How do your significant others deal with your fish addiction?

How do your significant others deal with your fish addictions?

I know it can be a tough thing. I want to know how your signifacant others/family members deal with your problems... My family makes fun of me but they miss my tank when I take it to school with me.

My long term boyfriend makes fun of me and calls me a crazy addict.. but when it comes to the tank, he's always helpful. He goes with me to pet stores. Comforts me when I have a loss. Understands when I'm late because I'm cleaning the tank. haha How is it for all of you?


Here are some signs I've thought of to tell if you're a fish addict:

~You are late for appointments because you are doing a water change.
~You avoid going away for more than a night for fear of a death in the "family".
~You refer to your fish as "your babies".
~You bring your fish up in conversation, using their names and expect people to know who you are talking about.
~You can't drive past a Petco without going in.
~You can't leave a Petco without buying something and/or getting in a fight about fish rights.
~You have learned more science than you ever did in high school biology.
~You have frozen fish food in your freezer and defrosting in the fridge.
~You carry info sheets on Betta cups to give to people in need.
~You are more worried about your fish tank in a power failure than you are about your home.
~You know what MTS means... and you most likely have it.
~You know Betta's are the gateway fish.
~You loose sleep by staying up late on Fishlore.

>

 

My SO (or DH, to be specific) has come to terms with it. I think he's just relieved they are contained in a glass case unlike the dogs, lol. He's really very understanding that it's my hobby, and does enjoy watching the fish...he's even concerned about Hollywood, my betta that was attacked by my other male when I was out of town (divider jumping). In turn, I try to be supportive of his hobbies...it works.

A few more:

~ People visiting say something innocent like "oh, what a pretty tank" and you find yourself talking about how you are concerned about the nitrate levels getting a bit high and your fears that it will lead to a crash because you can't remember if you added quite enough dechlorinate to the water during your last change and it may have disturbed your bacteria levels and...
~ Repeat guests studiously avoid mentioning, looking at, or even passing near your tank for fear of setting off the above.
~ You have a working list of fish/plants you'd like to own, and to actually fulfill the list and house them you'd need to buy a well-stocked store out of aquariums.
~ You actually notice your fish's moods, and talk about them like that's normal.
~ One of your criterion when moving is that you can first test the water supply so that you can prepare accordingly.

 

hahaha yes. All signs... hahaha

 

My family has taken to ignoring me and rolling their eyes.

Don't they know, empty ones don't count and until they are filled they won't here the end of it? (maybe) Geez.

Except for the betta who my husband talks to her every day by wiggling his finger saying "pretty fishy fishy fishy"
Heaven forbid I turn her light out before he says good night to her. ;D

 

mines been looking for a FAA class for me! he even posted a blog on yahoo looking for help for me ..he won't even let me stop at yardsales no more (great deals at yardsales!) but, we aren't married so he won't make me choose between fish or him

 

Tooooo funny! I answered yes on ALL the above.. signs you are a fish addict! I can soooo relate to what Shaina added as well.. hahah, now I know I am not alone in my addiction and responses to my friends and guests
My husband has been very supportive. At first he tried to fight my urge for more tanks.. but at the same time he would drive me to a yard sale where one was for sale lol..
He helps carry the buckets with every water change and reminds me .."Did I add the prime to that bucket?" lol.... Mentions to me when he doesn't see the heater light go on and has me make sure its working. Asks me if we need to do a water change today? He has also named most of our fish in the community tank too.
He will NOT go to the fish store with me anymore tho.. I take too long lol...
He has stopped bugging me about my need to add another tank. And has basically thrown in the towel where the fish are concerned. lol.. And is very surprised when I come home from the LFS for supplies withOUT a fish!
He isn't crazy about the time I spend on fishlore tho... and I try to compromise and stay away while he is home. I have to give in somewhere! :;a2 He has been so good about my addiction....

