PlanetCatfish.com

If I mention that I keep fish to work colleagues, it's clear they think I'm some kind of geek. Go into it a bit further and mention catfish and they start to look, well, worried?

Do you get this response?

If I mention I'm going to a conference on tropical fish next weekend they laugh at me. I like to make their eyes roll towards the ceiling

I don't think I look like the average geek. I'm not worried that they might think I'm some kind of anorak. I love me fish and that's that

Yep same reaction here
I'm quite an outgoing woman, love to drive our American oldtimers to work and make heads turn. My work surroundings contain mostly male workers. Talking about the cars is easy and quite good to have numerous conversations. But if I tell about my other madness of fish keeping, not even mentioning breeding the catfish, they stop talking and start mumbling, giving me the gaze of disbelief and start making stupid jokes about it
So I don't even bother to go there anymore unless they really want to know

Everyone at work knows that I'm crazy about catfish... Now, it doesn't help that I'm a computer-geek as well... ;)
--
Mats

I am content in my infamy.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... tfish+geek!

Jools

And I'm chuft to bits... in a geeky kind of way, with the 4 fab cats I recently obtained. No photos yet. They are NICE, I'm bringing them up-to-speed and will introduce them soon...

I was quite well known during secondary school (and there after) as "the fish guy." I suppose it doesn't help when asked the tie breaker question in a quiz "What family does the goldfish belong to?" and I blurt out Cyprinidae. At least we won

I get "crazy" much more than geek when people realize that by, "going fishing," I mean walking off alone into an African swamp full of snakes, crocs, hippos, and tropical diseases by myself for the better part of a day.
-Shane

Shane wrote:I get "crazy" much more than geek when people realize that by, "going fishing," I mean walking off alone into an African swamp full of snakes, crocs, hippos, and tropical diseases by myself for the better part of a day.
-Shane

And you are not even intending to fry, smoke or make sushi from what you catch...

--
Mats

My wife thinks im a geek regarding catfish anyway and thinks it funny my son can name all the fish by there L-numbers,
All my mates also think this
mainly due to the fact that im slowly spending more time with my cats than with them
down the pub or going out on my motorbike.
They just dont understand why I spent ££££ on buying little black and white (Zebars) that spend half there life hiding from you rather than going to Isie of man TT for a week ! well they better all get used to it!
I dont think I know enough about the hobby to warrant being called a geek yet the fact is I could write what I know about the hobby on a A4 piece of paper so im guess im attempting to be a geek ?

Matt, you're a geek, okay! Its too late, you are too far gone, there's no going back now...

I think I'm a catfish geek-in-training. My work colleagues have an increasingly glassy eyed expression when I talk about my fish and my husband is nervous of going to fish shops at the weekend with me.

This is pretty normal. My work colleagues (other falconers) think I'm nuts for keeping guinea pigs, parrots and catfish. Parrot and guinea pig people are very suspicious of my birds of prey. People who don't keep animals at all think I'm completely bonkers

Catfish people, however, seem cool with everything

Geek is far more complimentary than some things i've been called......LOL

wrasse wrote:Matt, you're a geek, okay! Its too late, you are too far gone, there's no going back now...

Maybe your right wrasse there is no going back now lol

Shane wrote:I get "crazy" much more than geek when people realize that by, "going fishing," I mean walking off alone into an African swamp full of snakes, crocs, hippos, and tropical diseases by myself for the better part of a day.
-Shane

I used to get the same kind of feed back at the office when I would drive to Montana to fly fish for Trout since my boss' office over looked Puget Sound from down town Seattle, WA.
He was from Hong Kong and would ask me why would I bother to drive from Seattle to SW Montana or Yellowstone National Park when we were surrounded by a good local Salmon fishery. I would tell him it was because Seattle and Puget Sound is too crowded. "Too Crowded", he would say, "You should see Hong Kong!"
My main worry was running into a Grizzly Bear. Not as many different threats as the places Shane has explored but there were also plenty of Rattlesnakes but I have lived most of my life around Rattlesnakes so they did not worry me... much. I did break a fly rod one time when I was scrabbling over some river side boulders along the Boise River in Idaho, an area famous for it's high population density of rattlesnakes, and one I couldn't see began buzzing at me from underneath a boulder. I jumped pretty high breaking the fly rod when I hit the ground. I had just come across a dead Rattler someone else had killed recently only a few minutes before so I was more on snake guard than usual. One nice thing about buying expensive fly rods is if you break one they will replace it free, no questions asked.
Never had as much of a label as a fish geek because I have been involved with the fish business long enough that most people who know me, know I earned money from my fish. People are less likely to classify you as a geek if what you do makes money. I spend money fly fishing and most people think you are crazy if you are willing to spend up to $800 for a "fishing pole".

