What Made You Want A Freshwater Aquarium?

[d9hp]

I may be a little late on the pleco story but, have you guys seen Star Wars I. I think the guys name is Jar Binky or somin. Its been a while. He looks just like my sailfin pleco.

[fishfreek]

Originally Posted by d9hp

I may be a little late on the pleco story but, have you guys seen Star Wars I. I think the guys name is Jar Binky or somin. Its been a while. He looks just like my sailfin pleco.

Its jar jar binks.

I think thats how you spell it.

[d9hp]

Well, back on the subject. I got a tank out of JEALOUSY! I got a 10 gallon when I was young, had some cool fish, gave them to the neighbors, whose dog crashed their tank. Then one horrible day my dad backed into my tank (which was in the garage). About 7 years later, 6 months or so ago, While at the beach, i saw a cool salt tank and was hooked. Most 14 year old dont have the money to go salt, Im one of them. So i traded some of my old junk for all my freinds tanks. I got 3 little fish bowls and a one gallon setup. Now I am down to a toad tank but am wanting to get a paludarium soon, size will be around 25 or 29 gallons.

[cdawson]

When I was growing up I loved fish, anything to do with fish amazed me (still does). I made my parents take me to the vancouver aqaurium almost every weekend, no matter what it was the only thing that could constantly amaze me. I always wanted to get fish, but my parents would never let me. Until one day I gained the status of adult and had my OWN money, the first tank I got was a 10 gallon with a 3 spot blue gourami, tiger barbs and an albino channel catfish. Since then I've now got 2 10 gallons, a 30 gallon amazon setup and I just purchased a brand new (now cycling) 50 gallon brackish tank to put a green spotted puffer I'm temp. housing in my amazon tank, an archer fish and 2 mono argentus. Within a few weeks I should have pictures of all of them!

[totalbeginner]

i'll try to keep it brief. One of my earliest childhood memories was of gazing for hours at a school of neon tetra's, the shiny neon blue stripes were like headlights to a rabbit. I can't even remember who's tank it was. I was in my little sisters work (LFS) and was just browsing, 20 gal tank kit £120. bought it, set it up, hey presto hobby in a box. OK not quite as easy as that, but not as difficult as i thought. now i'm hooked, got a 30 gal tank cycling right now and a quarantine tank that just need setting up( one thing at a time though. next year i want one of those 300L corner bowfront tank, wicked.

My only regret is that i did not join aquarium advice before i started, i wish i knew what i was doing when i was doing it instead of knowing what i did after i did it. luckily i haven't made any serious mistakes YET.

[the Ents]

Hi all,
thanks for this wonderful site - even if we don't write, we read up on something every day here - the fount of fish lore.
i had a 10 and a 20G when i was a kid; danios, swordtails and fry, mollies, cories, angels, and plecos (back then, noone could tell us just what these weird prehistoric -lookin fish were. i had a book- and thought they looked like this type called loricariid - to a 12 yr old named lori that was kool...). We both had dogs and B had a parrot who still lives with his Mum back in England.

Boris and i decided this past xmas to 'take the plunge'...with fish.
This was soooooo much less commitment, we thought.

Also, i'm in the bio-clock, now-or-never time and thought a pet would 'tide me over'. (Sorry 'bout the puns - i'm from Milwaukee and it's almost a cultural thing. Real 'groaners' get special recognition....)

Also, life in NYC lately has been very stressful (HA!), full body case of hives for me, and cluster headaches for B and my fish get total credit for being healers! You know what they say about the one who saves your life....
Since then, we have succumbed to MTS and now have upped to a 55G, and 15G and the 10 is a Q-tank now. We've just had a second batch of guppy fry this morning( i know, hard not to do), the mollies are gearing up for theirs, and it seems the cories are bumpin bellies, too. We've had our share of emergencies, beaten cases of ich, shimmies, dropsy (mygod, it now sounds as if we're bad fishkeepers) and are learning all the way. Hopefully we never make the same mistake 2x. We feel much better knowing there's this site to learn from.

