How many households in the USA have Marine Aquariums (no google)

[Salty Lemon]

Having talk to others about the last economic crash they saw a rise in smaller aquariums in the total of aquariums people keep. I see way more 40 and under tanks now days than in the old days. When it was 55 gallon was the smallest and 125 gallon was the average size saltwater tank. The problem with the rise of Nano tanks is the stability factor raises its ugly head. So the last economic crash caused people to down size into smaller aquariums which can be more tricky to keep. Which causes a high churn rate in new hobbyist.

Makes sense to me. I don't like your comment about the high churn rate. It makes it hard for the saltwater industry and the animals.

 

[Salty Lemon]

What I find interesting is the number of people who got the question 'correct' was 11%. - and those who thought the answer was < 100,000 was 57%. It just goes to show that collective wisdom is sometimes 'incorrect'. BTW - I thought it would be 100K or so myself.

I'm just going by how many people I know who have saltwater aquariums -- zilch, zero, zippo.

 

[reefwiser]

Yes it does make it hard. I don't think the hobby would have a lot of hobbyist if the smallest tank that you could have in the hobby was a 4 foot 55 gallon tank.
So by promoting the smaller size tanks the industry gets new hobbyist into the saltwater hobby. Hoping that once they get hooked that they will upgrade to a more sustainable 100 gallon or more size tank in short order. The problem here is that many people do not have the space or money to get into larger size tanks.

 

[Brian Goldstein]

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/science/23aquarium.html

An for those that don't like to read the answer is:
estimated 700,000 saltwater home aquariums in the United States,

The over all aquarium hobby has been loosing hobbyist thru this past year. I subscribe to a pet business newsletter that keeps track of sending on pet products an services.

I'm sure it cycles in waves.. like everything else.

 

[jjcheno]

Going by the shoulder to shoulder crowd at rap in orlando....too many . It was packed the line to get in wrapped around the entire concourse and hotel lobby...awesome!!!

 

[Patientman]

Not enough!

 

[Reef2Land]

Why is this a poll? lol The most votes doesn't decide anything lol

 

[teast]

When do we find out the answer?

 

[MT_is_a_Pisces]

I'm going to say 1 in 7. Some of us have more than one.

 

[RudyB]

I would say most are fresh water tanks as every kid wants one. So the number of Marne tanks should be at or just below 1 million.

 

[doughboy]

One way to estimate is look at the membership here on R2R and on RC.
R2R has about 100k members, RC 300k.
Not sure how many are really active, but R2R mods can probably get that stats. RC probably has < 1k active users now.
So I'd say the 2.5M number is waaaaay off.
I'd go with 100k, give or take. And that is being generous.

 

[BryanD]

I don't know, but I live in Fingerlakes Region, NY and I presently know only one person who has a saltwater tank, the head of my department here at the University I work at. He had a steel beam installed under the floor directly in front of his office when the new building he is in was built (yeah, he is a big cheese in Cancer research), and has a 300 gallon reef tank sitting there. I've given him frogspawn and montipora frags, he has given me a nice green Acro with blue "hairs". I'm not on facebook, but have had a couple friends send out messages that they have a friend with coral frags to get rid of, no one ever responds.

 

[Hemmdog]

I'm going to say 1 in 7. Some of us have more than one.

1 in 7 people in the us?! I want to hang out with your crew.

 

[Dburr1014]

How many people on this site is my guess.

 

[AcroCrush]

I actually looked this up once for a research project in a business class when I was in college. The numbers may have changed in the last five years but there were 14% of American households with aquariums (both fresh and salt). Of that about 2.5% were salt. So 2.5% of that 14% is... (grabs a calculator)….so .17% represents us saltwater hobbyists. Like I said data available five years ago, likely data from 2010-2012 was available at the time. Assuming I recalled and did that correctly on the fly. There is a chance that 2.5% was the actual national percentile as well. Oh how the mind forgets those details.

 

[KevD]

I chose over 1 million do to the fact that their are hundreds if not thousands of suppliers for saltwater aquariums and supplies to support them their has to be a large customer base.

 

[Ksmmike]

If only one in 3oo people had one, it would be over a million. There are 3 on my block of 10 households and maybe 30 people. I know in some areas it might be about 1 in every 10,000 people, but in my area, I bet it's well under 1 in every 300. There are too many fish stores in business in my area to think the number isn't 1/300 or less. I'd say its really close to that 1 million mark on either side. I realize its South Florida and Montana is a totally different demographic, but it all balances out and I'll bet when you consider kids with fresh water guppy tanks, it's really close to 1/300.

Mike

 

[Victor Noda]

100,001-1,000,000

 

[JasPR]

You know what just hit me? The amount of turnover in the hobby has to keep suppliers and vendors busy. This hobby has a lot of people leaving after a few years I bet, but there are still new reefers who want to buy new to replace them.

I have mentioned on some posts that we have a niche market, and I still stand by that in the grand scheme of things (compared to other industries), but the turnover is probably very beneficial for manufacturers.

Yes, you hit the nail on the head-- I've been in the hobby for 40 years and out of the hobby and back in! It used to be that a hobbyists shelf life was 2 years. I suspect today it is shorter and predicated on success and failure in the first year. A tank wipe out is soul crushing. And moving is common in the young and that takes its toll. Boredom and a 'been there, done that' feeling is another common death knell. Burn out in the off the charts obsessive compulsive collector is also a real thing after spending thousands on live stock of every color! Divorce and work transfers too. So to count total by the number of aquariums sold is not accurate-- You can find a 120 gallon aquarium any day of the week on Craigs list X 10. And I don't think I've ever been to garage sale that didn't have a tank in the mix. My guess-- 100K to 200K long term hobbyists in our 320 million population and then a rolling 300K coming in and going out and replacing one another ( with a few hardy souls moving into the 'Lifer' ranks each year.

 

[c2l2parker]

Based on the number of people at Aquashella in Dallas 2 weeks ago, I would say it is a bigger number than I would have guessed if I had tried to answer this a month ago. The line to get in was unbelievable, and it took 45 minutes to get to the door.