Stress-killing trend all Aussie homes could use

Just enjoying this growing home trend can help boost your mood and reduce stress, according to the experts.

Super size me, Picture: Kemp Real Estate.

There are more than a few pressures dangling over our lives, with money, or the shortage of it, at the top of our worry tree as we brace for another interest rate rise.

During 2020-21, when interest rates were a sweet 3.6 per cent, Health Direct reported 28 per cent of 16-34 year olds in Australia were suffering from anxiety. While that period was peak Covid, current pressures are no picnic either.

But before you spend big on therapy, treat the whole family to something friendly and fishy.

FINISHING SCHOOL FOR STRESS

In Marine Biota and Psychological Well-Being, a recent report from the UK National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth University and the University of Exeter, it was found that simply looking at a fish tank can lead to noticeable reductions in blood pressure and heart rate, and can improve people’s moods. So let’s fish for a solution for the average home.

Simply looking at a fish tank can be de-stressing.

FISH AND CHEAP

If it’s your first foray into fish fun, start with a small tank under 20L. You can buy a 7L kit (tank, gravel, light and filter) for under $90 from large pet stores, specialist shops and even Amazon. In a 7L tank, you might fit up to six freshwater fish (from around $6 each), including goldfish, fancy finned fantails or Churchillian black moors. The blue-ribbon standard is the Fluval brand, but you can invest in an upgrade once your confidence is up and your obsession well established. Add live plants and chill out.

GETTING WARMER

Next stop, tropical tanks. Take your freshwater tank basics and add a heater. Now a whole new range of exotic fish become available, from brilliant neon tetras to bewhiskered loaches. The range is huge and surprisingly inexpensive, starting at just $4 a fish. For my money, there’s more bang for buck in a tropical tank – especially under blue night lights. Fish-sperts say take your time and get the tank, water and plants humming for a week before you add any fish.

FINDING NEMO … IN YOUR LOUNGE ROOM

Creating a breathtaking marine (saltwater) tank is the pinnacle. Expensive, time-consuming, but oh so supremely rewarding.

Brian Hendrickse, from Hi-Tek Aquariums in Sydney, gave your Fixer a tour. Brace yourself: this is an equipment- and chemical-heavy exercise and substantially more expensive. A 300L tank, with everything including the cabinet it sits on, ranges between $1700 and $2500.

Fish tanks have a hypnotic quality. Picture: Hi-Tek Aquariums/supplied

After buying live rocks and saltwater, splash out on colour. Live corals start at around $60.

“You can get coral glue to attach them to the rocks,” Hendrickse says, though some will happily just sit, basking in the specified electric sunlight.

AGE OF AQUARIUMS

Finally, there’s the deluxe super tank of every aquarist’s dreams. Mesmerising and hypnotic, your jaw and shoulders drop just looking at it. Exotic tangs (costing from under $100 up to $1000 each) glide past, and below them “Nemo” the clown fish (around $60) nestles in a giant clam with a baby pearl growing in its folds.

Check out the second-hand market first. The initial outlay is far less; upgrade once you’re in the marine groove. Hendrickse also says aquariums can be an engrossing hobby for restless teenagers, offering challenges, skills and rewards. But for calming the harried adult mind, watching Nemo and the pearl may be just about unbeatable.

Originally published as Stress-killing trend all Aussie homes could use