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Are a lot of fishkeepers wired differently?

greenbliss

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21 Apr 2021
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179
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Northumberland
I wonder if a lot of fishkeepers might have ADHD / Autism, learning disabilities and so on? Would make sense for people with less social skills or whatnot to keep fish no?

to be honest I can't imagine normal people creating the aquascapes you see on this site half the time... especially the good ones. I think these sort of 'problems' give a sense of creativity... an intuition??
 
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Interesting topic, I would hazard a guess that this hobby is conducive to neurodivergent people, as well as mental health related issues. I work with deprived young people (many of whom are neurodivergent), so I often have to deal with pretty high stress situations and serious disclosures etc, keeping aquariums is probably an escape for me as well as extremely relaxing and slow paced compared to my work which helps calm me in my free time. I'm pretty obsessive with any of my hobbies and enjoy being a control freak with my own things, I've always built computers and like to fine tune down to choosing individual fans and adjusting fan curves, undervolting to optimise performance/power usage and having custom length PSU cables for a neater aesthetic....currently building a custom keyboard, having to individually lube the switches.

This hobby is a nice change for me compared to my love of PC's, as most computer related things are a case of part X is 17% faster than part Y and I can easily benchmark the results. Just like with PC's, I love the planning stage with aquariums and again, being able to control every step of the process, from the types of light, to the substrate, to the glass thickness, currently building my own stand for a tank so I can have it exactly as I want it. I've never been tested for an "ism" but my partner and some of my colleagues have made not so subtle hints over the years 🙃
 
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Good reason why many hospitals, dentists, doctors surgeries ,will have an aquarium. Interesting that well known aquascapers will tell you how the aquatic hobby helped them with lifes challenges.George Farmer, also Balaz owner Green Aqua, he had a high profile ,highly paid job in film and media but was very unhappy and how starting up Green Aqua has made him content and happy and enjoy his life
 
I think for me it’s about my mental health. I don’t have much to complain about my work can be a challenge but such is life.

Nothing beats starting at a planted tank watching a shrimp or fish in its natural habitat. I forget all about the bad things and just enjoy the moment.

Last night I saw a baby shrimp molt as it did a flyby - I haven’t been that thrilled to see something like that in a long time.

For the cost the value for money for my mental health has been repaid in full already.

Then you get to spend quality time here on UKAPS with you fine folks 😊
 
That matches with my observations but I unable to verify whether it's because I just know a lot of fishkeepers/aquascapers or because there is actually some kind of link there.

I will say though, of the people I know who are neurodivergent and are in this hobby, many are incredibly creative and a huge asset!
 
Just a head up, I can see you don't mean any malice but it's probably best not to group people into 'normal' and not normal... or to refer to neurodivergence as a 'problem'... 😉

I imagine it's more stereotypes and confirmation bias than any direct link. According to the latest UK Pet Food industry stats about 21% of homes have fishtanks and that's going to hit a pretty broad demographic of people.
 
I wonder if a lot of fishkeepers might have ADHD / Autism, learning disabilities and so on? Would make sense for people with less social skills or whatnot to keep fish no?

to be honest I can't imagine normal people creating the aquascapes you see on this site half the time... especially the good ones. I think these sort of 'problems' give a sense of creativity... an intuition??
This seems like a massive generalisation of both Aquarium/fish keepers as well as people with ADHD and ASD, and indeed personality types.
 
Recently found i am indeed Neuro Divergent, Ism' 'Neuro Spicy' in friend group.
It does make perfect sense. Im my most calm when scaping and fiddling with plants etc. And can spend hours planning all the minute details. At the same time sometimes inspiration hits and i tear it all apart and start again. Or something shiny catches my eye, and i wonder if it will work etc. I think that Plants and fish are our Shiny Objects and we must gather them to use in our scapes.
 
Hmm. A lot of people saying no but to be honest from my observation this does seem to be sort of true? I mean the reason I made this thread is because I honestly noticed a lot of people here seem to sort of show these types of traits? Now I’m getting some confirmation at least. But obviously people keep fish for many reasons.
Just a head up, I can see you don't mean any malice but it's probably best not to group people into 'normal' and not normal... or to refer to neurodivergence as a 'problem'... 😉

I imagine it's more stereotypes and confirmation bias than any direct link. According to the latest UK Pet Food industry stats about 21% of homes have fishtanks and that's going to hit a pretty broad demographic of people.
Surely a big difference between people who have a fish tank in their home and people more serious about it though?
 