 

Here is thread on another fish forum I'm on.
1. The driveway and side of the house is filled with styro boxes, rocks, wood etc.
2. There are little pockets of sand and gravel on the front lawn, the shed is crammed with old filter parts, breeding boxes, gravel, broken nets, cracked glass covers..and the tools and lawnmower are leaning against the wall outside
3. Their shoes are taped up with gaffer tape but they leave the LFS with a new Eheim
4. The blender now lives in the fish room
5. The pantry houses more food for the fish than for the human occupants
6. There are enough empty plant pots in the shed to start a new nursery
7. There is $1500.00 of precious limetone in the driveway and a power disconnection notice on the table
8. Their undies are full of holes but the new $80.00 piece of wood looks fantastic!!
9. They have AAE and AQIS on speed dial
10. The medicine cabinet if full of fish treatments
11. They can’t go out to the party because there’s a documentary on about the spawning behaviour of chromides
12. They cancel a dinner engagement at the last minute because their rams might spawn soon and they want to watch
13. Latin is the preferred language
14. Talk of “spitting” and “swallowing” is allowed at the dinner table
15. There isn’t any freezer space left for human consumables
16. More emotion is shown at a fish death than the plight of the refugees
17. They notice that 1 out of 253 Uaru fry is missing but they have no idea what day it is
18. They can’t hear their partner calling them, but can hear a splash from the back room
19. There are near empty bottles of 5 different brands of buffers and salts in the cupboard
20. There is a box of broken heaters stashed away for safe keeping in the linen cupboard
21. The different types of limestone in the shed have common names eg. cathedral rock, sandwich rock, lacey rock, holey rock etc.
22. There is silicone on every article of clothing owned
23. They don’t notice the microworm smell till a visitor asks what the **** the stink is
24. Their kids eat black and gold raw oats whilst the microworms get Uncle Toby’s rolled oats
25. They miss meals to pay for the new colony that they have ordered
26. Their partner can’t find any extension cords, power paks or double adaptors but they know they bought new ones
27. When they turn off the power at their house, all the homes around them get a power surge
28. The fish shed is neater than the house
29. The only place to sit is on the floor
30. Verge side pickups become a mecca for “useful stuff”
31. The brakes are suddenly slammed on when a piece of poly pipe (read pleco home) is spotted along the freeway
32. Polygamy, threesomes and harems are acceptable
33. They wonder why the groceries cost so much, but don’t mind forking out $600.00 for three fish
34. Pregnant women are referred to as “holding”
35. They travel all over town looking for the “perfect” shell
36. They can strip and repair a filter inside of 5 minutes blindfolded, but can’t replace a light globe or washer
37. The fridge is full of brine shrimp and bloodworms in icecream containers
38. They can’t hear the baby crying but sit up all night nursing a catfish
39. The warmest room in the house is the fishroom
40. There is always enough time to visit the LFS…but they didn’t get round to picking up the kids
41. They consider that talking to fish is acceptable, but talking to other pets is odd
42. When a friend has a baby, they congratulate them on the spawning
43. They consider a tank of fish to be people
44. They have no problem doing waterchanges at 10:30pm or later even though it is not an emergency
45. They never have money for anything, but there’s always money somewhere for fish
46. Their bookshelf is comprised exclusively of aquarium books
47. The favourites list in their web browser is comprised exclusively of aquarium links
48. It’s hard to get to their bed, because of the tanks in the way
49. No one can understand why they have so many fish
50. There are a stack of net frames in a box…just in case they may be useful later
51. They have no trouble spelling Astatotilapia latifasciatus off the top of their head but need a dictionary for words like Wednesday
52. They find out that the spare room was actually built to house beds, not tanks
53. They nag all their neighbours for empty ice cream containers
54. Their sister can’t find any of her hair lacky’s
