What is it about this hobby?

[techman81]

Since taking up this hobby just over a year ago (not including the year of research and learning) I find that, more than any other hobby I've had, it has sucked me in and become the central focus of my free time. I spent years home brewing but that hobby never consumed me like this. I was into rock collecting and polishing but that lasted only a few years. I've been an avid golfer all my adult life, but I never spent so much time thinking about that as I do this. My other big hobby has always been camping, and while that has been a true love, I've spent less and less time doing it the last few years, and now with the aquariums and all the side projects that go with them, I see myself wanting to take long camping trips diminishing even more. I wonder, if I'd taken up this hobby a few decades earlier, if I would have saved the money spent on those other hobbies, or just spent all on this instead.

It was 75 degrees in KC today . I pulled my tiny teardrop camper out of the garage to wash it. I'm prepping it to go up for sale soon. I'd always planned to get a slightly bigger camper when I sold this, but now, I have no plans to buy another. I do plan to travel when I retire, but that will be the occasional trips outside the U.S. and hopefully by then, I'll have someone trained to take care of the aquariums while I'm away. My friend mentioned the other day, I'm like a farmer now, I can never go anywhere because I have crops to take care of.

 

[Gwad]

I've had a similar experience with this hobby becoming the central focus of most my free time and attention. I think it's partially because it covers so many different things: crafting, science/learning, nature, visual arts, tech, gear hoarding, etc. It's like an all-in-one hobby I can spend a stupid amount of time online reading about it, and I think many of the folks here are in the same boat.

 

[VJM]

For me, it’s creativity + science + escapism. We dream up this little, beautiful worlds and then we have to learn how to bring them into reality and maintain them. There is so much to know that you never reach the end, and you are evolving and growing as an artist/gardener/fish keeper as you go. It’s never perfect, it’s always changing, so you have to embrace that and respond.

 

[techman81]

Oh, I guess there's also the pet aspect of it. While fish may not bond with us the way dogs and cats do, it's still feels good to see how excited they get at feeding time.

 

[Art]

I think is has to do with the call of nature in all of us. This hobby is an outlet for that.

Note, I don't mean "nature calls". I mean the instinctual longing for nature and how it makes us feel.

 

[techman81]

I think is has to do with the call of nature in all of us. This hobby is an outlet for that.

Note, I don't mean "nature calls". I mean the instinctual longing for nature and how it makes us feel.

hence, my love of camping as well.