We have a pt -time production co. which specializes in outdoor camping weekends like mini Burningman or Glastonbury; lights and sound, DJs and live acoustic drummming circles and transformational environments, with emphasis on live-action roleplaying, a la Lord of the Rings, and we've just finished throwing a fish-themed party in a huge loft. However, we aren't getting much else done cuz we just sit and watch the fish! It's like having a mini-festival in our own lv room! How we are going to survive without'em during the year's annual festival, i don't know!
Fantasies of bringin' 'em along to live in 'Gollum's Fishshack' are flitting through ma hed...jus' kiddin'
We'll get phishie photos to ya'll soon.
Thanks fer being there!

[rallycat]

Hi! Newb here. I've been keeping small tanks ever since I was about 10, any kind of fish have always been very interesting / relaxing / therapeutic for me. I've always been drawn to fish with lots of personality - gouramis, cichlids, etc. Freshwater is so much easier and more affordable to maintain on a college budget, so I set up my 29 gal as soon as I moved in and stocked it with every type of gourami I could find at the time. :P I love to sit and watch them play and chase, do their typical gourami things. I also have a 10 gal w/fantail goldfish and a 'night-time' 5 gal w/glow-in-the-dark plants and a blacklight in the hood. An albino cory and 2 black tetras call that home. That's all for me, thanks!

[StarrKill]

I remember back when i was a kid and my parents a had a tank in our downstairs. Im not sure of the size. It may have either been a 50 or 100. But i remember seeing neon tetras, probably some other fish, and this one very beautiful male betta who was red and blue. It was cool to me at that age because we also owned a Beta VCR. I thought the fact that they had the same name was the greatest thing ever. Eventually my parents got so busy with their careers that they could no longer keep the fish, either that or they all died. One of those. But, we haven't had a family fish tank since then. Like i've said in another topic, I have had a small tank of my own, but never got too serious about it. Now that i am home all of the time taking care of my daughter, i will have time to take care of some fishies too. And have something to do as a hobby, since i dont get out much.

[ConanTheLibraia]

My whole life I have loved and been interested in animals. In like the 3rd grade when looking for pets, some mysterious force made me decide to go for fish. I got a 10 gal. with a small fantail, black moore, algae eater, and snail. I don't remember it too well but I was a kid and I dont think i had too much luck with the fish. I guess i put them away. Now its 9th grade and my friend got a 10 gal. goldfish tank and reintroduced me to the hobby. I have a setup similar to the old one only now I have a second small fantail, a small comet. I enjoyed it so much I decided I want to go bigger with tropical fish. I recently aquired a 27 gal. eclipse aquarium for free from my brother in law who is moving to a new, bigger aquarium. I just got it up and running today. Anyways, thats my story.

[Electrobes]

I have adored all pets of all kind. To a kid who had ADD, its amazing how pets can be very addicting, and keep it so! But I started with a betta, then went 10 gallons with random fish here and there from goldfish and dojos, to tiger barbs, to two green spotted puffers. Then one day I got an offer I couldn't refuse on my current 29G, made that beast the current puffer layout, but will be converted to my main planted freshwater tank. Thats my story

[felipe]

hmm.... i have had an interest in freshwater fish for a while but i never did anything about it until my birthday. I got the whole setup for freeee!!!!!!!

[mulron]

I was 6ish when I won a goldfish at a carnaval. So M&D pulled out the suicide bowl and of course I over fed the heck outa it. When it died I asked my Dad if there was a better way to keep them alive? He said maybe once I got older he would show me. About a week later I was at my Grandparents house when I spotted something in the basement. It was a 5gal fish tank. Just like the one Toomanyfish described, steel frame with a slate bottom I started reading the book I found inside the tank when my father came down to find me. He saw me reading the book and asked if I had any questions. At this point I rarely read books so he figured if I took the time to learn about it. I deserved a tank.

We took the 5gal tank home and I have had fish almost all of my life since.

First fish: pair of dwarf gouramis which later killed all the fish in the tank because they started to mate. Bubble nest scared the heck outa me, I thought I did something wrong

[shawmutt]

I am relatively new to the hobby. I bought a few fish here and there without really doing any research, and they died. In between fish I kept the water in the tank so it would stay cycled. After the fourth fish died I figured I should start doing some research before killing more innocent fish. In the process I found some information about South American black water species tanks. Fascinated, I compiled all the information I could and started the new tank about 3 months ago. I currently have a 29 gallon tank with a school of 9 cardinal tetras, and with the black gravel, black background and sides, and murky tea water they really shine. I have java ferns, which don't actually come from the region, but I got the plants when I inherited the tank and they are the easiest things to grow. I am still working on it, this weekend I added a DIY Co2 injector for the plants and a jaguar skull for the...ok, ok, to look cool . Maybe I'll be able to get some pictures on here.