55. They worry more about how clean and tidy their tank is than their home
56. They spend more money on fish food and medicines than on their own shopping
57. They sit down in front of the TV to watch a new release movie and have to play it 4 times; they remember absolutely nothing of the movie except that in the last 12 hours, their shy catfish has shown its face for a total of 4 minutes
58. Ten minutes of watching television bores them stupid, but they’ll stare into a fish tank for 3 hours without a break
59. All the kitchen jugs are scattered through the fish rooms
60. All the sharp kitchen knives are now blunt from cutting poly, wood, rock etc.
61. Tea spoons and desert spoons are bent out of shape
62. There are bags of pool salt in the driveway….and no pool
63. They can never find 2m of continuous airline, but there is about 20m worth of 30cm pieces
64. The bicarb has vanished from the pantry
65. The dogs & cats are allowed on the lounge/bed/arm-chairs/lap and in the car/dunny/bed…but not the “…bloody Fish-Room!!!!”
66. Guests are “escorted” into the Fish Room/Shed and told the details of your latest acquisition/spawning/release…like it or not!!
67. They spend three days bent over a never ending bucket of gravel - scrubbing the muck off of it
68. …and then sit bent over the same 500 kg of gravel extracting the 2mm brown gravel from the 5mm white stones
69. They have enough left, but just want that little extra BIO-MEDIA for assurance
70. They continually ask their partner where the scissors are; even though they were the last to use them
71. They push through the pain barrier when lugging buckets of gravel, but complain all the way back to the car with the grocery bags
72. They have no idea what state Geelong is in, but can pin point a location on an unmarked Lake malawI shoreline map
73. When their partner yells “Where the **** is…” they have already left the room before hearing what the missing item is
74. There aren’t any bag ties for the rubbish bags left in the drawer
75. The holes in the colander/sieve are blocked with gravel
76. There aren’t any pot scourers on the kitchen sink, but there are 3 in the fish room, 2 in the loungeroom, 4 in the spare room and 9 in the garage
77. There are more Tupperware lids than containers in the cupboard
78. All the buckets have “Fish Bucket” written on them, including the replacement ones that their partner just bought
79. There are never any towels in the linen cupboard, but there are tons of them in the fish shed
80. Their partner goes to re-pot that house plant and finds an empty bag of peat and a crumpled up (empty) packet of fertiliser sticks
81. Their partner backs over a piece of wood on the lawn and they are more concerned about the broken wood than the staked tyre
82. They detected white spot on fry but didn’t see the (now spilt) cup of tea on the floor
83. Their cook books include recipes for “Do It Yourself Fish Foods”
84. They re-arrange all the zucchinis in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket, ensuring that they choose the one with the least blemishes
85. They rush for a towel to clean up slops on the front glass, but sit and watch the bundy and coke soak into the carpet
86. The toilet bowl is stained because all the “CLR clear” was used on that second hand tank bargain
87. The second hand tank bargain ended up costing $30.00 more in “CLR clear”
88. They use silicon to fill holes in walls, seal gaskets in their car, plug up holes in shoes, fix the kid’s Star Wars figure, as a substitute for tap washers, seal the bird bath…..
89. They see fish patterns on the lino in the loo at the local pub
90. They hear the word Veija used during a TV add for a Latin musical ensemble and suddenly become interested
91. The carpets in their car are littered with bits of rock, wood and “unextractable” beach sand
92. All the masonary drill bits are blunt from their use in creating limestone “rock art”
93. They can only be contacted via PM
94. Their kitchen tongs are missing after they were used to extract shells and coral from the boiling pot of water on the stove
95. They feel that it is never too cold or wet to collect limestone for that new set-up
96. They won’t retrieve a football from the roof for fear of falling, but will confidently clamber around cliff faces in search of that elusive perfect rock
97. They drive back from the beach dragging the exhaust, but won’t stop to offload any rock to relieve the burden
