What motivates you in the hobby

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Having corals, I've been obsessed with them since picking them as my animal for the big end of the year report in 4th grade.

I love these animals.

Also f mrs foster for giving me a C for picking a plant for an animal report.

So I guess its out of spite.

Edit: shout out Charles Sheppard, idk if he is known in the hobby but I had a lot of his books from that, they were dope.

 

[His Coral Highness]

...last year I lost my 2-year-old son to a super rare mutation, literally, he was the only recorded case of this particular mutation in the world. I have had tanks for a long time, saltwater since 2002, but I stopped taking care of my tank when he was born, just not enough time. But I use to bring him down here to watch the fish swim, it helped him fall asleep. When the mutation destroyed his heart when he was in the hospital for 11 months, I just gave up on my tank, no time at all, but the fish and corals were doing fine. During his stay in the hospital, he loved watching Finding Nemo, and I always played a video of swimming fish with sleep music on Youtube for him. And he loved playing with water. When he passed away, I was just going to get rid of it all. I didn't want to do anything. But eventually, I have decided to start all over, get a new tank, equipment, and fish, as a sort of memorial at home for him. I am a broken person, but cleaning the tank, watching the fish, and helping others here, make things a bit easier. So I am motivated to do the best I can to make this tank healthy and beautiful.

Good for you. Wish the best for you

 

[Hawgpharm]

I love the personality of the fish and seeing the copepods at night on the glass, rock, etc. I love the shimmer that the lights produce on the sand and the different colors of corals, types, etc.

And my favorite thing now is seeing how the fish react to daily feedings of live food (baby brine shrimp and copepods).

 

[FrugalReefer]

Seeing SPS encrust and grow and polyps out.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Seeing SPS encrust and grow and polyps out.

That is a motivating factor for sure!

 

[pal98111]

...last year I lost my 2-year-old son to a super rare mutation, literally, he was the only recorded case of this particular mutation in the world. I have had tanks for a long time, saltwater since 2002, but I stopped taking care of my tank when he was born, just not enough time. But I use to bring him down here to watch the fish swim, it helped him fall asleep. When the mutation destroyed his heart when he was in the hospital for 11 months, I just gave up on my tank, no time at all, but the fish and corals were doing fine. During his stay in the hospital, he loved watching Finding Nemo, and I always played a video of swimming fish with sleep music on Youtube for him. And he loved playing with water. When he passed away, I was just going to get rid of it all. I didn't want to do anything. But eventually, I have decided to start all over, get a new tank, equipment, and fish, as a sort of memorial at home for him. I am a broken person, but cleaning the tank, watching the fish, and helping others here, make things a bit easier. So I am motivated to do the best I can to make this tank healthy and beautiful.

I am so sorry to hear about your son. I'm sure your tank will be beautiful.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

...last year I lost my 2-year-old son to a super rare mutation, literally, he was the only recorded case of this particular mutation in the world. I have had tanks for a long time, saltwater since 2002, but I stopped taking care of my tank when he was born, just not enough time. But I use to bring him down here to watch the fish swim, it helped him fall asleep. When the mutation destroyed his heart when he was in the hospital for 11 months, I just gave up on my tank, no time at all, but the fish and corals were doing fine. During his stay in the hospital, he loved watching Finding Nemo, and I always played a video of swimming fish with sleep music on Youtube for him. And he loved playing with water. When he passed away, I was just going to get rid of it all. I didn't want to do anything. But eventually, I have decided to start all over, get a new tank, equipment, and fish, as a sort of memorial at home for him. I am a broken person, but cleaning the tank, watching the fish, and helping others here, make things a bit easier. So I am motivated to do the best I can to make this tank healthy and beautiful.

Wow, so sorry to hear about that

 

[Poseidon03]

Seeing SPS encrust and grow and polyps out.

Yupp cause the frags always want to grow out and not up

 

[Reefing102]

My initial motivation was Finding Nemo. Finding Dory then reignited it even more. Seeing nice displays at the Aquarium and LFS always give me more motivation. Then finally it’s learning that something new. Such as learning that healthy sea urchins regrow their spikes.

 

[Joj]

I love in no particular order, the flow of the water surface, the ability to mostly keep an underwater animal alive and albeit thrive, the beauty of the colors and shape of the fishes I love to keep, the automation of equipments (Reefmat 1200, skimmers, ATO), the copepods, hermits, snails, nems, zoas, worms, etc, fishes from the Red Sea co-mingling with fishes from the Caribbean and indo-pacific.

 

[TinyReefObsession]

I like to see the fish happy, spawning, & trying to bite my fingers lol, and pod eggs on the glass where i leave it gunky, but what really motivates me is seeing my condy puffed up and gorgeous after a snack

 

[aws2266]

The biggest motivation I have to keep my tank looking tiptop(which it isn't right now, but I've righted the ship and am seeing results) is that I love photographing it and all the inhabitants. With that desire, I'm transforming my tanks from average-looking into above-average-looking. It's a process, but I'm finally finding success.

Oh, and I want to provide a happy living space for the fish and coral.

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

For me it's the appeal of building a tiny ocean that fails, survives or thrives based on your input.
I spent years perfecting different Amazon esque biotopes for my discus tanks & wanted to do the same in saltwater.testing, observing & making individual tweaks & seeing how aquatic life responds to them is endlessly fascinating for me.

 

[rasthavis]

After 18,000 hours of Borderlands computer game I am tired of it and need something else to do when I can't work outside. Also I have had kind of a romantic feeling about tropical oceans and want to recapture some of that.

 

[Aeiyr]

Sometimes, I feel like we need motivation to do certain things in life. For me? I sometimes need motivation to get stuff around the house done regarding cleaning, haha. I am wondering, what keeps you motivated in this hobby? Make it is the drive to have a successful tank, to have something to do with your free time, or maybe it is seeing all the fish happy to be a part of your tank. Curious to know everyone's input!

My answer to this is kind of a bleeding heart/sappy one. I've been into reef ecology since childhood. Growing up, the GBR was the one place in the world I wanted to see the most. Life never shook out for me the way I wanted when I dreamed of becoming a marine biologist either. And now that I'm 34, with all that's happening in our crazy world, with the overwhelming evidence of reef destruction - well, I guess that's why. I do it because I love our oceans. I love the life, and I love the pivitol roll they play in scrubbing our planet.

Sadly at the rate we're going, we're going to lose them if we don't turn back soon enough. In an almost hopeful way I look at keeping corals and other critters as sort of a living archive of the community.

Keeping as close to a purely aquacultured system as I can has been a point of pride for me getting into the hobby, and providing a healthy habitat for these animals has been no less than rewarding every minute I spend enjoying the view.

 

[Boehmtown]

Creating interesting environments for my fish and keeping odd and interesting things always keeps me motivated. But mostly my tanks are very low tech , maintenance and stable so they are like a constant and a calm in my life.