I seem to have lost interest

[xingu]

Has this happened to anyone else?

I have two tanks running, a 280 ish litre tank in the living room, a 45 litre tank in the bedroom and I currently have little to no interest in either of them

Apart from doing water changes to keep the water quality fine neither tank gets a second look these days.

Don't know what to do, rescape them, change the stock completely (although to what I have no idea), sell the lot?

Help! :cry:

 

[bigbird]

thats not good to hear. I have found in the past, that after all tanks are set up etc, that there is sometimes a lull into tank care and maintenance etc, but one has to continue and find the little joys. You are a great photographer, so many take more photos. try setting yourself a goal and breed something different ? maybe it is the weather, I find in winter in Australia it is too yucky andcold to enjoy the joys of water changes etc.
Good luck and hope you get other hints. Stay with us- do not go to the light :lol:

 

[JackGillett]

Sorry to say i do sometimes too, if i had more tanks i think it would help me. Rescape it!!

 

[xingu]

thats not good to hear. I have found in the past, that after all tanks are set up etc, that there is sometimes a lull into tank care and maintenance etc, but one has to continue and find the little joys. You are a great photographer, so many take more photos. try setting yourself a goal and breed something different ? maybe it is the weather, I find in winter in Australia it is too yucky andcold to enjoy the joys of water changes etc.
Good luck and hope you get other hints. Stay with us- do not go to the light :lol:

Cheers, I don't even want to take photos of the fish at the moment, I need to make more of an effort to get out and use my camera having bought some new lenses over the last month. It is summer here, so HOT but apartment is air conditioned so the same temperature 365 days a year.

Sorry to say i do sometimes too, if i had more tanks i think it would help me. Rescape it!!

I think that might be the best thing to try, just been looking at some older photos of the big tank and I prefer how it looks then, will give me something to do on Friday.

Changing the stocking will be hard, the missus won't let me move the Angels on, would only really be the Tetra I could swap out.

If I can catch them I might put the Apisto pair in the small tank although I am guessing they would snack on Shrimp?

 

[jessonthenet]

Has this happened to anyone else?

I have two tanks running, a 280 ish litre tank in the living room, a 45 litre tank in the bedroom and I currently have little to no interest in either of them

Apart from doing water changes to keep the water quality fine neither tank gets a second look these days.

Don't know what to do, rescape them, change the stock completely (although to what I have no idea), sell the lot?

Help! :cry:

Yeah I have the same problem at the moment. I have a Juwel rio 400 litre planted and can't even be bothered to fill it with any fish and it is so big but I don't even notice it these days and have a number of times considered getting rid. Plants don't take much maintenance and I do water changes, not as many as I should. My tank is way understocked and nothing catches my fancy these days.

I also have an aquascaped tank in my kitchen about 40 litre with redmoor wood and moss which I look at now and then which a number of times have thought about shutting down and giving away.

So yeah do get what you have right now.

I noticed my interest was going when I wasn't going to fish stores any more and water changes became a chore and so did cleaning out my tanks and also not being on the forums at all.



Not really sure what you can do about it other than set up something new or get a fish you have never kept before?

Even if you left fishkeeping you can always stay on forums and come back to fish at a later date.

 

[zeebo]

thats not good to hear. I have found in the past, that after all tanks are set up etc, that there is sometimes a lull into tank care and maintenance etc, but one has to continue and find the little joys. You are a great photographer, so many take more photos. try setting yourself a goal and breed something different ? maybe it is the weather, I find in winter in Australia it is too yucky andcold to enjoy the joys of water changes etc.
Good luck and hope you get other hints. Stay with us- do not go to the light :lol:

agree with jk, I too have felt the ''slump'', not sure why it happens, and glad you brought it up, thought i was the only one, as so many members seem so ''up'' about their fish/fishkeeping. I am going though a rough spell atm with my tds, sometimes wonder if all the work is worth it, had a total loss back in Feb, and still have not been able to replace my L's but then I look at the tank , the fish living in there and pull myself out of the phase and realize I do really dig these guys and that corner would be so empty with no tank ,sure i got plenty of other things i could put there ,but the tank does make me happy , and even with all the hassles that we all know can pop up , I forge on ,cuz deep inside i love um. Hope you can find the spirit to continue too...rescaping s a greaat start . good luck and keep us informed.

 

[Irene0100]

oh dear sounds like a depression, maybe need a challenge, a new breeding project?

 

[xingu]

As above I may put the Apisto's in the little tank to try that, I have two ceramic caves from Steve that his spawned in.

