Is the Hobby Less Fun Than It Used to Be?

I think that we can all agree that there are many reasons to have a hobby. Some of us have one as it helps us relax such as with gardening or needlepoint. For others, a hobby keeps us active and is physically stimulating like skiing, scuba diving, or horseback riding. While others do it for a challenge like with rock climbing or kayaking. But regardless of the reason why one has a hobby, the hobby is only good if it is fun to do. No one partakes in a hobby if it is dull and boring or even if one succeeds it brings no joy or is not fun. 

I have had fish tanks now for almost sixty years and reef tanks for almost forty and I have done this for so long because they are challenging, there is always something new to learn, but mainly because at least for me they are fun. I still find it fun to set up a new tank or re-aquascape a tank or get in a new piece of equipment or a new fish or coral. However, as I talk with other hobbyists, I am beginning to think that for many of them, the hobby is not nearly as much fun as it used to be, and this is worrisome. It’s worrisome in that if this feeling is pervading the hobby it will not be long until a significant number of hobbyists drop out of the hobby.

The COVID spike

It is curious that during COVID there were more hobbyists keeping saltwater and reef tanks in the world and in the US than ever before. Obviously being stuck indoors during this time at least partly led to this. But even before the pandemic, the number of hobbyists was on the rise. In my opinion, this was due to a number of factors including the unprecedented success that we are having keeping things alive, the improvement in equipment and its availability and also that people had extra money so they could afford this hobby. All of these factors coupled with the innate beauty of the fish and corals we keep in this hobby and the joy of keeping rare things alive resulted in the number of hobbyists exploding during the past decade.

Despite this increase in hobbyists and the unprecedented success that many are having this still leads to my opening question: “Are hobbyists having as much fun as they used to have?” Before addressing this, a definition of what fun is is in order. By definition, fun is something that provides enjoyment or amusement or an activity that provides entertainment. Unfortunately for a number of other hobbyists that I have spoken to, they no longer are deriving as much amusement or entertainment from reef keeping as they once did, so I questioned them to find out why this might be the case. I should note that I spoke with a variety of hobbyists both old and new and considered all of their input in trying to formulate why the hobby might now be less fun.

Too expensive

The first reason that many cited was that the hobby had gotten to be too expensive and as a result, they constantly feared losing an expensive coral or fish. To me, this reason is not quite as simple as it might seem. I did an evaluation of the cost of setting up a tank now versus twenty years ago and surprisingly when inflation is accounted for, the cost of setting up a standard reef tank of between 80 and 120 gallons was approximately only 5% more than it was then. And this is despite how much better the equipment and husbandry is today versus twenty years ago.

So, the set-up cost is not really the source of this anxiety, however, when the prices for fish and corals were looked at they are indeed significantly higher than they were twenty years ago. Due to demand being so much higher and supply, especially from wild sources being so much less, it is no wonder that the prices have gone up. 

In addition, while it is often overlooked, the cost of freight, that is the cost of shipping these animals, has in some instances gone up fourfold or more. As a result, these factors have all combined to drive up the cost of livestock to the point, where some pieces are simply out of reach for many hobbyists, or when they are obtained there is a constant fear that they will die. This level of worry has no doubt reduced some of the fun that these older hobbyists and even some new ones used to feel about the hobby.

I hate to point out the obvious, but in order to enjoy the hobby and have more fun it is not always necessary to have the most expensive fish and coral in a tank. I was in the hobby when we primarily kept brown sticks in our tanks and to be honest, I did not have any less fun keeping those corals than I do today when keeping a multi-dimensional rainbow something. So, my advice is that if the cost of something is detracting from your fun, learn to enjoy cheaper fish and corals, they are just as much fun and just as interesting.

