March 11, 2016

Rituals...

Do you engage in some "daily rituals" with your aquariums?

Yeah, I will almost GUARANTEE that you do! I was musing about this today as I went about my early morning "procedures" around my tank...

I have my morning ritual down. Walk in room where aquarium is. Smell. Quick visual leak scan. Everything sounds normal? When the room lighting is sufficient to see inside, quick visual inspection of aquascape..Nothing fell over? Good! No massive nasty algae breakout? Excellent. Temp okay? Great.

Ahh, all of my Spotted Headstanders are up and around...Okay, Apistos doing their thing...No fry yet...? Grr. How many Pencilfish are around? All present and accounted for. Good. As for the other Tetras- damn, they're so fast, quick census is the best i can do for now...Looks good...

And so on.

Kind of like making coffee, right? I mean, yes, lots of people drink a cup of coffee in the morning- but it's way more than that, when you think about it...It's the preparation, right? Grinding the beans, filling the coffee maker...the sights, the sounds, the aroma...all part of the package.

Just like aquarium rituals. A complete sensory experience, for sure! Way more than just a glance at your tank. No matter how rushed you are.

An of course, then there are the procedures, right? Water level need topping off? Easy. lighting coming up. Check. Need to change out a filter sock? Super easy.

Time to feed. That's the fun part, when it's time to "interact" with my fishes. And of course, feeding involves several "sub-rituals", including selection of the feed, preparation (thawing or sorting), etc.

This goes on in fish-geek households around the world, every day. Kind of interesting, when you take into account that we all general do things pretty much the same, with a few personal variations, of course. I mean, I fish geek with a 50-tank fish room will start the day far different than me with my paltry two display tanks...

It's part of our "culture", for sure!

When you think about it, hobbyists in general are very ritualistic, right? Almost every aspect of what we do, from setting up an aquarium, to adding fishes, to cleaning, is based on time-honored "rituals" and procedures that we've developed based on our personal needs. And , if you ask me, the daily aquarium rituals in which we engage not only become enjoyable and beneficial to us and our fishes- they add to the body of knowledge of aquarium science, and perpetuate our "culture", for the benefit of all.