Please Allow me share in brief abt my journey to Aqua World.
It started from the time I cant remember how old was I. Started with edible fishes at fish market. Used to go with dad and get a fish if found a small one alive and then the Horlicks Jars rocked!!

next level was catching fishes with fishing rod and releasing the big ones back to the pond again but keeping small ones in a cemented tank which now is home to 2 ID sharks , a carp and a Rui for last 2yrs. During those times, i kept tilapia, Koi Maach, Puntis, American Rui, Bata, etc. this continued till class 6.
In class 6, as science project, everyone had a topic to write an article upon and share some knowhow. and my topic was "Aquariums". Man!! after school dat day, went to the lfs with mom and got two red cap gold fishes which stayed for around some months and were kept in the cemented tank. before gf was introduced, existing fishes were released bak to our neighbor's pond from where all of them were caught.
2yrs bak when I learned about Nitrogen cycle in tanks, couldnt figure out how did my fishes grow up with great colors and stayed well for 3yrs on avg in dat cemented tank w/o filter and airstone or anything; just feeding, weekly 100% wc and heater in winter. And it was only last year I realized that it was becoz of the thick algae layer on the walls that was doing the bio-chemical filtration for the fishes.
In that project I didnt get gud marks but yeah, if my son someday gets that topic, he will be the topper for the project

In my life most influential people were my Dad and Mom. Dad took me to bazar and got me fishes and mom taught me how to catch fishes with fishing rods and also got me my first Red Cap Gold fish

and that why I love that species more than any other.
Also, if we look around us, most of the people who are in the aqua hobby 'seriously', they all started at a tender age and kept it going on. The seeds of aquatic world were sown a very early age which got a ample time to mature as the individual grew.
Hence my guess is, its tough to introduce new people in the hobby. And if some even joins a very few will continue it for a long time.
Another thing I want to point is - the Hobby is not about a person getting a tank just the sake of getting one or to decorate or for all those feng shui stuffs and thn comes the group of people, for whom lfs does the wc and all. in such cases where is the hobby??!! how is the tank owner involved?! I dont think thats hobby, but its like buying a showpeice and keep it there in the showcase that they wont do anything for the maintenance on their own.
Please dont mind me saying this and i apologize if its not so pleasant to some- I am also referring to those people who get their tanks done by scapers like Hamza. Those clients who get such tanks made, i doubt how much they know abt their own tanks. they jst want it as a showpeice. and that why the AMCs exist there to help such people out.
Forgot to mention this one- A few days back I was showing a pic of my recent 3' planted to a colleague and his 1st qstn was, where did u get those plastic plants!!! I was like WT.... I dont think frm my encounters, we can bring genuine people to the hobby in numbers coz I offered friends/colleagues to help setup a planted tank from scratch, but they jst dont wanna spend money/time on it.... most look for readymade tanks...and dats where the hobby ends
