A little statists help from the mods please

[Mikeltee]

Aaron, the guy that has maintained my tank for a decade and I had an interesting conversation the last time he was here. He asserts that with the coral reefs in rapid decline and millenials having no money so in turn no interest in reefing, the saltwater industry will be dead in 10 years. I told him no way! No one can keep coral or fish in stock and this was before covid struck. He came back with there is a lot less stores specializing in reef goods which is the reason. Here in Indianapolis, he is right. There are approximately 25% of stores in business compared to a decade ago when "Tanked" was a popular show which he claims was the golden days of the industry... and rightfully so. I realize that the excellent reliable logistics of online sales is partly to blame for this trend. I told him about all the activity in the forums which seems to be mainly young people, and he said I would like to see the statistics of active members now vs 10 years ago.

So someone please, with some concrete numbers, compare active membership between now and 10 years ago. I'm just looking for a rough percentage. If your exact numbers are your business only than by all means, keep it to yourself.

Does anyone agree with Aaron and that this hobby has been in decline for a decade and will eventually crumble? I sure hope not. The last I read marine biologists are sowing new, hardy strains of coral on the dead reefs and they are taking off. It would take a century to repopulate all the dead reefs, but it is a good sign that they have a future!

 

[jerrod]

I think it’s the same as any hobby where it comes and goes, it’ll be popular then not then come back again. When tanked was on it exposed a lot of people to aquariums and got them interested which helped but there are those that will see a neighbors tank or friends and get started.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Probably right since millennials have the attention span and patience of a ________

Be hard to get numbers since r2r wasn’t like it is these days and rc was the king of reef forums.

 

[Alanna102499]

Very interesting. Honesty where I live there were tons of LFS 10 years ago. (Just north of NYC) I think the internet and big stores (Petco etc) have killed the little guys. IMHO, I would think membership would probably would be on an uptick, 1 - Due to the internet being more accessible now then 10 years ago 2- everyone uses Google and if you search a reefing or saltwater question inevitably you will be brought to R2R for the answer (that’s a good thing) 3 - COVID and people are home & obsessing over their eco-system they are staring at ;-) Myself one of them.

As for young people in the hobby. I’m 44 , and everyone I’ve dealt with in-person has been a millennial. Again, I only started on 4/11/20. Young people will always find a way to monetize something and a good percentage of them will probably continue or return to the hobby if they found any joy in it at all as they get older...

I think trends come and go, popularity comes and goes but the true enthusiast & hobbits will always be there. It is up to the enthusiasts to pass along the joy to others. Like a father and his sports teams, or a family and it’s traditions. Somethings just will always have a place...

 

[WVNed]

I hate to point it out. But it's not just reefing. Hobby shops are gone, speed shops for cars.
Motorcycle shops, bicycle shops, bait shops. BMX tracks, SCCA sports car club. RC flying clubs.

As near as I can tell Americans don't do anything interesting anymore.

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

Okay Boomers, lol, millennials are like 25-39 year olds so think of all the 25-39 year old people you deal with in reefing.

 

[Mikeltee]

Okay Boomers, lol, millennials are like 25-39 year olds so think of all the 25-39 year old people you deal with in reefing.

There probably arent many boomers here. My guess is mostly millenials with gen Xers being a close second which I am.

 

[Mikeltee]

I hate to point it out. But it's not just reefing. Hobby shops are gone, speed shops for cars.
Motorcycle shops, bicycle shops, bait shops. BMX tracks, SCCA sports car club. RC flying clubs.

As near as I can tell Americans don't do anything interesting anymore.

I agree with you there. Everyone now lives vicariously through others on the internet. It's a lot cheaper this way, but no where near as satisfying nor healthy! There is just so much input out there that you can be totally into one thing one day, and the next day become a theoretical master of something totally different. They used to call this ADHD. I just think its information overload.

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

There probably arent many boomers here. My guess is mostly millenials with gen Xers being a close second which I am.

You'd be pretty close to correct. This was from last year.

 

[monti mike]

Probably right since millennials have the attention span and patience of a ________

Be hard to get numbers since r2r wasn’t like it is these days and rc was the king of reef forums.

Millennial here - I’ve been in the hobby for 12 years now. You’re right, we must all have no patience or attention span. :rolleyes:

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Also a millennial, (28) and most of the people I know locally are around my age....