[ghettorigged]

I had a tank when was kid. I had 22 goldfish in a tank in my room. Fish died and I replaced tem with guppies I found in the canal. I then also added tadpoles and whatever else I could catch. It became a disgusting mess that my mom had to remove.

At my dad's house, we had a big bowl with 3 goldfish in it. My brother always spat in it and I aways got in trouble for punching him. Every month, since Iwas th oldest, I had to take the fish out, put them in a dish, and clean the bowl they lived in, including rinsing hte gravel through a colander!!! ok, they meant well but my parents didn't know about the whole biofilter deal.

I'm not sure what happened to that bowl but I never hadfish agin until this year. My neighbor had a beautiul 50 gallon tank wish these exotic freshwater fish that I fell in love with. When she moved, she upgraded to a 75 gallon tank and stored her 50 gallon. I helped her breakdow the tank & transport the fish into their new home, over an hour away. A few onths later she decided to put an ad out for the old 50 gallon that was scratched and aged, along with the iron stand for it.

She came to tell me she needed halpe cleaning it up for the propective buyer and I agreed to help. As we got to talking, she said that since I loved her tank so much, maybe I would like to try having an aquarium. I had wanted one ever since I was small, so I agreed to buy her old gear and set it up.

WELL, my landlord died and the new one wouldn't allow a large tank to be set up so I put it away and thought about getting lizards instead. The whole idea was beginning to feel like a hassle so I just left the tank in storage.

This past January I moved to a new place and of course rediscovered the empty 50 gallon tank. I called up my old pal wo I bought it from and she agreed to drive over and help me clean it up and get it ready for some fish. We drove down to Lancaster, PA to get the loads of fish supplies I would need to make everything work smoothly and returned ready to add water to the tank that had been empty for more than 3 years.

We decorated the tank and she showed me how to use all the equipment invloved in owning and keeping a healthy tank. The tank sat with water in it, flitering away with no fish. I had read book after book and was finally ready to add fish to my new aquarium.

I made the drive into town to get the fish and was so nervus bringing them home. I had the book laid out t the pages covering how to acclimate new fish. I read carefully, followed word for word, and then added the fish.

Now I am addicted. I love having a tank and can't imagne ever living wihtout one. It was well worth the wait.

[dsilvers]

