Any hints to get wife excited about reefing?

I tried for years to get my boyfriend interested in saltwater (going to aquariums, showing him pics of my old ones, etc.) and he was never interested. He bought the 55 for ME to mess with while he was working out of town (he ended up not working out of town, but that's beside the point).

When we went to pick up the tank, we looked at the guy's other tanks & you could see him get a little interested. I started putting stuff together and got it all up & running with a bit of help from him and a lot of help from a local guy. Once the rock & water was in, he got antsy. I came home one day after it was all cycled and there were 3 emerald crabs in there LOL. For several months I'd come home to something new floating in the tank that I'd have to acclimate. It was actually a little annoying because I'd talk about what I wanted next & come home to something he wanted. He even picked all the fish & had them bagged while I was looking to get a coral.

Since then we pick stuff together. Or at least something he wants & something I want. Nothing in the tank is called "his" or "mine" -- it's all "ours" -- which I think is way more important than things belonging to one or the other of you or all things belonging to just one of you.

Then again, she may just not ever be interested. Some people aren't.

 

Just like everyone has said; get her involved. Take her to the LFS to pick out some fish and/or coral. Ask her opinion about things. Let her name the fishes.

Or find someone ho is interested in the hobby in the first place. ...only kidding. lol.

 

My opinion just dont show her the receipts from the LFS store... Oh and the keeping the tank clean comment is a good one as well. My wife has no interest in our 10 anymore since a fish died two years ago. Shes happy to see it if it looks nice otherwise its "why does this thing need to be here?" I know she enjoys it when it looks nice and she was very concerned when we couldnt find our blood red shrimp "sherman" one day. (He had shed his exoskeleton and we thought he died. He came barreling out when I fed next. Little hog...)

 

Don't show receipts is right!!

I'm a female with a reef addiction and I'm pretty sure that some of the pricetags on things I've brought home would make my finace vomit, LOL!!

 

I would add a caution to the livestock thing... My gf gave some of her livestock wants... for a 29 Biocube reef, puffer fish and a "big fat pink starfish" were at the top. When I explained why those might not be great ideas... seahorse came up. So, it can be touchy... though a reef and a FOWLR would help. (did I just provide "good" reasoning for two tanks? )

 

You can have her name things, give her a task with it thats hers alone to accomplish, take her to a coral tank at the LFS and tell her to pick her fave (out of the ones your parameters are set up for), show her little things going on like pod population booms etc so that she sits and looks at it more?

 

I went to the best LFS in town showed her all the pretty stuff. She got to pick the stand and the color and that was it.

 

nice!

 

Lmao so true!!!!!!

What I do is let her pick out corals she is not into the chemistry of it but does love to look at it. Good luck sometimes its just a goldfish bowl to some people lol

 

get some pumping xenia...works everytime!