I visited a LFS today. At the beginning of the year we had 5. February the one that had been open the longest closed its doors for good. The one I visited today is closing for good this weekend. He only opened his doors in October last year. Between the quarantine and online sellers, they couldn't make the money needed anymore. I'd say with less LFS will be less hobbyist joining

 

[Overboard]

Boomer here.........and hopefully for a little longer!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Millennial here - I’ve been in the hobby for 12 years now. You’re right, we must all have no patience or attention span. :rolleyes:

What little you guys do have is spent applying guacamole to your precious toast;Dead

I'm actually Gen z so I'm worse;Hilarious I think a lot of hobbies have difficulties passing the torch so to speak. I have enough different ones to be able to say with some confidence I have to look under some rocks to find people willing to teach and share their passion with younger people like myself.

I remember when I first started showing interest in flyfishing the guy at the store couldn't believe his eyes- some kid walked passed all the shiny Rapala lures and spin gear and wanted to learn something much harder, make your own lures. That gentlemen was so exciting he would come over on his free time to teach me how to cast and tie flies. That support and excitement of his is why I still prefer the flyrod when it's time to go catch something.

If I met more people like that when I started to learn about other hobbies I'd for sure be in the double digits with the weird non Instagram/Tik Tok stuff I do unlike the rest of my kind:p

I do some distancing from nature in my generation which could lead to dis-interest in the life on our planet but I help enough kids and their setup their first fish tank to not really worry about it all that much.

 

[RandyO Verified Sponsor]

I started in this hobby in the 90's and started working at an LFS in 96, started growing coral in my basement shortly after, started a Maintenance company in 99, built my own LFS in 05 and have run it ever since.
It's hard to say when the golden days of this industry was. It has changed so much over the last 30 years and depends on your point of view. I've seen other stores in my area come and go. The successful ones learn to change with the times.

I don't think it will be gone in 10 years. It just might look very different than it does today.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I hope this is wrong! I won't be ready to throw in the towel in 10 years!

 

[Tyler White]

Millennial (26) reporting in. have been in the hobby for real for about 4 years now

I'm lucky and for my area make decent enough money to support my aquarium hobby which i try to refer to as celebrating nature since my job in manufacturing calls upon me to do swing shifts unfortunately and don't really get out much IN nature as much as i should so i fill that void with aquariums and even a little terrarium and and now working on a 75 gallon paludarium.

I can look ahead myself and see the industry shifting to more independent sellers growing coral in their homes in the next 10 years and honestly if there was an easier and cheaper way to ship it would have already gone that direction sort of like where the freshwater side has gone to sites like aquabid where anyone with good stock and decent shipping practices can make some cash selling their fish.

 

[slojim]

I laughed at @WVNed. But a lot of good points. A lot of hobby shops I liked have closed their doors. I work with a lot of teens, and a lot have no interest in driving, but they are good kids with real interests.
My parents bought me my first fish tank when I was under 10, but I didn't think of it as more than a place to put a kmart swordtail or something I caught from the creek until I found a nice actual LFS and it opened my eyes. I try to buy at physical stores as much as I can for that reason, but they don't have the selection. I'm working with one to order some stuff for me. I talked to one when I lived in NWIndiana who had livestock, but gave up on dry goods - said he could not compete.

On the flip side - its both way easier and way harder to keep a good tank. Way easier - nutrient export is way more efficient than water changes used to be. Way harder - the easy access to see so many cool gadgets can convince you to spend a lot more than you might have otherwise.

 

[Twink_w_a_Reef]

There probably arent many boomers here. My guess is mostly millenials with gen Xers being a close second which I am.

I think you’re right. Although I have dealt with a good bit of boomers... and not the good kind

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Fish keeping is not totally going away among younger people. I’m a gen Z and I know of several others close to my age that also keep fish tanks. I really hope that this hobby still exists for many more years. I hopefully have the majority of my life still ahead of me, and I can’t imagine not having a reef tank.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I’ll be 34 tomorrow and I’m always the youngest customer in the local stores. The employees are always a mix of ages, ranging from early 20’s to retirement age. It’s hard for young people to get started in this hobby due to the cost so that probably plays a part. A lot of young people aren’t home either, they travel and party with friends or have young kids and don’t have the time. It took until I landed a good job for me to be able to afford this hobby although I was interested in it for a long time due to my dad having a saltwater tank when I was young. My kids are 3 ears old and 7 months old and I barely have time to tend to my reef, and I’m working from home too!