Bruce Leyland-Jones
Fish Aficionado
A common theme, especially amongst newcomers to the hobby, (and regardless of age and/or maturity), is the need to get things done quicker than may be considered safe and sensible.
Impatience can result in all sorts of mistakes being made and is a feature that those making money out of us seem to delight in exploiting.
Most in here will know about cycling, (and if you don't, then you need to start reading) and one of the features of any sort of cycling is the waiting game.
Waiting for the beneficial bacteria to grow.
Waiting for the plants to grow.
Waiting for the water conditions to be just right.
Waiting until you can stock your little glass box.
One of perhaps the very best bits of this hobby is that point where you can actually go out, buy some animals and stick 'em in your tank.
So...what to do, when waiting.
How did I spend my time, whilst waiting?
Of course, there's tons of things we could be doing, but let's focus on fishy things. What did I do?
Impatience can result in all sorts of mistakes being made and is a feature that those making money out of us seem to delight in exploiting.
Most in here will know about cycling, (and if you don't, then you need to start reading) and one of the features of any sort of cycling is the waiting game.
Waiting for the beneficial bacteria to grow.
Waiting for the plants to grow.
Waiting for the water conditions to be just right.
Waiting until you can stock your little glass box.
One of perhaps the very best bits of this hobby is that point where you can actually go out, buy some animals and stick 'em in your tank.
So...what to do, when waiting.
How did I spend my time, whilst waiting?
Of course, there's tons of things we could be doing, but let's focus on fishy things. What did I do?
- Lots of research, reading books, visiting websites and viewing lots and lots of YouTube videos.
- Having done the research, I set about acquiring the necessary kit.
- Checked out all of the local fish shops...and some not-so local.
- Lots of research, reading books, visiting websites and viewing lots and lots of YouTube videos.
- Loitered in those discovered shops, sometimes for a couple of hours at a time, gazing at the fish and talking with the staff.
- Planning the aquascaping...playing with the acquired stones and bits of wood, arranging and re-arranging them on a piece of card, the same size as the tank base.
- Lots of research, reading books, visiting websites and viewing lots and lots of YouTube videos.
- Visited an aquarium.
- Poked around local beaches and water courses.
- Lots of research, reading books, visiting websites and viewing lots and lots of YouTube videos.