Keeping it all in the family: How do you involve your kids and/or S.O. in the hobby with you?

[Pf_chuy]

My kids love it since she was able to crawl she had always been interested in our freshwater tank, in January we made the jump to saltwater and she spends most of her time playing in the fish room. She is now 3 and loves to clean the tank and I have a 5yo on the spectrum that likes going to the lfs with us just to see everything.

 

[EagleEye121]

Forgot to mention my niece - she was technically the first addition to the new tank!

 

[Dodger]

Little man loves watching the tank with me!

So cute!!

 

[Nheko]

My son loves our our tanks and he feed the fishes. He regularly comes to LFS with me and always eager to learn more about the fishes.

My wife likes to watch the tanks, with her favorite event is watching the clowns host the anemone. She always says that they look so happy when they do that.

 

[yusufhadiwinata]

painting this dead coral
which one what do you like ?

 

[Starganderfish]

My kids love my tank, they've named all the fish and most of the snails and crabs. They always want to take turns cleaning the glass and feeding.
My 11-year-old daughter likes to park a stool in front of the tank and just sit and stare at it for a while. It really seems to relax her. She also really hates it if any unsightly algae grows and she demands that I remove it immediately.
They both get really bothered if any of the livestock dies as well.

My wife doesn't like the tank at all. We had a largish 4 footer in our old house that was quite nice to look at, and she barely tolerated it, but when we moved house she was deadset against me building the tank back up. In the end I put a 20 Gal nano in the garage which doubles as my workshop and "man-cave". She still gets kind of grumpy about it but it's a done deal and that's my space, so she can't really do anything about it. I think she's gradually accepting it, mainly because it gives the kids so much pleasure.

The bummer is that because the tank's not in the house, I don't get to sit and enjoy it as much. Fortunately, it's pretty much automated so maintenance is easy and if the tank gets forgotten for a few days, it's not fussed at all. When we next move house in a year or two, I'm going to put in a large insulated workshop/shed for all my tools, replicas and model-making and the tank will have a proper place. The new shed should be a lot bigger and more comfortable so I'll end up spending a lot more time out there.

 

[vinvinaa]

My wife is very involved in the hobby but from an visual perspective. She doesn't want to understand water chemistry, tank monitoring or maintenance as much as what the tank looks like overall. So, I usually let her pick coral and fish and then we discuss if those choices are a good fit - why or why not. This way she is very involved with adding livestock and invested in seeing them thrive!

Same for me. My wife cares about how the tank looks like and the fish inside (she loves clownfish). She also helped me to change water (sometimes my son would help me too). And also the money I spent....

 

[In the sticks]

Yea yea I think i will upgrade the 90 soon to a 150-180.. for the family of course

 

[In the sticks]

No my youngest 4yo is super into the hobby with me. He scrapes the glass every day. (Does a pretty good job besides breaking some coral off of rock sometimes and chasing fish around with the mag float) also feeds the tank phytoplankton.

it’s fun seeing the excitement in the little guys

 

[Enderg60]

I take the kids shopping with me. My boy likes to help frag and glue corals and do tests.

My wife LOVES to play the game of "what the heck is that noise" or "what the heck is that smell" Great times.

 

[Khalilkaram]

usually the kids like to do the water testing with me specially the Hanna checkers when the colors change they got excited and they love the top view of the tank

and the Leo enjoy the tank as well

 

[Xxljacket]

My wife has become attached and is learning along with me. When something is not right with the tank she is quick to google and provide additional advice. My daughter is in college but she loves to give input and advice on everything when she is home.
Looking forward to my granddaughters first visit i am sure she will love the tank as much as my niece and nephew.

 

[ReeferMadness01]

She picks fish for the kids tank, she feeds them, and im sure I have pictures of her IDing algae with the microscope. When im working a lot the wife feeds and sends updates on all the tanks.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

Wow lots of involvement here!

I, too, have a 3yo nonverbal autistic son and he finds comfort in the tiny sea I have. Loves the fish who have the personality to come greet you at the glass. He goes to the LFS with me every time, and loves the tangs in their display tank since they follow him. He'll cry if we drive past the store instead of visit. My other 3 kids (7, 10, and 12) I homeschool, so I take every opportunity to teach them something about the tank, the inhabitants, the coral, and how everything plays a part in our tiny ecosystem and the real ocean. It's an invaluable teaching tool!

My husband comes into play when I need help with DIY projects, and when he needs to drive to a different city for "work" I tag along for trips to new LFS. He knows not to schedule weird times so the stores will be open for me.

 

[Rp8]

The 8 yr old and I do science weekly by testing the water together. He has gotten good enough to point out if I am even slightly close to being over the 5 or 10 ml line. This was one of the main reason I got back into it. My interest started around that age.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

That's beautiful. <3 I'm high-functioning autistic, myself. Let me know if you ever need someone to talk to about it.

What drew you to the hobby? My 8 year old son is high functioning autistic as well. He has very little interest in my tank, and while I won't force him to pay attention to it, I'd like to find some way to catch his interest even a little bit. He's just very particular in his interests (currently tornadoes and hurricanes/storms - technically he's been obsessed with that stuff for years but he goes through long phases of very intense interests). I actually think he might like learning about the water chemistry or something, not sure. I asked him to name a couple creatures - he quickly named a bristleworm "Wormy" and my fire shrimp "Firey", and then wanted to get back to watching tornado videos on youtube, lol.

 

[Waters]

I don't . Other than a passing glance at the fish, my wife or kids don't have much interest at all.

 

[tee89]

My wife is super supportive with my reef system. She realized early on how important this was for me and for me to shift my focus from the craziness of our day to day to something that decompresses my mind. At this point she can easily run her own tank. I've always checked in with the mrs before buying a coral, chat over care requirements, placements and if its in our budget for the month to splurge on an expensive torch. My 2 year old loves feeding the tank, knows how to say corals and helps me scrape the algae off the glass and wipe everything down. Sometimes I let him dose aminos in the tank.

 

[i cant think]

I don’t have kids or a S.O. however I have 2 nieces. I try to get them interested in the hobby through teaching them the sciences and how it relates to what they’re taught in school (as well as disproving all fish need to swim to breath with my gobies).
If I were to have kids (and a S.O.) then I would do the same thing! I’d also let them help out with stocking of coral and fish along with inverts. My father let me do this and he still does so I’ll obviously continue that with my own family when I get one

 

[Eienna]

What drew you to the hobby? My 8 year old son is high functioning autistic as well. He has very little interest in my tank, and while I won't force him to pay attention to it, I'd like to find some way to catch his interest even a little bit. He's just very particular in his interests (currently tornadoes and hurricanes/storms - technically he's been obsessed with that stuff for years but he goes through long phases of very intense interests). I actually think he might like learning about the water chemistry or something, not sure. I asked him to name a couple creatures - he quickly named a bristleworm "Wormy" and my fire shrimp "Firey", and then wanted to get back to watching tornado videos on youtube, lol.

How about finding out with him how storms at sea behave, and how the animals deal with it? Find a way to integrate it into what he loves, and you'll probably have better luck. Did you know some storms cause it to rain fish? XD Waterspouts are pretty cool, too.