I also keep snakes and spiders, so keeping fish is my less strange hobby

If standing in a river in shorts catching madtoms and sunfish in Virginia during the last catfish convention makes me a Geek than glad to be one. While I was doing that it was already snowing back home.

My interest in fish also brought on the urge to travel, not a bad thing, which I have been doing more of.

Birger

Bijn wrote:I also keep snakes and spiders, so keeping fish is my less strange hobby

My late brother kept Black Widow Spiders, a local scorpion species but his pride and joy was his 8 feet X 3 X 3 feet terrarium containing a dozen or more Crotulus oreganus, the Pacific Northwestern Rattle Snake. The Rattle Snakes would perform their mating wrestling matches which led to some breeding and females gave birth to about 12 baby Rattle Snakes. The Rattle Snakes are all live bearers and it was always interesting to observe their behavior. They wouldn't rattle when he came in but if anyone else entered they wold rattle altogether and a dozen snakes rattling is a bit unnerving. It amazed me how discerning they were of their surroundings.

I guess I fall in the Geek category. Mostly because my friends think my large tank is a waste of effort, they feel it should be a saltwater set up. They can't believe I keep freshwater fish, then when they hear it's plecos, loaches and a few live bearers they burst out laughing. When I tell them my plecos each have a personality, that's when I get the eye rolls.

I enjoy my fish so I don't mind what others think

Yeah I'm a geek but I prefer to be called fish dork. To me, geek implies some intellegence where dork simply says "uncomfortably awkward"...exactly what I feel after I reveal I breed tropical fish and realize that people have started to look at me funny.

Scott

What is odd is that keeping fish is in the top 3 to 5 most popular of hobbies.

I work in IT and most of my colleagues have some strange hobbies as well so all "good" their.
My friends do think I'm crazy for spending "so much" money on my aquariums, for them a fish
is a pet you get no affection from what so ever.
It's hard to explain to people what's so special about tropical fish .

What a thread. LOL !!

I can't understand why some people like to argue in fish forum.. after all, we are just a bunch of fish GEEK.

apistomaster wrote:What is odd is that keeping fish is in the top 3 to 5 most popular of hobbies.

Yeah but what percentage of that are "true fish keepers" and not just fish killers? I make the rounds to all my LFS each week just to see if they get a mystery fish that they are selling for a good price. I'm often amazed at what I hear. Example: Girl has over 30 goldfish in a 5 gallon (18 litre) tank and want's to replace the 7 that just died.

- Just bought a motorcycle that's been outfitted to go fish collecting in hard to reach areas. Racing leathers have a P.maccus picture on the butt.

-hours of new video tapes. Some people have movies, I have banjo cats.

Geek.
Happily - geek.

I get called a fish geek all the time. I asked my work colleagues and they said the fact that this question was posed on 'PlanetCatfish' answers the question in itself!

Bijn wrote:I also keep snakes and spiders, so keeping fish is my less strange hobby

Hey Bijn, perhaps you're a mega-geek!

You post some superb pics, of fish I really like... woodcats etc.

But the fact you keep spiders means I won't be visiting anytime soon. My phobia seems to get worse with age! And I swear the damn things come looking for me!

I've talked to Neil at Pier about me going fish-collecting in SA. But there's just one problem...

wrasse wrote: But the fact you keep spiders means I won't be visiting anytime soon. My phobia seems to get worse with age! And I swear the damn things come looking for me!

I've talked to Neil at Pier about me going fish-collecting in SA. But there's just one problem...

There are some pretty impressive arachnids in Africa too - i don't have a phobia but when there are 100,000 in the bush above the table where you are having lunch with the biggest being nearly a foot across* it makes anyone feel a little uncomfortable.

* smallish body, with long spindly legs

It's the South American ones that are bright green and walk on water that got me! Great fun when collecting at night.

Jools

My girlfriend of 4 yrs would love a ring

I want a stingray tank

no more questions your honour