My Rio ucayali bn's are approaching maturity as well although the bedroom tank is probably a little small for them.

I am going to pull all the decor out of the big tank on friday and see where that gets me.
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[Mooo]

I've felt like it too, but from this going off track..I do hope you get your mojo back

 

[JackGillett]

Xingu have you been to a really good aquatic centre? That helps re ignite your hobby very well

 

[xingu]

Xingu have you been to a really good aquatic centre? That helps re ignite your hobby very well

do you mean a shop or place to visit?

I would be impulse buying at a shop which I don't want to do and the main place I would visit is marine focused, which I certainly don't have the inclination to try at this point in time.

 

[JackGillett]

Yeah a shop. I always enjoy going to places with set ups around the shop. To give me inspiration. Im thinking of going back to a planted set up

 

[xingu]

There is only one good shop here, not been in for months.
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[matubula]

I've had similar feelings for the past couple of years. At times I've hated even going into the room with the tanks, let alone doing anything with them. I've found that, as things stand, it's just a cycle I go through. I think it's because I've not been able to change things, like set up another tank or change focus. I'm so entrenched in Panaque it's really hard to do anything else.

But in the past month or so I've been very positive about them. I'll be leaving home for another university course, and leaving all my fish behind. So I've been cleaning the filters (including my pond filter), feeding more and doing daily water changes (for the past week at least).

The things that have helped me get out of the 'funk' are just simple things like changing something about the tank, or fiddling with some parts to add/improve a filter, and just catching a glimpse of a fish looking really good or feeding out in the open.

 

[scatz]

I think its something that every serious aquarist goes through from time to time.
I have come to terms with it now and know that eventually i'll get over it and find some enthusiam for it all again. just keep up with the water changes etc and you'll soon find something that triggers some enthusiasm for it again

 

[bigbird]

another thing I love to do, is goto the large Aquarium tourist spot and pick out all of the errors they have in the freshwater tanks. IE Putting wrong fish into wrong country areas like plecos in Malawi tank etc. Also it gives me ideas of how to redesign the aquariums. I must say my 5ft display tank, which at our house is on the right of the staircase, gets a make over every 12 months. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[jessonthenet]

I know the disinterest with the large planted tank I have is because the plants have filled every part they can fill other than the small patch at the front that food can be dropped. You wait for ages moving things around and spreading plants out then you achieve what you want so all you can do is look at it and maintain.

The idea and building part is the interesting bit and once you have done that you need something new and for me at the moment I will not strip down a 400 litre tank that took that long to get to what it is now even if it bores me.

I did think about turning the tank into a reef tank but doing that means destroying all of what I already created for something I might not like and preferred the planted so if I want that it may take me another year again so I can't be bothered going around in circles like that.

I think it is a lot easier to add different fish or start a whole new tank which is what I may do at some point but to do that you need money. Money which I need to buy kids uniform and decorate a house and get a car etc etc which gets on my nerves and probably the same for lots of people but you still can't stop thinking about setting up new fish projects even though you know you need the money for other things and don't have the time right now so you go around in circles getting frustrated and bored and angry at yourself , you don't know what to do and you think you don't like fish when really you just need to not think about fish and concentrate on other things.

Maintain your tanks as they will still be there and so will fish stores and fish and projects. You have probably been there done everything in a very short space of time and it hasn't been difficult enough and what you may want is not out of your reach but not practical but you want it but won't because you know what is needed and what it will cause if you do.

I know my problem is restriction as the 5ft planted is no problem for me and just mentioning fish racks or another tank even if only 15 litres or more equipment really stresses my partner out as he thinks fish will take over the house and I have enough so I just get bored if stuck with a large tank and a small tank but know I have to compromise which I don't like doing.

So that is what it is like as a fishkeeper for me. Not like that for fish as they just want fed at night and don't care.

 

[xingu]

Money isn't an issue, space is!

If I was allowed, I would get rid of the bookshelf in the dining room and put an 8 footer where it lives.

Jo (Rare) would then be sending me some monster Panaque and i would have pretty much my dream tank.

However the bookshelf stays so I am stuck with what I got.

 

[bigbird]

why not compromise and build the bookshelf around the 8ft tank ? Now that would be s uper project. :thumbup:

 

[xingu]

why not compromise and build the bookshelf around the 8ft tank ? Now that would be s uper project. :thumbup:

Haha, room isn't big enough.

The larger tank option is a no go, I already have as much tank space in the house as is possible