Getting your significant other involved in the hobby

I must say in pretty lucky. My wife is the one to get me into the hobby. She had a shark tank about 10 years ago and saltwater tanks before. My wife's dad gave us a 55g bow front a year after we got married and it was all over from there. My wife knew more about salt and the hobby. She taught me. Over the years it's become my thing. Until a year ago I found a purple tang at a good price. That was her favorite fish. We picked it up, I told her that we need to upgrade because he won't be happy in an 80g. That night when I was working she had found a 125g tank, got everything squared away and it was ready for me to pick up the next day. She is always supportive when I say we need something and when I spend all hours of the night with a DIY project or a water change. She keeps me grounded and keeps the finances in order because I she didn't we would never have food and we'd never be able to pay rent because I want to spend it all on corals and cool stuff. It really has become my thing and she doesnt really have much input. My wife loves the tank though, she spends a lot of time watching it, I've caught her. It really makes it more fun when she and my daughter enjoy it. Makes it worth all the effort when their happy.

 

+1. Right now, it's my hobby and I don't mind that. We all need our thing. Just hoping I can get her a little more into it.

 

You know I wish she was a little more involved. Something we could do together. Maybe it's my fault, maybe I haven't tried hard enough. I guess it's time to put a little more effort toward that. Thanks Dr. Philheihei. Are you a therapist?

 

LoL! Nope. I have an alterior motive.

Trying to clear the hurdles for an upgrade.

 

My wife just likes looking at the tank a few minutes a day. As long as she doesn't see me messing with it too much and not spending time with her and my two toddlers, she doesn't care.

I'm a stay at home dad so I do all my maintenance while she works.

 

My wife was hooked as soon as she got to name our little pair of clownfish and a few LPS corals. So which then I thought "I could work with this to my favor" so I ordered a name book and I should be good for awhile with new additions

 

Reef tanks are something my ex wife & I can still talk about for hours. It's one thing we're both passionate about & it doesn't cause an arguement. But I think a good way to get someone interested in the tank would be to place a fish or coral that they seem to like in the tank. And that's how it starts for most of us.

 

You guys are lucky. The only time my wife has any input about my tank is when she is complaining about me spending anymore money on it.

Mine is down in the mancave, so she is banned anyway LOL.

 

My wife won't be fully on board until she has her own tank with a lion fish and an eel.

She likes the whole circle of life thing, mainly feeding time. I more like the peaceful zen aspect of it.

 

It will all take time. My wife was 100% against it. We started of with a freshwater tank and she liked that. I've always wanted a reef tank but she always had and excuse like "it's expensive" it's really hard to maintain" and things like "its not worth it." Well it came to a point where I came across a tank with everything I need except for livestock and rock/sand. Soon after she was begging to go buy fish and get the tank set up lol.