jobs that work with aquariums

Sshannon

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My peace of advice is do what you enjoy doing and not something you do for money. I am working for 25 years now in the same industry full time and always had a challenging job for my level.
The ones I didn’t enjoy didn’t last longer than 6 months.
when I was young my motivation for a new job was money and in the first few years I have double my income on average every 1-1.5 years till the point I had way more coming in than gone out but ended up depressed.
now I have put my priorities right and the motivation is to enjoy what I do and since I am happy and wouldn’t want to change with anyone else. By the way my income somehow still growing faster than the inflation so we are good.
the moral of the story is don’t choose the line of work by the paycheque (if that is still a thing) but by your hart desire the rest will fall in line.
“burnout” is the thing people have doing it otherwise.

Your millennial talk makes me feel old. Oh well good to know there are people born in this century as well ;)
You hiring? :)
 

keithw283

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what are some jobs that relate to aquariums, i could get into a college on scholarship but i am considering being an electrican also. are there any good jobs that combine general engineering and aquacultural engineering, wether it be growing macroalgae or raising fish?
like others have said it may not be the greatest idea to get into this if you are also trying to maintain an awesome reef tank at home. I come home to escape work. I don't want to be doing something every day at home that reminds me of work even though I do like my job. I also flip houses on the side and I never want to do any work on my house even though there are some things that I need/want done.
 

kschweer

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Honest advice from someone who worked in the aquarium field and now in the trades. Unless you plan to start your own business or get qualifications to run a public aquarium you most likely will not be making much money and probably most importantly benefits won’t be great and no retirement benefits.

If you really want to be an electrician look into your local IBEW and prepare yourself for the aptitude test. If I were younger I would go to be a lineman. But an inside wireman isn’t bad either especially at a young age. I wish someone told me this when I was younger. Also pay into your retirement at the highest percentage you can afford and max out a personal Roth IRA.
 

jdiefenbaugh

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I see a lot of people recommending to do something you love. Maybe I'm alone in this but, after working in the aquarium industry for a number of years, which is a minimum wage field, all it ended up doing was suck the joy out of it due to constant stress from financial shortcomings. It caused stress in my marriage, and I ended up cutting all ties for almost 10 years to aquaria. You can earn a living in a marine bio field, but you generally need to advance to a management position, or marry rich. The problem with advancing, is you will be doing more administrative work, and little hands-on with the animals, which is the entire reason you're considering it. I now work a purpose-less job, but one that affords my family a really nice life. To be honest, I'd rather be where I am now, than back in the aquarium field. It's much easier to unplug when I leave work and enjoy my free time. I guess my suggestion is to do plenty of research before committing to anything.
 

Malcontent

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Found the episode of Modern Marvels where they talk about barracudas being attracted to underwater welding and hovering over your shoulder:

1631835565862.png
 

Gtinnel

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Work should be what you are good at, not what you love imho.
The problem is for any professional job you have to decide what you want to do before you can do it enough to find out if you're good at it. I may be the best brain surgeon in the world but no one is willing to let me try to find out because I haven't gone to school for it, so how would I know if I was good at it. Based on that, no one would ever become a surgeon because they don't know if they're good at it until after making a massive commitment.

So if you have to pick a job, pick one you think you'd like, you're more likely to try and get good at a job you like.
 
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fish farmer

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A job that is your hobby is still a job. Do you get paid to go to school? 9-5 is only 8 hours, there are 24 hours in a day. If you can't enjoy your tank or life with the remaining 16 hours then you deserve to be bored lol
Let's do the math.

8 hour job.
Commute to job. 1 hour.
Morning shower/potty/make lunch/prep for work. 1 hour.
Dinner prep/clean. 1 hour.
Surfing R2R. 1 hour.
Sleep. 8 hours.

That's 20 hours, so 4 hours left for downtime in a day. Over 30% of your day is spent working at a job, another 30% should be spent sleeping to be refreshed....for the job. I really don't know how people are able to have kids and find the time for anything else.
 

Gtinnel

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Let's do the math.

8 hour job.
Commute to job. 1 hour.
Morning shower/potty/make lunch/prep for work. 1 hour.
Dinner prep/clean. 1 hour.
Surfing R2R. 1 hour.
Sleep. 8 hours.

That's 20 hours, so 4 hours left for downtime in a day. Over 30% of your day is spent working at a job, another 30% should be spent sleeping to be refreshed....for the job. I really don't know how people are able to have kids and find the time for anything else.
These numbers will vary greatly from person to person. I work 8am to 4pm. I can wake up at 7 and easily be at work on time. I then get home about 4:15. I only sleep about 4-5 hours a night. Which leaves me from about 5pm- 3am to read on R2R, plus several hours out of my 8 hour work day are spent on here as well. According to my wife I spend too much time on "that stupid fish forum".
 

fish farmer

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These numbers will vary greatly from person to person. I work 8am to 4pm. I can wake up at 7 and easily be at work on time. I then get home about 4:15. I only sleep about 4-5 hours a night. Which leaves me from about 5pm- 3am to read on R2R, plus several hours out of my 8 hour work day are spent on here as well. According to my wife I spend too much time on "that stupid fish forum".
If I slept 4 to 5 hours a night I would be a zombie at work, then crash for at least two hours when I get home and be a grumpy pants the rest of the evening.

Several hours at work on R2R...I won't tell.
 

Gtinnel

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If I slept 4 to 5 hours a night I would be a zombie at work, then crash for at least two hours when I get home and be a grumpy pants the rest of the evening.

Several hours at work on R2R...I won't tell.
I will occasionally fall asleep watching TV in the evening but not very often. I think I stay up late because everyone else in the house is asleep so it's refreshingly peaceful.

My job has a lot of waiting for something to happen , so me playing on my phone is allowed
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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Let's do the math.

8 hour job.
Commute to job. 1 hour.
Morning shower/potty/make lunch/prep for work. 1 hour.
Dinner prep/clean. 1 hour.
Surfing R2R. 1 hour.
Sleep. 8 hours.

That's 20 hours, so 4 hours left for downtime in a day. Over 30% of your day is spent working at a job, another 30% should be spent sleeping to be refreshed....for the job. I really don't know how people are able to have kids and find the time for anything else.
Because we're sleeping for 5-6 hours not 8 lol
 

JaylenHouse

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I see it’s been a while, but I’d like to chime in. There are indeed some exciting job options that combine general engineering and aquacultural engineering. You could explore opportunities in aquaculture facility design, where you'd be involved in creating efficient systems for growing macroalgae or raising fish.
 

Mangimi

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I don't know what you chose to do. Here's just a summary of my life as I was wondering the same.

Short version: I dreamt of becoming a marine biologist. But jobs are scarce and payment is poor, so I went to the aquaculture industry, where I'm now working in research and development. It's the best job I could think of.

But it took about 14 years to get where I am. Still not finished with my education, hopefully completing with a PhD in aquaculture next year.
 

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