Signs of fish keeping fatigue...

[Gr8KarmaSF]

I was chatting with another member the other day and we started talking about fish keeping burnout! A few members here seem to come and go due to this. Great thing is that they always come back!

For myself, all the water changes are taking a toll on me! The hours of changing water is slowly working my nerves! Especially with this nice NorCal weather we are currently having, the last thing I want to do is be inside changing water for hours! Im actually thinking about scaling back alittle and getting rid of my growout 140g. My solution to this (a future project) will be to install a drip system!

I know members here that have well over 15 tanks, which I could not do myself. While I know many members here will say they've never had burnout, Im curious how have you known when its time for you to scale back? What are the signs for yourself? If so, how many tanks/gallons were you keeping and what did you get rid of at the time? How long was your break? Was there another way to fix your burnout?

 

[Nate77]

About 6-7 years ago had 15-30 tanks fish and reptiles.When you start finding yourself skipping waterchanges,cleaning beding etc.got rid of everything that time.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Skipping h20 changes is a def. sign!

How long was your break for???

 

[Nightfall_Fish]

I'd like to offer an oppinion though I've never suffered from this malady. I think the best way to avoid the burnout is to be careful not to over extend yourself. Even though that new 300g is calling your name, instead of buying it right away..stop, let the excitement wear off, and think.

If you can keep from overextending yourself I think you can enjoy many happy years fishkeeping. That all said...I really have to go, my new 600g tank is supposed to be here soon......LOL.

 

[toehead11183]

All i have now is my 150. 15min a week total with feeding cleaning anf filter changes. i recently put my last 30g in the attic. at one point i have a 150g, 75g, 3-30g and a 10g going at once. it caught up with me. maybe one day when i'm not in college and working 45hrs/wk i'll get some more. i'm waste time during retirement playing with my fish.

 

[WyldFya]

I have a pump system for water changes. It only takes ~5 minutes to drain my 150. I haven't burnt out... yet.

 

[redtailfool]

I'd like to offer an oppinion though I've never suffered from this malady. I think the best way to avoid the burnout is to be careful not to over extend yourself. Even though that new 300g is calling your name, instead of buying it right away..stop, let the excitement wear off, and think.

If you can keep from overextending yourself I think you can enjoy many happy years fishkeeping. That all said...I really have to go, my new 600g tank is supposed to be here soon......LOL.

Ive been spreading that gospel for so long ... I agree with you 100%. I only know because i have been a victim myself. I now limit myself to 3 tanks and i havent had any issues maintaining them.

 

[Oddball]

Between my job (plus on-call 24/7), the household chores, and the tanks, I'm debating scaling back to just the large tanks and my main breeders. I'll still have over 3k gals of tanks. But, i'll just use the racks of smaller tanks as bare-bottom hatchers/grow-outs. I just ordered another 400gal water storage tank. I'll use it for auto timed water changes. Once I pool the $, I'm going to try an arbor-type auto feeder. If it works OK, I can cut my feeding time to (hopefully) under an hour a day.

 

[cichlaguapote]

Ive been spreading that gospel for so long ... I agree with you 100%. I only know because i have been a victim myself. I now limit myself to 3 tanks and i havent had any issues maintaining them.

I would agree with that as well. It's really hard if you have the drive in this hobby not to overextend yourself thinking you need every fish you think it cool.

A while ago I had 5-6 tanks and even that was too much for me so I cut down and started giving stuff away just to get rid of it.

 

[me_wee_todded]

i got rid of most of my tens i used to have five set up thougout the house and two in my room. now i have just one in my room.