98. They are so lazy as to drive 150m to the corner shop for smokes, but will haul limestone for 12km back to the car without complaining
99. They replace an old tank fluoro on the same day, but the globe in the laundry has been blown for 7 months
100. They walk out of Spotlight with more dacron than an upholster would use in a year
101. They constitute the largest majority of both in and out patients at Graylands
101. Unable to contact them via their home telephone (Line busy on ACE), have to PM them first requesting they log off.
102. Their kids warn friends; “Don’t even look at the tanks. Don’t say anything about them, he will see your interested and you won’t be able to get away from him, for hours”
103. Second freezer is for the normal/people food
104. A marinara dinner consists of the food that the fish reject
105. There are no ice cube trays in the freezer, well none that actually have ice in them
106. Their protable generator has its oil changed on a two monthly basis, just in case, but their car is still only 3000km overdue
107. Their water changes take only six hours each week. (Oh and next week they promise that they will get around to installing the dishwasher)
108. Their garden lawn is barren, except for where the hose from the tanks waterchanges reaches; there the lawn is lush and green
109. Their partner yells every time they have a shower because it has an inch of sand on the floor of the recess (ok, ok…I’ll clean it up now….. )
110. They wiill only date someone of the star sign of Pisces
111. You are happy to spend $500 on a new tank, but only $5 on something for the kids
112. They have a jar of recycled elastic bands
113. There are corresponding piles of used fish bags shoved in drawers, the pantry, on shelves…
114. Buckets are a main decorative feature in the living room
115. Their friends, who are into fish, use them as tech support
116. Their idea of a holiday is visiting the third world countries, so that they can see where their favourite fish come from
117. They constantly complain about bent nets or holes in nets, but can’t justify the price to replace them (even though there is always money for fish)
118. They join a fish forum and realise that they are already friends with nearly all the members
119. They’ve lost more money in fish that have died than they’ve spent on any other hobby (drinking is a hobby)
120. While watching Amazon documentaries, they impatiently wait for cutscenes to what’s living beneath the water and not the bird on the shore line
121. During said documentary, they can identify the fish that the birds are eating, but haven’t a clue what type of bird it is
122. Word association always leads to fish somehow eg. Africa - MalawI -”MalawI cichlids”, Brazil - Amazon - “Amazonian cichlids)
123. A trip into the city is now boring to them because Perth CBD doesn’t have fish stores
124. Their wallets are bursting with LFS business cards and the pics. of the kids have been relocatted to the bedside drawer
125. They would rather be broke and have those fancy fish, then have money and “common” fish
126. They wonder why there are so many flies in the house during summer and mosquitos during winter, then realise that they used the fly wire on the door for making fry savers
127. When they come home and notice there is white spot, it causes more mental damage than when they walk in on their parents going at it
128. Phrases like..”What do you mean you want a bath? Where’s the driftwood gonna go ? Have a shower instead…what buckets in the shower ?” are commonly heard in their house
129. There’s one day every week, where they walk into a room and the carpet goes “squelch squelch squelch”
130. They can’t sleep at someone else’s house because without the bubbling and humming noises, it is too quiet
131. They somehow have over 50 appliances running from one wall socket
132. Their shelves look like a chemist shop drug display
133. The people in the shop give them strange looks when they purchase several large bore syringes along with 2 tons of aquarium stuff
134. When going through the grocery bill they notice that the most they spent on ‘human food’ was $4.95, but for the fish it was $12.95 (zucchini)
135. They cause a 10 car pile up when they slam on the brakes to checkout a roadside council limestone dump
136. Spent about 20 mins reading this to see how many of them resembled themselves.
They are all really funny.
Tom

