Whats in the future for fishkeeping?

[josear1286]

I don't see mom and pop shops being compleately erradicated.. to be honest I see the exact opposite.. it's already starting to shift. As long as Aquariasts Demand the exotic, demand a knowledgeable staff, demand a wide variety of equipment,food, livestock for their tanks. Big business like walmart,petco, and petsmart will ultimately fail. Very rarely will you find someone in the hobby who walks into one of these stores after being in the hobby 1yr+ will go "Oh cool! Look at those Guppies!" Those stores cater to the "newbies" the in and out people.. They drop a few bucks, they take it for a test drive. They either

A.) want bigger and better things then they can get from their local chain and get frustrated and start finding other petshosp to go to.

B.) Say to heck with this! and an MFKer gets an awesome deal on a barely used set-up.

C.) return to these stores to get supplies, ect, kinda fade in and out. find a fish here 'n there to add. spruce up the tank w/ a new decor. and generally can go into A or B.. Time tells with these people.

As far as younger genrations getting into the fish hobby.. I actually know more peopel younger then I am (27) that are getting into fishkeeping then people in the 25-35 age bracket. Aquariums are deffinately making a come-back in colleges. "Micro-tanks" and particularly people like Amano, have opened a door to some people to look at aquariums in a new scope. Live planted systems are getting easier and easier for the average Joe. More is becomeing knowing about many rare and unique species. CB efforts of fish like the Zebra Pleco are showing people Aquariums aren't just fish coffins. Zoos and Aquariums are makeing better progress towards giveing their charges a more natural healthy environment in in turn the fish are perking up, being active, showing peopel what they really can be. Not just some "thing" in a tank.

Really true i take my hobby for real and spend lots of hours working on my aquariumss shfitng between my tight scedule of school and football(im 15). Panama is a county who is developing fast reallyfast and lots of people coming from developed countries looking for greater chances will put a great demand in the industry which will help it grow it wont be from one year to the other but it will probably grow as I by myself am going from store to store asking them to get more exotic species.i was talking to a fellow keeper the other day and he told me that i was one of the pioneers in monsterfishkeepers her (and im a newb) i really im still learning. he works on a fishstore and has lots of connections he told me there were probably about 6-8 arowanas in the whole city only one asian arowana (a beutiful red arowana) and my silver was one of them...... so yeah i believe that it will get better jajaja

 

[josear1286]

so yeah i believe thats the futer for the hobby here in panama

 

[Kaze]

On the first few pages I've seen some of you guys speculate on the FISHKEEPERS of the future. As a 16 year old kid myself, I can assure you that the amount of fishkeepers are dieing out. In a high school of 900 kids, I've met 2 avid fish keepers so far that have proper set up and tanks. Its really disappointing. I just don't understand why people my age aren't catching on.

I've had tonnes of people working at LFS (not petsmart or petco) tell me that their so surprised someone my age actually is fishkeeping, some of them has as far as to say, that I was the youngest kid they've seen in a couple of years.

Its saddening to know that one day, it won't be the fish that causes the hobby to die out, but the lack of fishkeepers themselves...

PS. Thanks to my parents dishing out their hard earned cash for my very first setup, a 125 gallon tank.

 

[josear1286]

Yeah man in my whole high school you only see like guppy keepers which is what my fish would it like common some people dont understand it lol ...... i hope it gets better in the future

 

[Noddy]

This is what i see as the futute of monsterfishkeeping.
Seeing the next generation taking an interest in keeping the hobby alive!
I hope my kids catch on the vibe, like I did from my mom!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAhSB0_mHtw

Nowadays the lil' girls helps with the feeding and she's teaching my son all the names of the fish.
She's 2 years now and knows the names of the fish by heart.

 

[chefjamesscott]

This is what i see as the futute of monsterfishkeeping.
Seeing the next generation taking an interest in keeping the hobby alive!
I hope my kids catch on the vibe, like I did from my mom!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAhSB0_mHtw

Nowadays the lil' girls helps with the feeding and she's teaching my son all the names of the fish.
She's 2 years now and knows the names of the fish by heart.

totally by far an large a fantastic post

today my wife was picking up some feeders and my daughter was begging to get 3 of them so she could call them her own fish for the brief moment till they got eaten.

Well tonight I picked up a 20g rescue tank that had 2 common feeders and a fancy goldfish in it, purely horrid tank. I set up a new 20g for them in the hallway and when mahalia gets up it will be the first thing she sees as she heads to the bathroom. So now she is a 7 year old with her very first tank.

I loved your vid made my early morning as I am prepping a catering gig

 

[coeus]

Perhaps my perceptions are incorrect?

Anybody with teenage children have thoughts on this?

im a teenage fish keeper

 

[coeus]

On the first few pages I've seen some of you guys speculate on the FISHKEEPERS of the future. As a 16 year old kid myself, I can assure you that the amount of fishkeepers are dieing out. In a high school of 900 kids, I've met 2 avid fish keepers so far that have proper set up and tanks. Its really disappointing. I just don't understand why people my age aren't catching on.

I've had tonnes of people working at LFS (not petsmart or petco) tell me that their so surprised someone my age actually is fishkeeping, some of them has as far as to say, that I was the youngest kid they've seen in a couple of years.

Its saddening to know that one day, it won't be the fish that causes the hobby to die out, but the lack of fishkeepers themselves...

PS. Thanks to my parents dishing out their hard earned cash for my very first setup, a 125 gallon tank.

the problem being that most young kids, regardless of wether they like the fish or not, dont really have the spare $500-$1000 for a cool set up, i feel that as this generation ages, and young fish keepers like me and you teach them how to properly take care of fish, it will expand to a much larger number of people in our age group

 

[josear1286]

the problem being that most young kids, regardless of wether they like the fish or not, dont really have the spare $500-$1000 for a cool set up, i feel that as this generation ages, and young fish keepers like me and you teach them how to properly take care of fish, it will expand to a much larger number of people in our age group

well that is true so maybe in a couple of years it will change

 

[birmansandbettas]

PS. Thanks to my parents dishing out their hard earned cash for my very first setup, a 125 gallon tank.

This is telling. How can we say "kids aren't into fishkeeping" when they're at the mercy of their parents' budgets? Even when the economy doesn't totally blow, it's a big leap of faith to buy a kid everything needed to run a tank, much less a monster one.

I'm hoping that the web-led opening of the used market (Craig's List, eBay, Freecycle, etc.) will allow more people with limited budgets to get involved.