SereneReyn

I've always been partial to 'natural' tank environments.... as a personal choice, i would never go with blue gravel and hot-pink plants, etc... (absolutely not criticizing anyone that prefers that sort of thing) but i would so much rather see lots of realistic looking (if not actually real) plants, some driftwood, and maybe a few rocks... and so when i ordered some things online, i chose eco-complete, a package deal of real plants and 4 hunks of driftwood...

prior to this, my husband has shown little interest, but the other day at the LFS, he really perked up at some of the 'sunken ships' they have there. admittedly they do have some really nice ones, (battleships, pirate ships, subs, helicopters, even a good copy of the titanic...) he said he'd really like to see something like that in there, or maybe a big skull... (rofl, there's no way i could go for a skull...) anyway, long story short, i'm contemplating putting one of those $100 ships in there... i could live with it, even tho it's not my preference... but that's alot of money to shell out for something that he would prefer if he's really not THAT into the whole fish thing. i'd like to get him more interested, but... dang.

should i stick with what i've got and hope that the fish themselves pique his interest when they finally go in?

Firecracker

How big is your tank? If it is 30g or larger, I say get a smallish thing that he likes, just to get him invested in it too but one that is unobtrusive and still works with your settings. FWIW, my fiance and I are the same. We both like natural stuff but he also likes pirates. I wouldn't mind a realistic looking sunken ship, but he likes Jack Sparrow ... ummm.

Otherwise, you could let him pick out some of the fish ... we are still waiting for ours to finish cycling, so we don't have any yet, but my fiance really likes the plecos, eels, and anything ugly or strange looking. He could care less about the colorful pretty fish that I like. So you could let him pick out a few fish and that might get him interested without a $100 pirate ship, too.

SereneReyn

it's 72g, plenty big enough... but i kinda think it should be one or the other, so i'd probably opt to not put in most of the driftwood (tho i'd keep the live plants). and he wants fish that aren't really compatible with the fish i want. he's uh... kind of clueless about fish anyway, and not into researching - so compromising in that area is rather difficult. he'd also rather i did saltwater, tho maintenance is entirely my responsibility... lol. as it is, he kept pointing out fake coral and stuff and saying "that would look nice..."

susitna-flower

I say, if it is your interest, you should choose what you want to take care of. $100 is a lot to put into a tank without even knowing if it will have a lasting affect of peaking his interest.

On the other hand, if HE wants a tank, maybe you could encourage him to get a 75 gallon tank for himself, and choose the decorations AND fish, and this might just be the thing that gets him into it! Then you would probably have to do maintenance, but you would still have your favorite tank also. Good Luck

lisamorie

wow, are your husband and mine brothers?! you guys should have seen mine throwing his version of a tantrum at the pet store the other day over what we are gonna put in the new 55. of course, i also ordered plants, but i wanted the substrate to be natural and he wants colors, etc. ughh, and you think he wants to do the work? nope, not at all... and he wants ships and skulls, or even worse and probably preferrably, castles and dragons so... the 55 is mine, and we got him a 29 gal tank that he can do with what he wants, so we'll see!

Timesdragonfly

if he wants to spend 100 on a sunken ship, cool, as long as it doesn't come out of bill money or grocery money or rent... etc but I wouldn't spend the money on it myself if I were you!

sirdarksol

Why not both? I'm with you on the natural settings, but it's possible to incorporate both. Come up with a "scene". Maybe a lake made out of blue-grey rock with a ship floating in it, or a tree-lined lake bottom with a sunken ship. That way, there's something in it for both of you.
When my wife wanted a tall hex tank with platinum mollies, I wasn't originally on-board. I wanted guppies, but I wanted to give her a setup that she wanted. Pretty soon, she was making decisions about all of the tanks, and calling the fish "hers."

SereneReyn

the lake idea is neat and stuff, but not realistic, imo.

lisa - lol, castles and dragons are up there on his list too! but they kinda fall in with skulls for me... i can do a shipwreck, but that's already a big compromise for me, hehe...

i think i'll wait and see how everything i got looks.

sirdarksol

Sorry. I hear "natural" with regards to tanks and I think of zen gardens like what Takeshi Amano does. Adding a ship to this kind of thing isn't all that far of a stretch.
I don't generally think of biotope-like setups, because that's not the kind of tank I normally set up.

KittieKat

i felt the same way and had the same thing happening with my guy... he wasnt completely into the whole crazy mts fish thing but found a $70 sunken battleship that he loved...... sooooo... i bought a 125gal to put it into.. lol

hes rather spoiled but my fish are reeking the benefits!!

COBettaCouple

The thing I'd bring up about those decorations is - could the fish that you plan to get, get stuck or injured on them?

capekate

Hi Serene...
I feel for your problem.. lol. What is it about husbands and those dang ships and skulls? hehe... My husband was the same way. He found a steer skull at Petsmart that he wanted for the tank. I thought it really nice that he was interested in the hobby. Tho the skull was not part of my plan. lol.
My background paper was southwestern type anyway and so I thought.. well, we will get the skull, put it in the tank for awhile, make him happy and I can take it out later. Which is what I did. Had it in the tank for a few months and then when I did a re-do in the tank, I took it out before he came home from work. He said.. the tank looks good, wheres the skull? lol.. Btw, it never went back in.
I hear ya on the ships.. some of the more expensive ones do look very nice, tho I wouldnt want it in my tank either. BUT tis a good way to get him involved and so... you may have to concede so that he can be a part of it all. At a later time.. you can always rearrange things.. lol

~ kate

sirdarksol

Hey, I'd like to point out, amid all of this "husbands this, husbands that" that it was my wife who wanted to add the resin decorations to our tanks.

capekate

... haha.. ok ... Sirdarksol.. I have seen your beautiful tanks and you are the exception to the rule! hehe...

~ kate

Blub

travie

I would say compromise, by getting a shipwreck that you could incorporate with your overall natural look. I wouldn't spend a $100 on one though. Keep looking for a shipwreck that looks somewhat natural, then decorate to make it look like its been sunk for decades.

Firecracker

I'd like to hear the guys explain why they all seem to think shipwrecks, skeletons etc. are so cool!

travie

I like the natural look myself. But I could easily see myself incorporating something like a shipwreck if it looked like a realistic shipwreck.