 

hahahaha I'm glad to see that I'm not alone!!!

 

I was at my cousins house for his birthday this weekend and I said out loud, 'Wow it's quiet'. My parents said, 'What are you talking about? There's at least 30 of us here and all are talking.', but I said that there was no tank to hear the bubbles or filter moving the water.
Tom

 

My hubby just tells me when he dies he wants to come back as one of my Chihuahuas or fish.....

 

My hubby just tells me when he dies he wants to come back as one of my Chihuahuas or fish.....

meeeeeee too!;D

 

My boyfriend deals with it by putting his foot down and not letting me get out of control. I figure that where we are at is a compromise. He was dead set against me getting any fish and said I wouldn't like what happened to my fish if I brought any home. After months of me asking on and off if I could have a fish, he bought me a tank. Every so often, I bring up the idea of another tank, and I get shot down...but, really, just having one is pretty great, all things considered.

 

Luckily my fiance might even have MTS worse than me.

 

hahaha oh boy...

 

My wife has it as well just not as bad as me. She will take me to our LFS and buy me the things I want. So it is quite nice.

 

Its easy........................You get them addicted too.

 

My husband is very supportive. At first, he didn't understand my need for more tanks, but he eventually gave in and said that my happiness is the most important thing to him. He has a hard time saying no to me. Now our house is pretty much stocked to the max with tanks, and I made him a promise after my last two betta adoptions, that I would not get any more tanks. I told him that when we buy a home (which we are saving up to do), I will get rid of most of my small tanks, and put the fish together into bigger community tanks. This way I will have less tanks and get to keep all my fish. The only small tanks I will keep are my bettas of course As for the rest of my family....they think I am crazy. They make fun of me whenever we get together for a family event and I try not to get my feelings hurt- though my sister and my mom tend to take things a little too far. My dad really finds my hobby interesting, but he is the type of guy who loves nature and would find a documentary on fish to be fascinating. I am happy to have all of my addicted fish friends here to talk to who understand exactly the type of stuff I have to put up with!

 

It's pretty easy for me, cause there's nobody like that in my life right now, so I can get as many tanks as I want, as long as my parents don't take them away from me.
Tom

 

lol! I like that philosophy

 

At first, DH didn't get my obsession. Then he was given a 90 gallon saltwater setup. Now he's worse than I am!!

 

At first, DH didn't get my obsession. Then he was given a 90 gallon saltwater setup. Now he's worse than I am!!

haha that's great.

 

Bede do you have any pics of the setup. I would love to see what y'all have done with it!

 

Fortunately for me, Stacy is as addicted to fish as I am.

 

I got a betta in a bowl that I had to upgrade to a tank ASAP silly people giving others a betta in a bowl for Christmas. I never told my BF I had an addiction that I worked through years ago. He gave me a 29 gallon tank for valentines day. Now when he comes over he counts tanks and looks at them saying I wished I could grow plants in my 55. He expects any day now to come over to a bedroom without a bed and more tanks. He hasn't seen the 40 I have in my bedroom since he has been so busy with school and work. He will be ok he will have to join the a support group for those in love with MTS, he is probably checking out the yellow pages right now. You think I should tell him the real reason I can't go on vacation with him is because it will mess up my water changing schedule? The only thing I don't do is name my fish. All my bettas are called vicious little fishes. "It is feeding time my vicious little fishes."

 

My boyfriend and I got into the hobby together equally addicted. I am addicted to betta so I have more tanks than he does.

 

All my bettas are called vicious little fishes. "It is feeding time my vicious little fishes."

OMG!!! I play Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football.... and my team name has ALWAYS been "The Vicious Fishes"!!!!!

 

Here are some pictures of our new 90 gallon Saltwater tank for you Cory.

 

That tank is AWESOME Andy!!!!!!!!!!!

 

lol your tank is awesome!!

 

My husband has got into the looking at the tanks part, and enjoys kicking back in a chair in front of the tanks when he comes home from work, so as long as I take care of them he loves them... so it works out great I can have all the fish I want.. (in fact he wants to get the bigger mbuna tank)

 

lol

I mentioned about how I'm moving to an apartment... When we found out, my boyfriend gave me this Grinch of a smile and just said "...bigger tank??? ;D" haha