Aquarium hobby sucess rates?

Michael Flux · Jul 10, 2019

I just keep throwing money at it till I’m successful! Hahaha

Michael Flux · Jul 10, 2019

I just keep throwing money at it till I’m successful! Hahaha

Michael Flux · Jul 10, 2019

I just keep throwing money at it till I’m successful! Hahaha

jtroxel1 · Jan 27, 2023

AC1211 said:
It would be interesting to know what peoples sucess rates in the aquarium hobby are for both fish and corals? Consider sucess a year with growth of the organism or two years of slow growth. In this senario I have noted about an 84% sucess rate between freshwater and saltwater tanks that I have kept. (Note rate would be higher but aggressive freshwater fishes territoriality was tough to manage)
I believe hat tracking sucess rates can lead us to see both improvement and what not to keep again (for example if your on your 20th hammer coral and you only have two sucessfully then something in your reef does not suit hammer corals and you should not try them for an extended period of time.

What are your individual sucess rates (estimate) and what do you keep?

I really wish this question got more attention. Perhaps the criteria for study could be better phrased as:

What is the percentage of people who start a saltwater reef tank who are no longer in the hobby after 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc.

Data collection would be challenging but not impossible; researchers follow specific mental or physical conditions through multi-year survey or monitoring. (For us, an example might be: "are you still maintaining a reef tank in your home y/n?")

Data sources could also come from:
* Anonymized customer tracking from Local Fish Stores, by customer
* Online customer purchase trends over time by anonymized customer
* Website cookies tracking to reef related sites or purchases at reef related online stores
* Time tracked data by tokenized credit card numbers

Statistical error correction is quite mature and could account for many of the gaps in data. But this would require an investment and study into the information.

The best option would be for an industry leader like BRS to accomplish such a study by a random selection across all first time customers between two time periods (say Jan 1, 2023 and March 31, 2023), with a special offer in that group to receive a perceived benefit in exchange for responding to a detailed survey each year over a set duration (for example 5 years). The data could be published yearly and would create engaging content for their omnichannel social media (additional benefit to that company for the anticipated engagement in content).

The results, however, might be controversial. Consider if the data identified that less than 10% of the surveyed population surveyed were still maintaining the reef tank after 2 years; that information might persuade a potential customer to not get into the hobby. And this, perhaps, is why the data is so hard to come by in the first place. It's the dirty secret no one wants to publish: this hobby is both expensive, complex, and time-intensive; mistakes are compounding and can move quickly to catastrophic, or slowly with each day being another disappointment.

I think you asked a solid question; I can only hope that someday we'll get an equally solid answer.

Paul B · Jan 28, 2023

The last 2 years my success rate with hard corals went way down and I have almost all soft corals, gorgonians and leathers. Everything in this hobby runs in cycles and my tank is unfortunately in a sponge cycle. An invasive photosynthetic sponge practically took over my tank. It is nice looking but covers SPS corals and exudes a toxin that kills them.

(I stupidly bought the stuff and put it in)

Luckily the soft corals seem to like the toxin and it makes them grow better. Who knew?
I am finding it fascinating how this is happening and is just one thing in the hobby that keeps me in it. If everything was as easy as raising guppies we would all be in a different hobby.

But it is still a big loss of success if anything in a tank disappears.

But my success rate with fish is almost 100% except for the ones that jumped.

Thats all blue sponge under the 6 line wrasse creeping up on that small gorg.

Big G · Jan 28, 2023

Great to see you Paul

lion king · Jan 28, 2023

People think success when they have had a fish for a year, they have success. Most of these fish live more than a decade in the wild, many of them for decades. I believe there is a level of success for each species, considering. I keep many species from the Scorpaenidae family, most can't keep these alive, and they think a year is success. They live between 10 and 15 years in the wild, my goal is at least a decade, but you do have to consider at what age they were collected. So to me anyone keeping these fish less than 5 years is no success.

Lets talk about disease and transport and travel conditions, most perish before they are even established. I have 2 freshwater planted tanks, 25 fish between the 2 of them, did not lose one single fish from purchase to this day. At the very least in saltwater, I would say at a minimum 5 would be dead within a month, likely more.

Paul B · Jan 28, 2023

Big G said:
Great to see you Paul

Big G, at my age anytime I see myself in the mirror I consider a gift....Or a surprise.

Big G · Jan 28, 2023

lion king said:
People think success when they have had a fish for a year, they have success. Most of these fish live more than a decade in the wild, many of them for decades. I believe there is a level of success for each species, considering. I keep many species from the Scorpaenidae family, most can't keep these alive, and they think a year is success. They live between 10 and 15 years in the wild, my goal is at least a decade, but you do have to consider at what age they were collected. So to me anyone keeping these fish less than 5 years is no success.

Lets talk about disease and transport and travel conditions, most perish before they are even established. I have 2 freshwater planted tanks, 25 fish between the 2 of them, did not lose one single fish from purchase to this day. At the very least in saltwater, I would say at a minimum 5 would be dead within a month, likely more.

Yep. The fish in my freshwater planted tank always live long, healthy lives. Usually way past published life spans for the fish.

Big G · Jan 28, 2023

Paul B said:
Big G, at my age anytime I see myself in the mirror I consider a gift....Or a surprise.

Yep. I get out of bed in the morning and think, "vertical." OK good to go for another day or two LOL

atoll · Jan 28, 2023

What a question but without a definitive answer IMO. Everybody has their own ideas of what constitutes as success. Success for one could be failure to another. Anyway to try and answer the question the illustration below may go someway to measuring it.