I don't want to know everything

[Paul B]

I don't know everything and I don't want to. For me it is the challenge of the unknown that excites me and the more knowledge I get, the less challenge there is. If we knew how to definately cure ich with say a pill or eliminate hair algae in an hour how boreing would this hobby be.
The same thing happened just before fish keeping began in the 1800s. Women in England would collect ferns. And eventually their fern collections grew to include all of the ferns in Europe and there was nothing left to collect. They had all the knowledge there was to know about ferns, how to keep them, how to identify them etc. There was drawings of all the various varieties and their hobby stagnated as the thrill was gone. Then they started walking around in the shallow tide pools and started to collect marine sea creatures. That is how this hobby started.
But when we know how to cure everything, keep everything and raise everything there will not be any reason to get excited if your bangai cardinal spawns because it will be a normal, almost daily occurance.
When they build powerheads, lights, and skimmers to last forever it will be very boring, for me anyway as I love to experiment with new things.
I am sure that any time now there will be no need to dose as they will most likely make ASW with time release nutrients as they do with pills. Nitrates will most likely be eliminmated with some device like a catylic converter that removes piollutants from car exhausts.
So I think that if we feel we have a problem with something in our tank, we should view that is an exciting, learning experience and not a harbinger of doom as most people view it.
I personally like it when something goes wrong and I can find a way to fix it and discover ways to stop it from happening. I don't just want to view my perfect tank forever just the way it is with no changes and all the same creatures living forever. In my living room there is an 8' painting of an undersea scene. I may as well just stare at that. :scratchch

 

[krazime]

i learn patience is the key...:trooper:

I don't know everything and I don't want to. For me it is the challenge of the unknown that excites me and the more knowledge I get, the less challenge there is. If we knew how to definately cure ich with say a pill or eliminate hair algae in an hour how boreing would this hobby be.
The same thing happened just before fish keeping began in the 1800s. Women in England would collect ferns. And eventually their fern collections grew to include all of the ferns in Europe and there was nothing left to collect. They had all the knowledge there was to know about ferns, how to keep them, how to identify them etc. There was drawings of all the various varieties and their hobby stagnated as the thrill was gone. Then they started walking around in the shallow tide pools and started to collect marine sea creatures. That is how this hobby started.
But when we know how to cure everything, keep everything and raise everything there will not be any reason to get excited if your bangai cardinal spawns because it will be a normal, almost daily occurance.
When they build powerheads, lights, and skimmers to last forever it will be very boring, for me anyway as I love to experiment with new things.
I am sure that any time now there will be no need to dose as they will most likely make ASW with time release nutrients as they do with pills. Nitrates will most likely be eliminmated with some device like a catylic converter that removes piollutants from car exhausts.
So I think that if we feel we have a problem with something in our tank, we should view that is an exciting, learning experience and not a harbinger of doom as most people view it.
I personally like it when something goes wrong and I can find a way to fix it and discover ways to stop it from happening. I don't just want to view my perfect tank forever just the way it is with no changes and all the same creatures living forever. In my living room there is an 8' painting of an undersea scene. I may as well just stare at that. :scratchch

 

[oh207]

Thank you for this valuable tidbit which I didn't know before but will now be one of those facts that will get stuck in my head and will likely take the place of something else that is more important for me to know or remember.

I have a thirst for knowledge that requires that I learn as much as possible. The pursuit of such knowledge is not to know everything, but rather to master a process or task or in this case, a hobby. Over time having to try different ways of solving issues would result in becoming a subject matter expert. I suppose the drive for such knowledge and how it is used or misused are key considerations when determining why someone would want to know everything.

In short I can't say that I don't want to know everything. I feel that if I'm informed, then I can avert a crisis or take corrective action.
Without such knowledge, its just trial and error, and livestock is now at risk.

 

[Paul B]

Knowing to much will not happen in my lifetime but I thought it would make an interesting discussion.
A little over 100 years ago all the money in the world along with all the brightest minds couldn't make a machine to allow a human to fly a couple of feet off the ground. Then the Wright Brothers invented a plane and today for $29.00 you can but a remote controlled helicopter that will fly all over your house and there are millions of people flying all over the place. There is no more thrill trying to develop a way to fly. I could design a flying machine with just what I have laying around my workshop.
It is the same with our hobby. It is not that I don't want to know everything about it but the longer I stay in it, I know more and am less interested in certain aspects of it. For instance, people ask me all the time why I don't breed fish or why I don't raise the fish that are the result of the spawnings in my tank. It is simple, I have done it enough times that there is no more thrill. The first time I bred and raised blue devils, that was all I could think of, today I could raise them every week if I wanted to, but why would I. There are other more interesting I things could be doing like building rocks or designing a better chiller.
I also remember that ich used to be a really big problem for me and at the time there was no information so I spent a lot of time experimenting and losing fish. It was disheartening for me but at the same time, thrilling as I enjoy the experimenting. It's like when I do a crossword puzzle, I don't want to finish it or to have someone give me the answers. If I finish it, it was to easy and if someone gives me the answers, I would have no life as that would just be copying what someone told me.
My fish no longer get ich as I have found out after almost 60 years at this how to prevent it. So ich is no longer a concern and I don't get any thrill from it as it is a non issue. It is the same with hair algae and almost all maladies. I used to stay awake nights thinking of ways to remedy these "problems" but now I realize that was my most enjoyable years in the hobby. When I used to go to a store or wholesaler I would always see something new and couldn't wait to get it in my tank. Now I can't even think of an animal that I have not kept at least once so now when I go to a store, I know I will probably not see something new and will settle on another angel, tang or gobi that I have had many times before.
I still love the hobby and relish when I see something new that I can think about, like my pistal shrimps living together and hosting two different gobi's. If they spawn, that would be a first for my tank and I look forward to it.

 

[Macropora]

I don't know everything and I don't want to. For me it is the challenge of the unknown that excites me and the more knowledge I get, the less challenge there is. If we knew how to definately cure ich with say a pill or eliminate hair algae in an hour how boreing would this hobby be.
The same thing happened just before fish keeping began in the 1800s. Women in England would collect ferns. And eventually their fern collections grew to include all of the ferns in Europe and there was nothing left to collect. They had all the knowledge there was to know about ferns, how to keep them, how to identify them etc. There was drawings of all the various varieties and their hobby stagnated as the thrill was gone. Then they started walking around in the shallow tide pools and started to collect marine sea creatures. That is how this hobby started.
But when we know how to cure everything, keep everything and raise everything there will not be any reason to get excited if your bangai cardinal spawns because it will be a normal, almost daily occurance.
When they build powerheads, lights, and skimmers to last forever it will be very boring, for me anyway as I love to experiment with new things.
I am sure that any time now there will be no need to dose as they will most likely make ASW with time release nutrients as they do with pills. Nitrates will most likely be eliminmated with some device like a catylic converter that removes piollutants from car exhausts.
So I think that if we feel we have a problem with something in our tank, we should view that is an exciting, learning experience and not a harbinger of doom as most people view it.
I personally like it when something goes wrong and I can find a way to fix it and discover ways to stop it from happening. I don't just want to view my perfect tank forever just the way it is with no changes and all the same creatures living forever. In my living room there is an 8' painting of an undersea scene. I may as well just stare at that. :scratchch

+1... If you master everything there is to know about the hobby or anything else, the excitement is gone.

 

[rookie07]

I get enjoyment from observing the corals/fish. I wish I could perfectly keep and grow coral/fish!