Fewer new fish and corals

Another reason I was told that people are having less fun in the hobby is that there are fewer “new” fish or corals entering the hobby. On this, I can agree as over the past decade I have seen fewer and fewer new fish or corals online or in my local fish shops. Part of this is undoubtedly due to so many places now being shut down for collection such as Hawaii, Fiji, the Solomons etc. But this is also our fault as well as our demand is often what drives the market, with the widespread use of blue LEDs many of the maricultured and aquacultured corals coming in are such that they show best under these lights. As a result, the bulk of the Acropora corals coming in are Acropora tenuis and millepora, which show well under these lights. Again, it is up to us to convince the growers that we want more than these corals in our tanks. The same is true with fish. 

We need to convince the collectors that we want fish other than the 40-50 ones that are apparently easy to catch and that fill most of our tanks. In my own experience, I used to wait at my local fish shop for when a new shipment of fish was arriving and it was like Christmas morning for a child as I never knew what was coming in and there was always something new and unexpected. Sadly, this is no longer the case as rarely is there anything new, and even sadder, I no longer see any other hobbyists there waiting for the new arrivals. This lack of excitement and anticipation undoubtedly has reduced the amount of fun that some felt about the hobby.

This sense of excitement and anticipation also led to many of my fellow hobbyists being at the local shop waiting for these shipments. These shipments brought many of us together and from this sense of camaraderie, many friendships were formed. This sense of being in this with a group is another aspect that made this hobby fun. This was also the case from the standpoint of the many marine societies that used to be active.

Clubs and societies

During the early years of the hobby, every city almost had a marine society or club of some type and these societies were where new information was shared. In addition, to sharing information the members often shared, traded, and banked frags and this being in a group of like-minded individuals also added to the fun of the hobby. These clubs also did tank tours where all the members got to see one another’s tanks and again this was fun. Sadly, I rarely see any of this occurring today.

This sense of community is also lacking from the standpoint of sharing new information. During the first decade or so of the hobby, we were happy when we could just keep something alive. So when we did, we would share this success with the others we knew, there were actually only a couple of dozen of us at the time., and they would do the same. There was no internet, and with it no anonymity, so if something worked or failed you took ownership of it. This sense of responsibility was critical for learning and forgetting what worked and what did not out to everyone.

Again, this shared sense of community and looking out for one another was a fun aspect of the hobby, because despite our best efforts, we all failed at this at some point and often this was for seemingly an unknown reason. Back then when we failed and shared the failure everyone in our group would work with us to try and find the reason. Unfortunately, today when I see someone announce their failure, they are often flamed and ridiculed rather than helped, which obviously does not add to one’s sense of enjoyment with this hobby.

Road trips

Lastly, in my opinion, another reason that the hobby has become less fun due to the internet is that the internet has reduced the need for “road trips”. Before the internet if we wanted to see an aquarium or get to a shop for a piece of equipment or a fish or coral it was necessary to physically visit the home or shop. And rather than do this alone we would often gather a few friends and make the trek to the desired destination. Now this may not sound like fun today, but back then it was great to have a few like-minded reef enthusiasts in a car with some snacks and the goal of seeing something new. But even more than that it was the opportunity to talk about our reef tanks for hours on end and share our thoughts and ideas.

I still remember one road trip where myself, Anthony Calfo, Richard Harker, and Jeff Voet made the 4-hour trip up to Dick Perrin’s Tropicorium. This is now almost 30 years ago but I still remember how much fun it was just sharing our different ideas about our tanks and the hobby. Not to mention how excited we were just to visit Dick and see the thousands of corals he was propagating even back then. 

While I still make regular road trips with Sanjay it just isn’t the same. I realize that fun is a subjective term and that everyone has a different idea of it and that a lot of hobbyists hopefully are still having fun in the hobby. It is just my opinion that for the reasons outlined above it just simply is not as much fun as it used to be. Our increased level of success is no doubt making it more fun in this regard than it was in the early years, so maybe it was just that sense of pioneering something new that has made me feel it is less fun. But even more important, I hope that everyone in the hobby is finding new ways to make it more fun and will share those ways and ideas when they do.