (fish and invertebrates) and legally keep most of them without a permit. While it is generally illegal to sell or trade them, forcing people to collect their own helps them get an understanding of the ecosystem.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Aquariums are dead easy to keep, freshwater is substantially easier than marine but a lot of people write the hobby off as too hard before even starting out. I'll always keep more aquariums than reptile vivs just because fish and aquatic reptiles are a lot more active and aesthetically appealing.

 

[Herpetology]

Every Siamese fighting fish I had in my life has died due to poor information from the pet shops selling them I would only keep large fish or those little shark thingies if I ever keep fish again

 

[cris]

Aquariums are dead easy to keep, freshwater is substantially easier than marine but a lot of people write the hobby off as too hard before even starting out. I'll always keep more aquariums than reptile vivs just because fish and aquatic reptiles are a lot more active and aesthetically appealing.

If you are dealing with hardy fish (most Aussie freshwater species) aquariums are easy. When you start keeping fish with more specific requirements they can die much quicker than many other animals.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

If you are dealing with hardy fish (most Aussie freshwater species) aquariums are easy. When you start keeping fish with more specific requirements they can die much quicker than many other animals.

I've kept some pretty finicky and pedantic species, African and American and never had any major issues. A lot of problems people generally have all tie back to over stocking their aquarium.

 

[cris]

I've kept some pretty finicky and pedantic species, African and American and never had any major issues. A lot of problems people generally have all tie back to over stocking their aquarium.

Let me know when you have angler fish for sale.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Let me know when you have angler fish for sale.

Hope you've got deep pockets.

 

[Sdaji]

Hope you've got deep pockets.

They're expensive? Not at all criticising, I know nothing of the archer fish market, just that locally they're very common fish which are easy to catch and I assumed would be cheap. I'm surprised if they're pricey (and would think about starting up a fish farm! Haha!)

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

They're expensive? Not at all criticising, I know nothing of the archer fish market, just that locally they're very common fish which are easy to catch and I assumed would be cheap. I'm surprised if they're pricey (and would think about starting up a fish farm! Haha!)

Angler fish not archer fish...

 

[Sdaji]

Angler fish not archer fish...

Another stupid question then... what's an angler fish? The only angler fish I know of is the deep sea fish with the light dangling in front of its mouth. If that's what you're talking about then requiring pockets as deep as the sea wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Another stupid question then... what's an angler fish? The only angler fish I know of is the deep sea fish with the light dangling in front of its mouth. If that's what you're talking about then requiring pockets as deep as the sea wouldn't surprise me.

That's the one mate... just like off finding Nemo ... when Marlin says "good feeling's gone!"