Neptune Aquatics

Color Blind Reefers?

bondolo

bondolo

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The most recent Neptune thread made me really think about the role that colour plays in the reef keeping hobby. I know that I am very colour sensitive and colour attuned (I am obsessed with what type and colour lighting is used in my home and work, I was the first on my block with a high gamut LCD monitor, I stuck with CRTs for years because of better colour reproduction, I've calibrated all of my displays for 20+ years, etc.). The colours in reef aquariums have a strong impact on me and heavily influence the specimens I choose and prefer.

How does it work for colour blind people? Is reefing less interesting to people who aren't as obsessed by colour or can't see colour? Any of you colourblind and if so, do you think it affects your specimen choices?

On the opposite extreme, my wife is blind as are many of our friends. The favourite experiences of blind people looking at my aquariums are; the cleaner shrimp crawling all over their hands when they put them in the tank and the mucus from the green slimer when I get them to touch it. One or two braver folks have lightly touched the GBT anemone ("Mmmmm numbing" in Homer voice was the best description) and the tuxedo urchin ("Not really sharp, more like a nettle or burr, but the tentacles are cool"). It's definitely not the experiences that I'm looking for from owning a tank but it is interesting.
 
It would be REALLY hard to be in this hobby if you were color blind for a couple reasons that I can think of. Tests kits are all color coded (for the most part) so how would you be able to keep a healthy thank. Why pay more for a fish tank when you can't enjoy how much more beautiful it is than FW.

Wow, thanks for bringing this up.
 
Excuse my ignorance of the subject........

Don't colour blind people have issues with seeing the actual colour (e.g. seeing red for green) and not the intensity/saturation? If this is the case it shouldn't be an impediment to enjoying the hobby.

-Gregory
 
Different types of colorblind. Most common is as Gregory mentioned with identifying the right color. If that is all you know, I'm sure you can enjoy reefing as much as anyone else :)
 
I agree with the ability to enjoy looking at something even if you are color blind but... can you keep a tank? Doesn't sound like a good idea..
 
If the type of colour blindness is simple substitution (red to green) it should be fine.......everything would be switched including the results from the test kits. They might lose some contrast which would make reading the results a little more difficult.....but still doable. A lot of the important tests have digital checkers these days as well......

-Gregory
 
Keep in mind that "colorblind" almost never means "can't see any colors" ... nearly all colorblind people just have certain ranges of colors that they can't distinguish, while other colors they can see just fine.

My husband is red/green colorblind and he enjoys the colors/patterns on most of the corals and fish in the tank, but there have been a few times where I've brought home corals that to ME are awesome colorful goodness, but to him are boooooring. I'll usually replace the corals that he can't appreciate, with ones that he can, once I figure out that there's an issue.

A few fun examples:

This is a "solid green monti" to him:
coral.jpg


And these are "gray zoas":
Metallic_Pink_Zoa_ps.jpg
 
Complete color blindness (black, white and shades of grey) is super rare, but I imagine that such individuals could still appreciate the pattern, movement, subtle details and behaviors. If they were building a reef tank they would be doing it differently but I would imagine that they would still enjoy it. Photographers today can still take beautiful black and white photographs.
 
I have what is called 'poor color perception' - color blind is really a crazy term. I get lots of colors confused. For instance, I would swear that UPS trucks are green. On some test kits I need someone else to tell me when the color changes because I can't tell. Other than that, it doesn't impact my reefkeeping one bit. I just buy corals that I like the color or textur of, same as you normal freaks :D
 
I'm with Rich- I buy corals that look good to my eye and that's all that matters to me. The My Miami chalice that goes for hundreds/ eye looks like a typical watermelon chalice to me. :)
It's not hard being colorblind & reefing, I describe it as if a normal person can see 100 different colors on a pallet, I could probably see 97 of them- no big deal to me missing out on 3. I either use friends or Hanna digital testers for calcium, alk, etc testing. and there's nothing wrong with another excuse to visit the LFS to have them test your water....
 
Always wondered why you had that brown chalice as your forum picture :)

My father-in-law is color blind, always wanted to buy this shirt and wear it just for him

http://www.zazzle.com/i_heart_the_colorblind_tshirt-235402101745612970
 
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