What Makes Us Want To Keep Living Stuff In Glass Tanks?

[Eclecticoldsod]

Why take a tiny piece of nature and put it into an unnatural setting in your home?
Nature manages very well/much better without human intervention. If you just want to see it, even for an inner-city dwellers, 'nature' can be found just a few miles out of town.
Do we love nature so much that we need to keep it close to us, even if the only way to do it is in a very unnatural way? Surely, there is a contradiction here? We try to simulate nature, and the only way to do that successfully is by replacing what Nature does naturally by artificial means. There is not a single thing we fish keepers do that is not unnecessary in the wild; CO2 injection, heating, cooling, lighting, feeding, and juggling water chemistry like an old stage act keeping 25 plates on sticks spinning in the air... It's a lot of hard work for a hobby!
I would really like to know why we do it...

 

[Eclecticoldsod]

Why take a tiny piece of nature and put it into an unnatural setting in your home?
Nature manages very well/much better without human intervention. If you just want to see it, even for an inner-city dwellers, 'nature' can be found just a few miles out of town.
Do we love nature so much that we need to keep it close to us, even if the only way to do it is in a very unnatural way? Surely, there is a contradiction here? We try to simulate nature, and the only way to do that successfully is by replacing what Nature does naturally by artificial means. There is not a single thing we fish keepers do that is not unnecessary in the wild; CO2 injection, heating, cooling, lighting, feeding, and juggling water chemistry like an old stage act keeping 25 plates on sticks spinning in the air... It's a lot of hard work for a hobby!
I would really like to know why we do it...

 

[Egmel]

Why take a tiny piece of nature and put it into an unnatural setting in your home?
...It's a lot of hard work for a hobby!
I would really like to know why we do it...

Same reason people tend their gardens or keep furry/scaly pets... we like having them around. They're fun to watch and they are as you say a hobby. I find mine very relaxing. Though they don't stop me from going for long walks admiring the way nature does it so much better than us I do like to have my 'pets'.

Have often felt guilty at the power consumption though. Wish there was a better way of doing it. Swapping to non-tropical would prob make a huge difference to my carbon footprint!

 

[Nix]

I have a god complex.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

I have a god complex.

 

[Eclecticoldsod]

I have a god complex.

Right, Nix - so we both know who the other one in the poll is..! Pity that the rest of the world can't settle on there being 2, 4,
32, 128, or 624,768,386, 264 of us small Gods, all doing good stuff in our own different ways..!

 

[dzsigmond217]

You could ask this question of any animal that is kept as a pet. I have quite a few different pets and I love each and everyone of them. I give them the best home and care that is possible. I live alone but don't feel that way because I have my 'family' to come home to. Maybe its because I'm a female and the urge to care for something prevails. People with children do similar things. Most try to make the childs environment the best possible with enrichment activities and quality food and the such. Perhaps it goes further back. I think people tend to be 'pack animals' From prehistoric times cavemen lived in small villages with every villager being a productive member of society. As time has passed that whole extended community thing has diminished. Maybe we make up for that with the companionship of animals and these false environments we create for them. In the long run people have many different reasons why they keep pets. I get unconditional love, companionship and peace & relaxation. They all just tend to calm my nerves.

 

[kj23502]

I keep fish and other pets because:
1) I can't resist'em! LOL=I'd have my home full of animals if it weren't for my hubby keeping in check!
2) Fish are soothing and relaxing. I don't see what's wrong with keeping them as long as they're kept in good conditions...ex. right water parameters, and size of tank, good tankmates, etx.
3) It is very rewarding when they breed and then you can pass on some fun to the people who buy/get your baby fish.
4)I could sit and watch them for hours.
5)Some day (it may be this way for some already) the only place some species may exist is in aquariums, whether it be the home aquarium or zoo aquarium. Thanks to the destruction of habit, mostly caused by mankind.

I may post some more reasons later. I gotta go for now.

 

[OldMan47]

I haven't had my second drink so I'm not sure. Even though its only a few miles to see nature at work, few of us have a place to do that and even if they do, who can actually see the fish in a creek or lake. At best you can see the shadows and movement of a fish but to examine it in detail you must keep it the way we do in an artificial environment. I enjoy my fish in much the same way as the domesticated wolves, dogs, that I keep in my home.

 

[cuticom]

I love animals, and I live my life surrounded by my pets. Fish are relaxing in themselves, they don't demand the company other animals do, and they provide a whole new challenge as one tries to replicate their environment, give them perfect conditions and make them happy. Their beautiful and wonderful to watch as they swim. I like being able to provide them with a good life which they may not have had otherwise, ie if they were bought for someone to keep in their 300ml fish bowls or something.

 

[CFC]

Because its a lot easier and cheaper than a round the world tour of the tropics to see the fish in their native waters.

 

[moll]

You sound like my Father

At this moment in time I don't honestly know, I've got a tank with white spot, a dog that is begging food of my kids a cat that thinks it owns the house, nature is 200 yards from my door with all the wonders of the Cleveland hills but its so cold

As for carbon foot prints possibly a small solar pannel or a wind turbine of get a hamster in a cage and link up the wheel

 

[raptorrex]

i started because the tank was something my little girl seemed to be interested in. as she has mental and physical disability's, anything that causes a reactions worth following up. then i found them very relaxing. found keeping them, whilst far from easy. is not the black art people think. i now just love having them around, the chance to watch a creature grow, mature and hopefully thrive, is one of the most satisfying things i have ever done.

 

[dwarfgourami]

"Why take a tiny piece of nature and put it into an unnatural setting in your home?
Nature manages very well/much better without human intervention. If you just want to see it, even for an inner-city dwellers, 'nature' can be found just a few miles out of town."

Unfortunately, Nature is constantly under threat of human intervention. Some of the species I keep are only found in a very small area- it would only take an accident at a nearby sewage works or a worse than average drought (exacerbated from the needs of a growing local population) to wipe them out altogether.

Several members of this forum are keeping and preserving fish that are already extinct in the wild from destruction of habitat. If the fish are not bred in captivity they will disappear altogether.

 

[Eclecticoldsod]

Some interesting answers so far. As a Fellow of the Zoological Society, I'm glad to see that several people mentioned conservation. Since we Fellows took over the running of London Zoo some years back, we have concentrated on conservation above all else, and a number zoos followed suit, saving many species on the verge of extinction.
What most people do not realise is that it is not just the big organizations that can do this work. Just a few 'little guys' with half a dozen tanks in a spare room can make a huge difference to the survival of some obscure, cricket, beetle, or fish.
I can't think of anything I would rather have on my gravestone than: “he saved an obscure species of bug from extinction...”