I’m Always Tempted to Buy New Fish for My Saltwater Aquarium

I like to go down to the local fish store quite often just to check out what they have in stock. They move a lot of fish and invertebrates, and because of that they always have something new in stock. In addition to constantly rotating their stock of fish, they like to mix in new stuff a lot, stuff that I’ve never seen before.

This isn’t a good thing for a guy who’s trying to keep from destroying the hard-fought balance in my saltwater aquarium. I’ve spent a lot of time getting my aquarium to that perfect point of balance where it’s easy to maintain and I don’t need to worry about anything from day to day.

The best way to ruin that balance would be to constantly try adding new fish to the aquarium. I’ve found that even adding one fish that is a little aggressive or unhealthy can bring a nice aquarium down really quickly.

I don’t want that to happen.

So, as I visit the local fish store, I always have to convince myself that no, I don’t need any more fish at the moment. Even though that new type of Tang that I’ve never seen before looks really interesting.

This gets me thinking about discipline and how it’s a major factor in keeping a healthy aquarium running. My aquarium requires me to apply a lot more discipline to it than I’m used to in other facets of my life. I mostly have things set up in my life so that I don’t need to have a terribly disciplined lifestyle. But the aquarium is a much different story. I need to constantly discipline myself to maintain it. I also need to exercise great discipline in what I add or remove from the aquarium.

It’s tempting to tinker and add new things, but I need to stay disciplined and keep my aquarium at it’s current state, even if that means not buying any new fish for a while.