It all started with a jaunt to Petco for Dog food. Normally I get food from a shop in town, but we were out by my fiancé's mother's house. We got dog food and I was walking past these shelves full of Bettas. I had a Betta in college who I loved. I eventually gave him to the father of my boyfriend at the time to watch over. That Betta lived happily for years. Anyway, feeling rather nostalgic, I decided to get another Betta. We got a beautiful purple fellow and named him Fugu. We initially had him in one of those small goldfish vases, but it seemed rather sad, so we got him a 2.5 gallon plastic bowl with a lid filter and some nice gravel. It was then that I started reading about fish, bettas, etc., learning about how to keep them. We eventually got him a nice female, Ruby Foo, and they didn't fight or anything. We also got an African dwarf frog and an Apple Snail. To say we jumped the gun doesn't even describe our rush into this hobby. Poor Fugu got fuzz on him, then we had to do water changes, we had no clue. So I read up some more and realized poor guy was probably cold and the water wasn't clean enough. So we bought a lovely All-Glass Acrylic 5 gallon set up. Comes with filter, heater, etc. We cycled that for a few days, using some of the bowl water. Put in nice gravel, etc. We put in the betta, let him acclimate in a bag for a while, etc., and he died a few days later. We were SO SO sad. We felt so stupid for not knowing what to do fast enough. His girl Ruby died soon as well. Also from what we believe was ick and pH shock. The frog and snail co-habituated quite well for a while, then our poor little frog went, too. So sad. So...rather than give up--I read more and more and we cycled the tank properly as we should have done from the start. Sadly, we were mislead about cycling with goldfish. A pet store gave us what we later learned to be feeder fish, which is why one died 6 hours after we got it! We finally found a great store and great people and they set us up with a berry tetra, rosey barb, bala shark and red wag tail platy. They all loved the 5 gallon and thrived. They were active, beautiful and happy. So thank goodness for that. I read up some more on fish species, aquarium salt use, temperature, pH testing, etc. And learned as much as I could. Eventually we got our 20 gallon tank and set it up properly with a good filter, nice substrate, live plants, etc. and put our four friends in with the snail. The snail was the sole survivor from our first try. Sadly he recently died, we aren't sure why, but he was happy for 6 months. He used to escape from the tank and we'd find him on the living room floor! He later moved to our 10 gallon and was happier with the community there. Anyway, we got a few more balas for our single bala, two sword tail platy females, two black mollies and let them all hang out for a while. Within two weeks we had 40 molly fry in a baby container! So cute and amazing. We eventually moved them to the 5 gallon so they could get bigger without things trying to eat them. Anyway...the molly who had babies eventually died. I read this is quite common with them. She had no other signs of distress, which we look for every day, so we deduced it was the birth. Sadly we eventually lost all of our Balas. I believe it was a pH problem. Our water is naturally more basic. They are ok with that, they all seem fine, but I think we were overzealous about water changes, TOO religious about it. Lesson learned. Now we are more religious about checking pH and watching the water and the fish behavior to determine when to do a water change, as well as keeping up on our filters. We have a great filter that has carbon, as well as an area of good bacteria to grow--something else we also learned about! We now have two Dalmatian mollies with the remaining black molly, the original red wag platy, the original berry tetra, the original rosey barb, two new rummy noses, one remaining female swordtail platy and a pleco. All are highly active, brightly colored and growing! So we are doing something right.
We did also expand to a 10 gallon hex. We did this right though from the first step. It also has substrate, plants and we put in two glow lights, two glass catfish, two neons, a julii cory cat and a pleco (both small). They are all active and happy. Soon the glow lights will go to the 20 gal (I checked and they are ok with the fish in there) so we can add two more glass cat fish. I read they are happier with 4 or more. So it all evens out to about 16 inches of fish in the 20 gal and about 8 inches of fish in the 10 gal. The plants are doing ok, we have beautiful rocks and a full blown hobby we love! As for the 5 gallon, it's still up and running and servers as our quarantine tank. We quarantine all new fish for a week before adding them to our tanks. But after the two glass cats are added and the glowlights are moved to the 20 gal, we are done. They need the extra inches/gallon not in use to grow and breathe.
So, that's our story. I would get a 100 gallon tank today if we could! But for now, we are happy amateurs!

[jackie]

i started a 24 inch tank two years ago, mainly because iused to keep rabbits and dogs and over the years the children have grown up and the pets eventually lived their lifespan[i still miss my dogs they were 13.5 yrs old and 9 yrs old. ] so i decided to try something new.i didn't realise what a facinating hobby it would turn out to be. problem being that i became addicted to the hobby. the wellbeing of the fish is all important and i get great pleasure out of watching their behavior. i have just set up a second tank this time a 40 inch , i'm finding it great fun and have just moved over two leopard danios over to their new home , it's amazing how far i've come since my first fish, lots still to learn and loving every minute, it beats tv any time, even better now i've found this site.

[fishstixs05]

I didn't start out with aquariums like most with a goldfish bowl. In fact I never had goldfish until I bought a Needle Nosed Gar (heh heh heh ) My brother got a 10 gallon from wal-mart for christmas several years ago (I'm only 13), and quickly set it up. I was enthralled by it, and after a few mishaps (a.k.a. changing water but forgetting to use dechlorinator, and several fish wondering how life was like outside the tank) he gave up. A while after. I decided to try my luck. I soon moved the 10 gallon fish into a 29 gallon tank. Not being satisfied, I set up the 10 gallon with 3 puffers and a Scat. One thing led to another, and I had a 55 gallon brackish tank. I found out that Freshwater morays enjoy the live snack every now ad then, and so mine was moved into a 20 gallon solitary confinement. Wanting to try my luck at breeding, I bout a 6 gallon, and put some guppies in my 10 gallon (now empty). I soon moved all of the guppies into the 6 gallon, and the 10 became a pauldron. Then for christmas this year, I got a 30 gallon tall tank, my first SW tank. This was brought on by the wonders of the ocean that have always fascinated me, and my next-door neighbor's 100 gallon reef. Now my 30 gallon is sitting comfortably in my family's living room, with coral and all. This is a great hobby, and the best part is that at age 13, I have a ways more3 to go in the field of fish-keeping.
Yours Truly
Fifishstixs
P.S. This site is GREAT, keep up the good advice everyone!

