The other halfs, wives,partners and girlfriends...

[ste12000]

Well the title says it all..My wife has tonight grew fed up with waiting for me to emerge from the fishroom and has gone to bed alone...This is not unusual but she really does not mind, and is extremely tolerant of me indulging my hobby...she pays no attention to my fishkeeping except looking at the fish(discus) in my living room tank. I think i am lucky not to have a partner who wants to get her hands wet in MY tanks...
I often have people over to buy fish and they are indeed a varied lot, some couples work as a team and choose fish together, others are reluctant taxi drivers for the other half, others come alone and some wait outside in the car...
As a lot of people on here are commited hobbiests and fish fanatics i would like to ask the question to everyone..

How do fish and fishkeeping effect your household and relationships??

 

[Mike Wise]

Diane says that she at least knows where I am when I am working with my fish. It beats other "hobbies":wink:.

 

[wm_crash]

My wife has and two daughers (4 and 7 years old) have been rather understanding. Sometimes too understanting. My main gig was peat spawning killies of the Austrolebias genus. I had about 12 to 15 species. They produce a lot of fry, and you can't even find enough people to take them for free. I would spend 2 hours a day with fish with just routine work.

I decided to cut back considerably on those type of fish. I like them a lot, but they are just a bad deal for someone that has a family. Though I still have a bunch of Austrolebias bags with eggs, I decided to limit myself to two species only. I picked Apisto sp. Wilhelmi and Betta macrostoma. The apistos are doing very well; the bettas are on their way.

I also have a "pretty" tank in the family room that has been taken over by Betta channoides fry at different stages. I would say close to 100 of them. This was supposed to be the nice and planted tank, but it ended up a lame looking tank because of the fish breeding in there, and me chasing the adults around with a net. Once the smaller fry grow a bit, I will move them all in the basement, and the family room tank will be truly dedicated to being a show tank.

So overall, I have very good understanding from my wife, and with nobody to hold me in check, things got out of hand. All is under control now

cheers,
wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

 

[DH247]

Being a touch younger myself, the women in my life that are here at one point may not necessarily be there the next. However, as I am getting older and actually begin figure out what I look for in someone I have realized that I need them to be understanding of me. This includes my many hobbies and my sometimes fanatical (ok ok borderlineline OCD) habits. Riding bikes is a big part of my life, so are the martial arts and my R/C trucks and helis. But I have such an appreciation for unique species and habitats that it's hard not having them in my life. So I also grow orchids, SCUBA dive avidly and run as many tanks as I possibly can.

This being said, the woman in my life now is very supportive of all these things and quite enjoys the final products of my labours. She also has her own hobbies and interests that she spends time on. So it's all good.... probably until one day long down the line where the fish and orchid room need to turn into a nursery..... then I can say there will be a lot of great things growing in there! Hahaha! Oh gawd..... That's definitely gonna be a while!!!

 

[tjudy]

My wife insists that the fish are cheaper than golf (a former habit) and they keep me out of the bars....

 

[BristolCichlids]

My last wife hated fish and me in the fishroom with the fish always complaining. SO she told me either the fish go or she will. I told her the fish were here before her and will be long after. Well she found a boy (18 years younger) at work who understands her and I left with the fish. One month later I was dating someone and when we went into her bedroom she had a breeding pair of Jack Dempsey's in a 30 gallon tank!
I ended up marrying her and it has been great! I now have 40 tanks, buy any fish I want and spend as much as I want. I now have her running/scribing at auctions and spending just as much , if not more than me on fish. I even brought her son & fiance to the last auction where they were runners and now they each have a tank! I moved her up to a 72 bow-front in the bedroom and a 55 gallon in the exercise room that are hers. I moved all my tanks into her converted garage and I am enjoying life! Next year in Cincy she will attend her fish ACA week and we can't wait.
Take notes all you guys who have wives that hate fish or hate the hobby! Maybe you just need to bring them to a fish weekend/auction so they can see what it is all about? I could not get my EX to go.

Good Luck!

 

[Lisachromis]

I met my husband on a fish chat (FishRoom - does anyone remember this chat?). For my birthday, he got me a tank. Doesn't get much better than that! :redface:

 

[Gillie]

When my wife and I got together ten years ago she had asked me to stop doing things that could injur me. So jumping dirt bikes, skateboards etc. had to stop along with the mma. I had always had one or two tanks running, but with the loss of the other hobbies my aquarium hobby exploded. Now instead of worrying about my health and saftey she rolls her eyes and snickers a little anytime she herer the word fish, but she has grown to accept it and doesn't really mind.

 

[Jilly]

My hubby set up a fishroom in the back of our garage and I was sort of interested, then he took me to an auction...........well after that I was totally hooked. I do most of the water changes and day to day stuff whilst he is at work, then when he comes home we go and potter about together. We are currently planning extending our fishroom, we have about 40 tanks at the moment and the same again to go in part two!

We were close before but sharing a hobby makes us even closer, we have two young kids, one loves fish the other hates them Our days out usually consist of going to auctions and fish shops :biggrin: