How much ($ and time) you spent on this hobby?

[mobile2007]

I'm a total newbie in this fish keeping hobby. After looking through quite a lot of posts in this forum, arofanatic, guppy forum and etc, just can't help wondering how much time and money you all put into this fish keeping? I mean tank, filters, medication, fertilizers, food, pipes, Co2, lighting cost, also not to mention rare type of aquatic plants. All these are not really cheap, fishes seems to be the cheapest.

( not to compare money or whatever, just to see how addicted all the bros and sisters are )

Of course at the end of the day, when you see your planted tank blossomed into something wonderful and admirable, your fishes grown up and bred, all efforts are not wasted.

[oblivion]

thats a good question
somebody should make a poll on this

seriously it differs greatly between people i suppose
due to different financial ability, different interest areas and choice of setup/fish/plants etc

for myself, all i can say is that i don't want to know how much i have spent!!!


and to add on to that, my woman better don;t know that too!!!

[o2bubble]

I spent much much more than initially budgeted and my wife does not know the true story yet.... too scary to tell her leh

[benny]

I think I spent too much time and money on the hobby. And I'm afraid to do a calculation....

Cheers,

[mobile2007]

Actually the question i raised was quite general and difficult to quantify in some ways. Things like monies spent on fishes and equipment are easily tallied, but the time and efforts spent on scaping the tanks, curing a sick fish,
looking for a nice driftwood, hatching BBS.. can be quite substantial.

The reason i asked because i'm coming from the background of a PC hardware enthusiast. I know that this hobby can burned and killed .

So far, i only spent about less than 150 dollars on everything. But some symptoms showing up, like every morning i sure go and see whether any shrimps or fish "go up the lorry".

[hebi]

i think i haven spent over $300 although i initially told my mum this hobby isnt going to be expensive lol. but im addicted to scaping, planning to get a new 2ft and finally a pressurized CO2 after i worked and earn my own $$. regarding time spent, its countless, going to many areas just to find a nice rock or driftwood. once i went from clementi to bukit batok to lim chu kang just to find a dwarf puffer.

[ranmasatome]

2 words... too much..

[mobile2007]

I think married bros are more "jialat", like what o2bubble and lee1224 have reflected. I think i also read about similar posting in ciclid section, somebody saying that his wife nagging about rising cost, while his expensive apisto has just died.

[illumnae]

i think that is in the catfish section and expensive plecos

[BlueAngel]

i keep track of all my aquarium related expenses in an Excel sheet .
I track everything from aquarium equipments to fish and plants.

[oblivion]

you all missed something
the transport costs & time

i once spent half a day going from my place (woodlands) to NA/colorful to ecoculture to biotope (the old one) to c328/polyart
and all that just for 1 piece of small-size dw plus a few rocks!!!
when i reach home i was so shagged out i couldnt even be bothered to wash the dw and just dumped it in a corner for the next few days

[kiv]

My wife peek on my credit card bill, just got a lecture from parents

[cairocks]

I spent a lot initially, especially during the first 2 years. Changed a couple of lights, kept changing plants, changed filters, got a chiller, changed substrate, kept replacing dead fishes. Maybe over a thousand. But the tank is now over 6 years old and had stablised. Been pretty much stabilized and now I cannot even add in new fishes for my angle fishes will take care of them even for fishes up to swordtail sizes. Kept the pretty much the same fishes for a 4-5 years already and they refush to die. Find that the only thing I buy nowadays are fishfood and the occasional water treatment chemicals. And the time spent is the water change, trimming of the plants and cleaning of the glass of the tank once every 2 to 3 weeks.

[o2bubble]

Bro, 1k is not reali alot... I spent nearly 6k now just over 4 months. My inchy fingers and stupid brains! Sigh..

[Simon]

in the thousands :P, I preferred not to calculate, limit your budget can 'sometimes' limit your interest

[BFG]

ahem, the marine side is way more expensive in this aquarium hobby if you want to know Mobile2007. The years of fishkeeping hobby for me can't even catch up or put a dent to the spending to start and upkeep a marine setup that is not even 2 years old! I can safely say I've passed the 5 figure mark when the tank arrives into the house. Not that I am a high salaried worker but saving up for a couple of years plus choosing the right equipment do help in the long run. Have tried using alternative cheaper equipment but I can safely say, they do not work well for my setup. Upgrading will add more to the cost of the setup than having it right the 1st time round.

[mobile2007]

Bro BFG, I kinda realised that the question asked was not so appropriated.
I guess i'm just curious on how addicted people are on the hobby and how much they will spend on it, as i witnessed how crazy people are during the PC hardware upgrading era. Marine tank ? last in my ex-company, i handled the contract for the display marine tank. Damn it, looking at the maintainence cost, dare not even dream about it.

bro cairocks, never see people "cursing" that their fishes are still surviving. Better beware, subconsciously you might spilled some things in or the power might be accidentally tripped.

[BFG]

Not a problem Mobile2007. I figure I just enlightened this thread about the dark side of the hobby.

[cairocks]

After a more detailed mental run down of the stuff I bought, I think the figure I spent is closer to 2K. I had been telling my friends which are thinking of starting this hobby to forget about getting kits set and bite the bullet, go for the more expensive but better stuff, but at last, few had listened. Then they find that both the plants and fishes are not doing well, either temperature too high, not enough light, tank too small, OTP filters clogging up and over flowing every month..... The list goes on and on. In the end, many had given up on the hobby and say that fishes just dies in their hands. Haiz.....

[marle]

i have had this hobby since 4 years back and almost monthly i go to a local fish store at least once monthly, any the purchases averages out to be about $15 per trip excluding the bigger purchases such as custom made tanks, carbon dioxide etc. This hobby will certainly make your wallet thinner as you grow more and more into it.