[owasso_ok]

New to this forum but thought we could introduce ourselves this way.

In 1996 we found a small water turtle and our sons begged for us to keep him. We purchased a 10 gallon tank with a special divider to make 1/2 water and 1/2 rock. I purchased turtle food from WM and was given advice to add live food for him. We purchased 10 feeder goldfish for $1 and to make a long story short, the turtle died and two of the goldfish survived and are still thriving today. They are now approx. 7 inches long each, one is an orange fantail and the other a white comet(?) with orange markings. We named them Ruff and Tuff. Luckily they have survived our ignorance and gradual education in fish and aquariums. 7 years later we upgraded them to a larger tank where they are much happier and healthier (lots of poop and ammonia come from large goldfish!)

That leads us to our next purchase... we were purchasing the last items for the larger goldfish tank when my husband noticed a beautiful 2" Tiger Oscar along with other 2" red oscars and albino oscars in a very small tank, they all looked very skinny and sickly and he was convinced he should rescue them! He talked me into keeping the smaller tank (this won't last for long, I know) and we purchased the Tiger Oscar and the "skinniest one left" as an act of compassion. Too bad we don't have a 200+ gallon tank or he would have taken all of them. Before we left the tank area, my hubby made the employee feed the rest of the fish we left behind. I know that oscars can be beggers, but they look like they hadn't eaten regularly. Oh! My hubby tried to negotiate a lower price on the fish due to their health but the goob working that dept said he couldn't. Well, I love a challenge and after checking out, we proceeded to the customer service counter and had them call another LFS for a price guarantee and received $4 back on each of the oscars. Now the oscars, Starsky and Hutch, are doing wonderful, eating well and becoming quite interesting characters! We are doing a lot of reading on them and hope that we are prepared for what is to come. We are diligently looking for a large tank as we know they will very quickly outgrow their current home. My hubby is very happy with his rescue and loves his "manly" oscars!

I have an itch for some Fire Mouth Cichlid fry at the LFS, they are usually $5 for larger ones, but these are selling for 12 cents each. I would love to set up a tank just to watch them grow into beautiful adults. I'm trying to refrain but it's obviously an addiction and I will seek the 12 step aquarium anonymous group soon!

[littlelouie]

to the whole aquarium hobby. It started with a non-researched purchase of an Eclipse System 6 tank, a couple of goldfish and some white clouds. Goldfish came and went over time but the white clouds hung in there. Go a bristlenose catfish to keep the algae at bay. She survived my ignorance for 18mths then I think she died from starvation(sunken belly on final inspection). Bought another BN and some algae chips and all went well 'til I lost my last goldfish to ick/whitespot. Decided to heat the tank for winter and the rest of my fish died from some parasitic worms that loved being stirred up fro a rigorous gravel vac.

Well the tank is now a tropical one with 5 cardinal tetras and a clown loach. (I know....the clown loach is not a fish to keep in 6gal....I didn't know that before I was talked into getting him. Long story)

All seems good and the fish look great. A pc of driftwood has made such a difference to the setup. Will see how things go for the next 1-12 mths and will look at getting a 20gal + setup. But must wait 'til we live in a house though.

LL

[lilmolly]

This is my first post and my as well be here. I have had fish in the family all my life and it is in the family history on my moms side of having lots of animals including fish. However, we never had as big of tanks as all of you. I think the biggest anyone had was about a 55-75gal? My aunt had it and it broke and went all over the house! Yikes!
Anyway, I had a many tanks when I was little and now I'm 17 and have 2(10gal) and 2(2.5gals). I'm running out of room for them. 2 of the 10gals are in my room. There's a 2.5 in my bathroom and another in the kitchen. My mom won't let me get anymore fish unless I keep them in the basement and that's where my convicts will go. I'm waiting till summer garage sales start so I can get a bigger tank. I really want 3(20gals) but that's never going to happen.
Right now I have 2 pink convicts 1 male 1 female. 3 female white mollies(2 are pregnant), 1 black male molly, 1 chinese algae eater, and 2 danios. I need more tanks so bad but I can't work till the summer because of finals. In 2 weeks I think they'll start those garage sales. ::Fingers Crossed::