The pleasure of owning an aquarium

Download: The pleasure of owning an aquarium (.pdf file)Pet in Europe:The aquarium segment is stagnating in many of Europe's markets. What do you think the reasons for this are? Robert Bernhold:People's lifestyle and entertainment culture have changed considerably. The main problem is that an attractive aquarium takes up a certain amount of the time and financial resources of a potential hobbyist. And that's not all: it also requires patience and a constant readiness to acquire specialist knowledge, in order to try and understand the small ecosystem of the living room aquarium. Of course, we all know that time, money and patience are factors that are in especially short supply in our fast-moving society and therefore they have to be used to the best possible effect.If a person decides nowadays to invest his time and money in a pet, he expects something in return from the pet. A friendly wag of the tail or a comforting purr during a cuddle offers pet owners a direct opportunity to communicate with their pet. But ornamental fish are less expressive: they swim around silently behind a pane of glass, and they don't smile. And you can't simply pack your aquarium and take it with you on holiday, or take it for a walk around town. Direct contact with fish is impossible, because they live in a different element.A more cynical way of looking at it is that a screensaver featuring fish swimming around is nearly as effective as an aquarium, but is also free and downloadable in an instant! It fits in with today's mentality of wanting to "just have a quick look" at an aquarium. Perhaps aquariums have also lost a bit of their exotic appeal too; many years ago they afforded people a glimpse of a relatively unknown underwater world and fired up their imagination. Now every household has a PC and can thus access the most remote corners of the globe - for example, a click of the mouse brings up an underwater web cam in the Maldives on your computer. Computer games in which the player can be immersed in a virtual reality underwater environment with the most amazing graphic animations are even better. On the other hand, looking through a glass pane into a mediocre living room aquarium has a rather deflating effect.Pet in Europe:What is Astra doing to win more converts over to fish-keeping?Robert Bernhold:We're trying to communicate the pleasure of owning an aquarium to potential hobbyists and to dispel their fears regarding the complexity of it. This includes presenting…