My son is on the spectrum (and I, too, but am undiagnosed), and he must have watched Finding Nemo about a thousand times. He always loves going to aquariums, LFS’s, Petco, and even grocery stores in Chinatown where they sell live seafood in giant tanks. One big LFS we went often just to be mesmerized by the tanks closed down last year. I was fascinated by their seawater tanks and just finding out more about it whenever we went. However, as a busy single parent, I had NO intention whatsoever of getting one.
Then my son got his first paycheck this summer from a youth work program, and we ended up getting a starter Fluval 13.5 tank and some live rocks, from a tiny LFS we didn’t know we had nearby, then got the live-action cast of “Finding Nemo”, CUC’s and frags from another small local LFS specializing in gorgeous corals, and now it’s like “We need a 150 gal tank within the next year, or the tang police is going to arrest us…”
I am now fascinated by this hobby, and as a descendant of generations of scientists, I’m enjoying the new “marine biologist” hat I get to put on. My goal is to start a 150g lagoon with some mangroves growing…which can eventually become the appropriate home for Dory and others.
This kind of reminds me of how I ended up beekeeping when I was just letting a friend use my roof for the hives, and then he moved to another town, leaving me to become the beekeeper…
