The Fandom that I have the most intimate of experiences with is that surrounding the world of Reptile and Aquarium Keeping. Theres was a lot that went into me first discovering my love of this community and how I grew into being a part of it. To start, I got my first fish tank when I was about ten years old, and from there my passion only grew. From one small twenty-gallon tank to seven of them, my enjoyment of the hobby grew tremendously in my first few years in it. All I wanted to do was research different fish, which ones I could keep with which other ones, where they were from, what habitat they liked the most, how I could get them to exhibit natural behaviors, the list was never ending. My thirst for more grew by the day. It was about this time that I started to consolidate my passion both physically and metaphorically. I went from seven smaller freshwater tanks to a single one hundred- and twenty-five-gallon freshwater and another one-hundred-gallon saltwater tank.
It was at about this point where I decided to keep fish in as close to their natural habitat that I could, as such, I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours researching and buying everything I could to make exactly that possible. I wanted everything from the aquatic plants to the fish living in the tank to be like what you could find in a natural system, with my reference being streams from the southern end of the Amazon basin. My passion for the saltwater world and reptile keeping grew from this obsession I had over my first large aquarium. To keep with it chronologically, let’s first look at my saltwater journey. As I say other people in the aquarium world keeping both water types (salt and fresh) I too naturally wanted both. I was particularly fond of the elaborate reefs and coral systems that many were able to create. The art of creating what appeared and acted naturally from the unnatural fascinated me.
I loved to see how people could make these reef tanks look so beautiful, and I wanted to do what they could do. And so, after many hours of moving rocks around and spending far too much on coral, I was able to set up my own reef tank. What I loved most about the saltwater keeping community is the vast droves of knowledge that its members like to post online. This I found to be particularly helpful when it came to understanding water quality, and how to control it best. And as I spent more and more time on these forms I started to understand the lingo that those in the community like to use, that being very pretentious often academic jargon to describe even the most ordinary of ideas or topics. This, as I now know is how people in the community like to deter others from joining it, its made to seem intimidating intentionally. From what I have gathered from my time in places like fish stores or conventions, a lot of the reason that people often use academic jargon (for example, only referring to different species by their scientific names) in this hobby is because of how legitimizing it feels, you spend all this money on a single fish or coral, of course you want someone who knows its value to commend you. This barrier was easy enough to overcome, but it is ever present within the community, and can be hard to overcome at first.
As I grew in the hobby and attended more and more of these spaces where people of my hobby gathered, I was slowly introduced to the world of reptile keeping, which fascinated me to no end. I eventually decided to attend a reptile only convention for the first time shortly after this, and it was here that I got my very first reptile, a ball python I named Pricilla. She’s adorable, and I love her to no end, you can see the day I first got her below. Anyways, what makes me getting Pricilia so significant is because it’s the whole bit of these conventions. People spend months or even years breeding their reptiles for these shows, they spend hours trying for different morphs and color patterns. To the extent that some breeders spend thousands of dollars getting their animals genetically tested to see if they carry certain morph genes. It gets insane, and because so many people spend so many hours trying to produce and procure the coolest and most beautiful animals that they can, it’s no wonder they would want to show off a little to people who understand the effort that they put into it. At these expos, dozens of breeders and enthusiasts gather and at these expos you can often find some of the most novel animals and learn about the best and newest care techniques.
(ignore how bad this picture makes me look, I was young)
Because of the large amount of knowledge and time that is required to be a part of these hobbies there is a natural disconnect between those in the hobby and those outside of it. As such, a lot of the enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge that you accumulate while being in this fandom are not really understood by those outside of it. This leads many, myself included, to get very excited to talk with other fans about the goings within the fandom. It’s a very enjoyable experience to talk with another who shares your passion. The positive environment that this passion creates makes reptile and anime conventions to be very fun and creative spaces. For example, a recent aquarium show, Aquashella in Orlando, was a massive gathering of all types of Aquarium fans. People from all over the US gathered to show off their skills and share their knowledge. I really like going to these shows because of all the people I get to talk to while being there. Like, for example, I talked to this guy who has been selling goldfish for the last fifteen years for over an hour, and it was great being able to just nerd out with him. You can meet people who share your passions and understand why you have them.
My finial note on my convention experience in the Aquarium and Reptile keeping fandoms is the insane amount of money that people are willing to spend at them. I have seen people spend hundreds of dollars on a single frog all because it is rare, and by having one, they could say to other fans that they keep some rare animal that they don’t. The keeping of rare or cool animals is one of the biggest forms of shadow cultural capital in this fandom by large. This is of course seconded only by having large or particularly interesting or natural enclosures for said animals. Creativity is very important in this fandom because you have to be a very creative individual to create a natural and functional enclosure for your animals. You need to balance maintenance, plant or animal species, light and humidity, just to name a few of the many aspects that go into this art. And it is for all the reasons above that I so love being a part of this Fandom. And while I only have my snake at the moment, I very much plan to get fish once I graduate and can get more permanently settled. While I am not a very active member in the community now, I still am at heart.
