Do you share this hobby w/ little ones?

[Greg’s_525xl-Reefer]

My 2 year old loves my tank. He really enjoys helping me clean it and feed the fish every night. I cannot tell you how much time we have spent looking at it and talking about the fish, coral, crabs, and it being a mini ecosystem and explaining how everything has a purpose to maintain it. When I first put the tank up he didn’t quite grasp the rules and touched the glass as most kids do. He’s since learned that we do not do that and don’t scare the fish. This backfired on me one day when my copperband decided to pick at one of my favorite corals. As a knee jerk reaction I hit the glass to scare him and said “I’m going to throw you out of the tank”. How silly I felt when my 2 year old scolded me and told me not to touch the glass and it’s not nice to scare and talk mean to the fish. I felt even worse when he grabbed my microfiber cloth I use to clean the glass, moved over a chair, and cleaned my handprint off the glass! But...he also thinks my midnight clown can’t see because “she’s to dark”, so I have that on him .

My tank was also a life saver with my daughter. Now 7 mo, but when she was younger she had colic and screamed constantly....except in front of the tank. She still loves staring at it and no matter what it always calms her.

Thank you for starting this thread!

 

[NoWaiAma]

Ill share my fishies with no one. NOONE

 

[CNDReef]

My 2 year old loves the tank. Her second word was fishy , problem is she likes it too much and wants to pet the fish lol

 

[jdTrader]

 

[Joe Grubbs]

From my children to my g-babies...the tank is always a draw...my that glass was dirty!

 

[Celtic_Fox]

Anyone concerned about their little ones looking up at those LEDs and damaging their eyes?

 

[Greg’s_525xl-Reefer]

My 2 year old loves the tank. Her second word was fishy , problem is she likes it too much and wants to pet the fish lol

Funny! My 2 year old has pet my clowns. They don’t seem to mind, they come back for more.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

Never married, no interest in marriage, no children that I am aware of.

 

[Ferrell]

Hell my wife and daughter insisted I get back in hobby after we finally settled down

 

[Salt1972]

Reefing was my 11 year old (at the time) daughter's idea. She wanted a starfish and did all the research, saved her money, and asked me to take her to the LFS. We ended up with a 55g that we ran for 4.5 years before we upgraded to a 125g last September. She just turned 17 and still enjoys the ecosystem, critters, and is considering marine biology.

My 19 year old son still wants a shark...

 

[Oliver d]

My daughter got into the marine sciences thanks to my fish tanks at home both fresh and marine.

 

[DEWreefing]

My one year old is always engaged in the tank. Always have to watch him as he feels he must feed the tank with metal objects.

 

[WWIII]

My one year old is always engaged in the tank. Always have to watch him as he feels he must feed the tank with metal objects.

Welcome to R2R! Awesome tank, what size is it? I'm not looking forward to my daughter getting to the age of trying to sneak stuff in my tank. Luckily it's pretty high up there, the sump room will have to be under adult supervision only. Lol

 

[Sabellafella]

LOL my buddy sent me this a few minutes ago. We just got back from getting 2 naked clowns and a couple of snails as the first tank inhabitants

 

[Lucie]

Pregnant, i was still working in the fish trade.
Heavily pregnant, i was still handling my 17 tanks
When they arrived, i downsize to 7 tanks and moved
They are around fishs stince birth ...
They are now 2 yo
I go collecting live food for my seahorses everyday with them since they are 9 months old
My girl always showed a lot of interest for tanks. My son also, but i would say "normally" for a toddler.
Each time i do maintenance of feeding, my girl rush to grab something to push against the stand and climb on it to see what i m doing

Conditionning started early...

Collecting everyday... i make them discover new species or critters.
On the last picture we are releasing some wild seahorses after a DNA sampling

My girl takes by herself buckets and line them up by herself, i never showed or explain her anything about these RODI buckets
She would like to help with waterchanges in the seahorse fry tank...

Playing at counting the seahorses or playing on the deck at "catch the f***ing damsel"

 

[DEWreefing]

Welcome to R2R! Awesome tank, what size is it? I'm not looking forward to my daughter getting to the age of trying to sneak stuff in my tank. Luckily it's pretty high up there, the sump room will have to be under adult supervision only. Lol

That is my 200g tank my son and my daughter both like to shove objects in my sump to see if the float I guess.

 

[bigroost]

My 6 year old daughter loves to pitch in, she's the official fish namer. Funny thing is she won't give them a name until she decides she really likes them, out of 15 or so fish maybe 7 have names. She watches intently when I'm doing maintenance and does whatever I ask. It's pretty adorable when she starts throwing out all the big words words associated with the hobby. I just hope her curiosity stick with her.

 

[BigJohnny]

Last night, I received a message from one of our great customers Stephen. He shared the below photos of "corals" he made with his 5 year old daughter out of our packing peanuts. This is such an amazing hobby to share with our little ones!

I would love to know who else is reefing with their kids, and how you share the hobby - please comment if this is you!

Those are really good sculptures!

My 9 month old daughter loves looking at my tank and trying to grab the fish and coral through the glass while I hold her. There was one stretch a few months ago where she would fall asleep if it was near nap time and I brought her in there, something about the low hum of the equipment and the glow of the tank I think. What's really cool is that my fish always come up to greet her together. Her favorite is the Midas Blenny.

 

[Snyder1456]

My son couldn't care less about my tanks. He's 9 now.
My 5year old daughter is very "helpful" and I clean her lip marks off the glass daily because she kisses the tanks goodnight before bed!

 

[Snyder1456]

My son couldn't care less about my tanks. He's 9 now.
My 5year old daughter is very "helpful" and I clean her lip marks off the glass daily because she kisses the tanks goodnight before bed!

She's in love with the clownfish