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GaryE

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In another thread, the question of fishkeeping fads came up and it got me thinking of the major ones I've seen come and largely go, often after much discussion. Here are the ones I recall, going back to the 1970s.
I'm not going by whether they are tasteful, cool etc. I mean fads that were big and have now declined or even vanished.
1. Old water. It was widely believed that old, unchanged water, pale yellow for some reason, had semi-magical properties for avoiding disease. That one got flushed early.
2. The Balanced Aquarium. It was to be your goal to create a no water change aquarium by creating a perfect balance of light, nutrients, plants, waste, feeding, stocking. Then somehow that balance would maintain itself in your tank. That still comes back, usually sold by white haired men with suspenders (for some reason) on youtube. It still begs the question of how you would maintain perfection unchanged. I was a sucker for that one in my teens.
3. The deep gravel tank, working with an undergravel filter. This one was a tech change, because with water changes, it worked very well. The drawback that killed it was the arrival of power filters, which meant you didn't have to look at 3 or 4 inches of coarse gravel anymore.
4. The shiny bare tank, with glass pots holding plants and almost daily vacuuming. It was awful for watching fish behaviour in, as many fish dig to eat, nest, etc, and was too much work to keep shiny. Some versions included submerged multicolour lights. Discus or Disco? You could have both.
5. The fancy substrate fad, ongoing. Iron laterite, cat litter, dirt of various types... It often worked, but had a way of going very wrong. The negatives seem to have outweighed the positives and it is becoming less and less of a thing. Diana Walstad did serious research and presented her method in a book most who followed her didn't read. Most just sort of set up according to what someone who said they read the book suggested they should do. There are great dirted tanks out there, but that one's now a niche.
6. The perfect zen scape - magnificent set ups that were works of conceptual art. Most were set up, photographed and torn down. Perfection is always temporary, and living things used as an artistic medium do what they need to do, not what the artists thinks they should do. It was great art, for a fleeting moment.
7. Tube tanks - side by side 1980s tanks with cylinder shaped connecting tubes so you could see your fish look like commuters trying to cross a highway to get from a bus to a train station. Even the acrylic ones must have been fragile to move, and fish aren't hamsters anyway.
8. The Sponge Bob tank - an ongoing alternative to natural, twinned with the ceramic skull tank, the sunken battleship, the sketchy mermaid or the freshwater Nemo. None can compare to my 1974 sunken Spanish Galleon tank. Sorry. It's how it is. It was the best, but I took no photos back then.

I don't know what the next fad will be, after the Glo-Fish tanks runs out of steam. Glo-tanks combined with #4, the disco tank?

Anyone have any others they've done or seen?
 
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I remember purchasing a 'miracle' under gravel filter. The box said, with this filter, your tank will never need a water change again! Oh boy, I just had to have one and then a rotten egg smell developed after a few months. Plant roots mixed in the filter slats and gunk made for a nice mess.
 
I totally agree! All that.... you know? Pfft. I totally get you. Enough said. ;)
 
6. The perfect zen scape - magnificent set ups that were works of conceptual art. Most were set up, photographed and torn down. Perfection is always temporary, and living things used as an artistic medium do what they need to do, not what the artists thinks they should do. It was great art, for a fleeting moment.
Far from a fad. Still very very popular.
 
There's a lot of weird betta fish fads like the betta in a tiny vase with a plant in it.
would nano tanks be a new one?
or were they a thing a long time ago
 
Small tanks aren't new that I know of, but the use of the word, 'nano' has been adopted for all kinds of stuff. I guess saying, "nano tank" has a certain economy. It saves you from saying, "I want a small thank with small fish."
 
nano is new, but small tanks? Before silicone, a 20 was a big tank, and 5s and 10s abounded. I swear, I was a little kid in pre silicone days.
 
nano is new, but small tanks? Before silicone, a 20 was a big tank, and 5s and 10s abounded. I swear, I was a little kid in pre silicone days.
Come on GaryE, the next thing you are going to tell us is there was once a 'Metaframe Aquarium' with a slate bottom held together with asphaltum! :) Using my paper route money, I purchased a 10-gallon aquarium kit that came complete with an 'advertised', never-change-your-water-again miracle under-gravel filter! Whoa, I had to have that. I saved up for a Silent Giant Air Pump, which was quiet and amazingly good. Later, I wasted my money on a piston air pump. Let me think back and I am sure I'll recall some very facinating equipment. One heating method I recall should not be mentioned here so please PM me.
 
30 years ago, we had a 96 year old aquarist in our club. He had started young. He heated his slate bottom with a candle (which why it is slate - glass would fracture - this is not a suggestion for new fishkeepers!). But slate bottom metaframes.... are you, @Archerfish , by any chance named Peter and are you 130 years old? If you faked your death and ran off to Australia - well done but we missed you.
 
nano is new, but small tanks? Before silicone, a 20 was a big tank, and 5s and 10s abounded. I swear, I was a little kid in pre silicone days.
Come to think of it, fish bowls were pretty popular back in the day. It's a shame what people were doing to goldfish keeping them in those things.
People would also keep bettas in bowls that looked about the size of a coffee cup. No substrate or decor or anything. They saw them sold in the store that way so they assumed it was ok to keep them that way too.
Basically people thought fish were a low maintenance pet that wouldn't take up a lot of space.
 
There's nano and there's micro-nano.
Several years ago I was shocked to see what a clothes shop had as decor on a shelf behind the till. A 10 cm /4 inch cube containing water and a male betta. No filter (obviously in that size), no heater (in the UK, in a shop unheated overnight in winter!) and no decor. Next time I went in it wasn't there. I wonder why.
 

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