Whats in the future for fishkeeping?
- Thread starter Gr8KarmaSF
- Start date
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.
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.
Good post monster, i hope it stays like this.
I think in Australia it will grow very slowly, its very different over here!
Cam
I think in Australia it will grow very slowly, its very different over here!
Cam
Lfs have been dying out in droves for many years now.A speaker at an aquarium club show recently gave a # of lfs gone in the past year,it was in the hundreds.Not many youngsters at these clubs its mostly older folks.
Its really hard to guage interest in my area.No clubs or orgs,only 3 lfs in the capital region that covers several small to med size cities.
I agree you can get a distorted view of the hobby due to the extreme level of enthusiasm here on mfk.
On the plus side the level of care is better than ever.You still see oscars in 10g tanks but the percentage of people keeping fish in too small tanks with with toxic water seems to be less.Lots more big tanks available.And the level of information at the fingertips of anyone starting out is amazing.When I started out most of the books were reprints or rehashes of info that had been kicking around since the 1950s or older.Alot more hard science in the hobby now.
Its really hard to guage interest in my area.No clubs or orgs,only 3 lfs in the capital region that covers several small to med size cities.
I agree you can get a distorted view of the hobby due to the extreme level of enthusiasm here on mfk.
On the plus side the level of care is better than ever.You still see oscars in 10g tanks but the percentage of people keeping fish in too small tanks with with toxic water seems to be less.Lots more big tanks available.And the level of information at the fingertips of anyone starting out is amazing.When I started out most of the books were reprints or rehashes of info that had been kicking around since the 1950s or older.Alot more hard science in the hobby now.
I think I may have worded that wrong.. private shops have taken a huge hit.. monsterous =( But the few left that is see particularly in my area are getting better business now. even w/ our current economic issues ect in the US. I see many more people when I walk into my private LFS here then when I walk into my petco and petsmart fish department.. it's a ghost town. It may just be geographical. But the people around here have gotten over the fad of these chains.. or simply we have inadequete people working at these stores around here.
I think the trend towards mobility has a lot to do with why people are less into fishkeeping. I know several people who gave it up because relocating every few years made it too difficult. I think that's also why younger people are less into it. They grow up, move out, go to college, come back...it's too much to drag fish around.
chefjamesscott;3530176; said:
Here's some links. First one is of a company that tried developing this technology for fish tank but unfortunately they gave up do to cost.
http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/02/18/ecotech-marine-working-magic-nano-coating-sort/
Here's the article discussing that they gave up:
http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/02/17/ecotech-marine-working-photoreactive-nanocoating-technology/
A couple more articles on self cleaning glass and titanium dioxide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_glass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide#As_a_photocatalyst
The stuff is so awesome it turns nitrates into carbon dioxide gases completely removing them from the aquarium.
It really sucks this stuff if so expensive. If I could get my hands on it I would be doing non stop testing to try and see how effective it could be at aquarium filtration.
i have noticed the same thing in my area, the shop i work took a minor hit when a petsmart moved in down the street a few years ago and after a little while sales were back to normal. but when a petco moved in a little further down the street last month, there was no noticeable fall in sales, and when i visited the petco (just to scope out the competition) i was the only customer in the entire storeMonsterMinis;3530472; said:
one trend that has been going on for a long time now and continues to this day is the trend towards people buying larger tanks.
when I started fishkeeping in the early 90's, the Big Al's store near me would sell about three 180 gallon tanks in a whole year.
now, the same stores sells about three 220g tanks per month.
most people seem to bypass the 180 size completely these days, jumping right up to the 220.
when I started fishkeeping in the early 90's, the Big Al's store near me would sell about three 180 gallon tanks in a whole year.
now, the same stores sells about three 220g tanks per month.
most people seem to bypass the 180 size completely these days, jumping right up to the 220.
