Time well spent: How much time do you watch your fish and corals each day?

[Peace River]

Time well spent: How much time do you watch your fish and corals each day?

Some reef keepers spend a lot of time observing their tanks and others spend just enough time to check-in and do the necessary maintenance. There are many reasons for reefing, and we all have different reasons for having a tank and different ways of interacting with our aquariums. While some people can sit and watch for hours, others need to be doing something as they are interacting with their fish and corals. Whether it is a few minutes or a few hours, how much time do you watch your fish and corals each day? As a side note, do you have a fish that watches you? If so, tell us about the fish as well - pictures are welcomed and encouraged!

Photo by @ChristopherKreins


This QOTD is sponsored by: www.worldwidecorals.com

“We differentiate ourselves from other vendors by offering our customers full transparency into our facility and practices. Setting the industry standard for shipping techniques, accurate high-quality photos, hard to find corals, and customer service. For some hobbyists buying live coral online can seem like a risky endeavor. At WWC our staff takes the worry out of the equation by culturing extremely healthy corals, giving you a hassle-free guarantee, and providing you with a full online customer service team to ensure you are completely satisfied with your purchase.” @WWC

 

[exnisstech]

I spend a lot of time watching. I don't sit and stare for hours but I have tanks in the living room, dining room, bed room and a sump with a frag section in the basement. Also a 49g breeder as an overflow tank in the basement for misfit coral and nems so I pretty much walk past a tank anytime I'm inside and usually sneak a peek. Sometime when my Gal and I are hanging outside I'll go inside to get a drink and end up taking too long to return and she'll come to check on me. I'm usually caught standing in front of one of the tanks.

EDIT: I spend quite a bit of time performing maintenance also. The only automation I have is ato and heat control.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have a tank in my living room, so I usually look at it quite often, but I don't sit there and stare at it for hours on end haha.

 

[A_Tired_Shark]

During the week we'll watch everyone for a short time while they eat just to make sure everyone is doing okay and leave it at that. However, when we clean the tanks on the weekends we'll spend extra time with everyone, especially the seahorses and our cleaner shrimp. They love to play and hang onto us while we clean. We also handle our blue legged hermit crabs if they come out to greet us.

Most of our fish are friendly and will come up to our hands but only the seahorses and shrimp will engage and play.

 

[BanZI29]

I check on my tanks everyday when I get home from work. I usually spend about 20 minutes looking at everyone and making sure no one is dead or dying, feed the fish, and do any maintenance that is needed, empty the skimmer, change the filter, ect. the weekends are a little different. I spend about an hour or so just looking at it and enjoying it. Sunday is testing, cleaning and filling stuff day (dosing tanks and ATO) that takes about 2 hours.

 

[Patientman]

Not enough!

 

[PhishMonger84]

tanks in every room!
i watch whenever I'm home, usually a dog laying on my lap

 

[vetteguy53081]

I observe tank throughout the day but spend focal time during feeding which gives the best opportunity to observe my fish for any damage, imperfections or unusual behaviors. There are corals in the tank that can be challenging, so I look at them in particular at least 3x daily

 

[Reefer Matt]

I'm in the Reef Cave everyday after work. I rarely watch t.v.

 

[Red_Beard]

Mine is in the living room next to the TV. Seating is arranged such that you are looking at either the tank or the tv by default. Also the TV has the roku reeftank screensaver... sometimes it highlights the need to clean the glass lol.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

It's pretty much all I do...

 

[w8lifts]

 

[o2manyfish]

We have a room at the back of the house we call the "Fish Room" which just has the 750g tank and a couch. During the week the wife and I spend some time on the couch watching the tank.
But we spend most of our time in the theater. On the side wall in the theater is a 32 monitor that shows some of the security cameras around the house. A few months ago I added the Webcams on the 750 to the security camera system. Now at any point during the day I can do a quick glance at the tank. If I see something that catches my eye I go to the webcam and the PTZ to whatever has my attention and it shows up on the 32" screen next to the couch (also have a security camera monitor on the wall in the master bed.
Another benefit of having the Webcams displayed on the Security TV is that when people are on the camera and moving it around I will sometimes show up on camera and feed the fish for the watchers. On the weekends there's too many to feed the fish 10x an hour lol.
We have a lot of friends and reef friends that visit on the weekend so there is always a bunch of time spent sitting in front of the tank on the weekends. Peers OOhh and Aww and Gasp at the tank - And I just sit there and see all the 'things' I should attend to in the tank.

Dave B

PS - The webcams are avail 24-7 The left side of the tank is at www.o2manyfish.com the right side of the tank is at www.o2manyfish.com/right

 

[Aspect]

I'll watch for awhile during/after feeding. But when my sharks are out with the lights on I will just watch them swim around for hours. Can't tell you what it is but they just mesmerize me.

 

[SPS2020]

A reef tank, a little girl and a Border Collie...Life is Good!

 

[klavmaister]

my aquarium is part of the interior of the living room, I like the corals and the fish, but could never spend hours at the aquarium. then the aquarium owns me and not the other way around

 

[Aspect]

my aquarium is part of the interior of the living room, I like the corals and the fish, but could never spend hours at the aquarium. then the aquarium owns me and not the other way around

You presumably spent a good amount of money on it. Why not spend time watching and enjoying it?

 

[Red_Beard]

LOL, that looks like my house. The kiddos like to watch while they get ready for bed and brush their teeth.

 

[shadow_k]

According to my wife I spend too much time looking at my reef then I do anything else lol

 

[Colton Yuchnewicz]

when im home i spend alot of time doing reef things and what not