Just Curious...

[mislisa]

I've had my main 55g tank setup with the same community for ~2 years now, and am finding myself getting bored and itching to do a new setup.
 
a new tank is out of the question, as I have 4 tanks already... a 5g, 10g, 20g, and my 55g. (got a bad case of MTS here...)
 
I'm curious to hear if other people have experienced this, and how you go about rekindling interest in the current setup.
 
My tank setups are all in my sig if you're curious.
 
 
 

 

[This Old Spouse]

I suffered severe MTS not long after I got started. At one time we had 6 tanks going and now we're down to 4. My 55g has been set up for a couple of years, and some of the fish are starting to die off (old age) and I've been thinking of the next phase of this tank. I'm thinking about going for a very large number of small fish, some type of tiny tetra, along with my cory and a BN for starters. So many fish! So many choices!!

 

[mislisa]

I actually started my tank like that, and am now wanting larger fish. I'd love to have a RTBS or something similar, but I was told it'd go after my khuli loaches.

 

[MBOU]

Personally, I don't like the idea of people getting bored of their fish after a year or two... just encourages the belief that fish are just objects... not pets and certainly not worthy of being part of the family...
 
When most species live longer than your average hamster, rat, cat, dog, guinea pig etc... i don't get why people get bored of fish faster than any other species..
 
Why not consider more the species you have... go in depth, learn *everything* you possibly can about them, change the décor, do research in growing plants or growing specific plant species, something interesting like species of lily or banana lily or whatever... or biotope plant species...
 
Seen any of the ADA planted tank competitions, ever considered doing research into replicating something like it?
 
Shrimps and snails? got them? done the research? worth contemplating?

 

[mislisa]

Personally, I don't like the idea of people getting bored of their fish after a year or two... just encourages the belief that fish are just objects... not pets and certainly not worthy of being part of the family...

 
I do think of them as family, several have names and I can recognize on sight the different cories and several of the rasboras. The tank is set up so that they are all very happy,with my cories frequently scattering eggs all over the glass... I'd like to try using CO2 for my plants, but it seems very time consuming and expensive and I don't have much spare time or cash. I make time for weekly water changes, but even that can be hard sometimes. 

 

[MBOU]

I get the time constraint issues that's for certain!!
 
I didn't mean to imply you didn't 'care' for your fish, it was just a sweeping statement from someone who sees the bitter side of the 'hobby' every day! Nothing personal at all!
 
Is there a hurry for you to do something immediately? If you are happy to take your time and do lots of reading... there is lots of literature on how to set up a DIY CO2 kit using yeast and other easy to get hold of products... by all means it isn't a difficult or expensive process.. just takes some research
 
Could be an interesting project?
 
I see fish as something endlessly fascinating... I find with my customers (in the trade lol) are getting bored, the best I can do is treat it the same way i treat people with a phobia of reptiles. You don't push any particular point, you talk broadly and see what they pick up on as interesting to them.
 
For example, with someone who is scared of lizards... we were chatting about anything and everything totally unrelated to reptiles... but meanwhile i had a fat tailed gecko in my hands... during that hour... when it related to the conversation... i would point out something random... like how cool its ears were, and how you could almost see all the way through its head via its ears LOL.. or its tiny little toes.. or its fat tail where it stores the fat to keep it alive.... or the pupils in its eyes that are an odd shape... things that someone might not necessarily consider... on each point... they leant further forwards to look at what i was talking about.... and after an hour... with no anxiety at all and without saying anything...  they reached over and stroked the gecko on the head... and then carried on chatting... was ages before they really realised what they had done... as soon as they realised... they were scared of lizards again...
 
But my point was.. there are always more interesting things you can learn about a species than the glaringly obvious...
 
How about doing some really in depth research into your species? The internet has an absolute wealth of knowledge if you can take the time to look at it!