Misery? In fishkeeping? Not on your nelly. All I see is a little hard work and the fruits of my labours, thank you...
Tailpiece
IF YOU’RE OLD enough then you might remember a past episode of the comedy show Father Ted, in which Ted purchases his housekeeper, Mrs Doyle, a ‘Teamaster’ automated tea maker, a device designed to take the ‘misery out of making tea.’ “Maybe I like the misery,” she responded earlier in the show, when she first saw this machine that would go on to become her nemesis.
I’m reminded of that episode as, earlier this week, I had a conversation with a pioneering aquarist, excited about what he perceived to be the very real possibility of a fully automated, self-sustaining aquarium in the near future. (That is, notwithstanding some of the former ‘never have to maintain your tank again’ catastrophes that have emerged in previous years.)
When we had this conversation, I didn’t go for my usual retort right off the bat. There are, of course, many concerns about the practicality of a self-sustaining tank. Hygiene, for one. Water quality and chemistry. Testing, Monitoring of fish health and diseases. Watching for occurrences like bullying or spawning. The list goes on an on—I’m sure you’ve already thought of your own that I’ve not mentioned. I could have raised any or all of these issues and stopped the conversation right there, as I have done in the past, but this time something else hit me.
Even if someone came to me tomorrow, having somehow resolved these many unresolvable problems, and presented me with a tank that took the ‘misery out of running an aquarium’, along with the promise that I only need to rig it up to a drain, a water supply, fill it with fish and never touch it again, I would not want it. Maybe I likethe misery.
I’m not alone in this, I’m delighted to discover. Asking around fellow aquarists, it soon becomes apparent that a good number of us relish the hands-on side of this hobby. Algae wiping was described by some as ‘cleansing’ (which I’m guessing applies to the spiritual as much as the tangible), while a good gravel clean was described by others as therapeutic or cathartic. I received this feedback with bias as I, too, love that revivifying feeling that comes with stepping back from a freshly cleaned aquarium and admiring it.