A lot of people saying no but to be honest from my observation this does seem to be sort of true? I mean the reason I made this thread is because I honestly noticed a lot of people here seem to sort of show these types of traits? Now I’m getting some confirmation at least.
Sorry, but that is anecdotal and very unscientific.
 
I think neurodivergent folks may well be overrepresented in the hobby, though I think that the deeper you get into any hobby or field of study the more you find yourself surrounded by unusual people of all sorts. I don't mean that in a pejorative sense at all! I think it's great and it always feels like a privilege to be around people authentically geeking out and being most true to themselves.

Honestly, I assume everyone is a freak in one way or another. I don't think being neurodivergent counts by itself of course, but if that's a part of who a person is it's probably not totally unrelated either, if that makes sense. My dad has a joke he does where he leans over to me and says, "Ain't nobody here normal except for you and me, and I'm not so sure about you," and it's a nice reminder that feeling like a you're a normal person can itself be a delusion.
 
It certainly fits with my observations too.
All part of life's rich tapestry.

 
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As a neurodivergent person here's my take - we're labeled as thus because we take to modern society less smoothly than neurotypical people. We need nature more vitally, and we find the severence and lack of connection to nature that modernity&capitalism has created very painful (whether we realise that's a source of harm or not). Not that long ago we would've been the people spending all our time gathering, hunting and gardening - just being outside in all sorts of habitats observing, listening, noticing differences, catching creatures, growing and harvesting plants for food and for fun, caring for the land in a reciprocal manner. Literally being nature, an active and positive part of it. Learning and sharing the knowledge of nature that every society holds and handing it down the generations.

Now we can't have that in the same an-encompassing way, but an aquarium gives us a chance to connect directly with nature and nourish that bit of our souls that only proper nature and caring for it can touch. Of course not all people who keep aquariums or do nature-loving activities are neurodivergent, and I really think that the spectrum of neurodiversity is enormous and not completely understandable, definitely all people who connect with nature benefit from it, but if you're completely and utterly OBSESSED with aquariums... well, that could be for a reason.

I don't consider being neurodivergent to be a negative thing or a problem at all, in fact I view it as a positive, the negatives and stereotypes associated with it are society's failings not ours. Sadly we have to deal with that rubbish though ! When I was at art school and diagnosed, they shared the statistic that at least 40% of the students were diagnosed neurodivergent, clearly many neurodivergent people are very creative, so it is not a surprise that in aquariums where we can exercise both our love of nature and our creativity we turn up and have fun with it.

None of these labels are perfect, but I found them very helpful in understanding how I tick and how I can live my life more joyfully. I am so much more at peace with who I am now, recentering my life around nature and other lovely creative nature-loving funny interesting neurodivergent people.
 
I don't consider being neurodivergent to be a negative thing or a problem at all, in fact I view it as a positive, the negatives and stereotypes associated with it are society's failings not ours. Sadly we have to deal with that rubbish though ! When I was at art school and diagnosed, they shared the statistic that at least 40% of the students were diagnosed neurodivergent, clearly many neurodivergent people are very creative, so it is not a surprise that in aquariums where we can exercise both our love of nature and our creativity we turn up and have fun with it.

I work with a couple of groups every week which mainly consist of neurodivergent young people - the purpose of the group is to help them with their social and communication skills, they have a special place in my heart for many reasons, one being that they sometimes will say things that are very interesting or just plain hilarious due to their out of the box thinking - the ones I work with are great fun to be around. I certainly wouldn't think of it as a negative thing, I don't think any of us are all that "normal", whatever normal is, myself included. Interesting about your link with art, many of my work kids fall into that category also 🙂

I always say "The world would be a boring place if we were all the same".
 
Sorry, but that is anecdotal and very unscientific.

I think it's ok to share our views as just that, biased views from anecdotal experiences as an interesting point of discussion? I don't think (or at least hope) that anyone is trying to pull anything concrete from this thread 🙂
 
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