What Made You Want A Freshwater Aquarium?

[SWerner13]

Getting a set-up for a bearded dragon was more expensive and seemed like to much for my roomates so I went with a 10 gallon full set-up from petsmart. A few months later I have a 55 and a 110 i'm working on...

[follicle]

The Black Ghost Knife Fish and lunar lights did it for me

[chinoanoah]

Just the way he looked started it all for me. I've gone through so many phases on what I "like" though. Used to LOVE my single oscar, now I can't imagine a tank w/o plants and nice lights. Hopefully I'll be able to keep discus in my lifetime as well.

[Samuel-Bennett]

In 1993 when I was 9 we got a goldfish tank, we bought 10 small goldfish and expected them to die within a week, they lasted years, I think the first one died after about 7 years. There are still 3 alive now.

In 1995 we got given a 6ft tropical tank complete with fish and everything, so that went in the living room and the goldfish ended up in my room. I loved the goldfish but the tropical fish were fascinating, we had a huge plec in it.

My Dad also had a really nice tank at his house, he really got into it though. Then we moved a long way away so the tanks were given to our neighbour. I recently moved into my own flat with my dog and decided I wanted a fish tank, then my 3 year old Neice told her Mum she wanted some fish so that's why I got them when I did, so she would see them when she's here.

Short answer would be I find them fascinating lol

[plantgirl02]

well, here is my story about how i got into fishkeeping.

when i was about 11 years old, i was having stomach problems which i now attribute to stress (you ask how was an 11 year old stressed out; i was involved in so many activities and under pressure at school). anyway, my dr had suggested something like a fish tank for me to watch and help relieve my stress.

my dad always kept fish when he was younger so he purchased a 75 gallon and filled it with all different types of cichlids. i absolutely loved the tank and at the same time i had won a goldfish at our city fair, so i got a 5 gallon aquarium for him.

my parents kept their tank until about 4 years ago. they switched it from a cichlid tank to a community tank and had angelfish, bala sharks, and huge kissing gouramis.

finally i got my own 29 gallon tank about 5 years ago - it started out as a freshwater tank with community fish, then angelfish, cichlids for a while (bad idea in a 29 gallon) and now it's my dream heavily planted community tank. still to this day i look at my tank and feel more relaxed (except for right now when i think ich has infected my tank.. haha). i really hope to one day get into saltwater and larger tanks. right now this is all my house will accommodate

[Joetoyc]

When I was younger my aunt worked in our local pet store. After school and on the weekends my cousins and I would spend hours hanging around the store, and while they always took a shine to the snakes and spiders- which both scare the crap out of me- I was always into the fish. For whatever reason, though, I never had any fish growing up, probably because my mom knew what a hassle it would have been for her. It wasn’t until four years ago that I got my first fish: a betta. I keep that little Wal-mart purchased fish alive in a ½ gallon bowl for three years. As bad as I feel know, at the time I had not done any research on betta’s. I simply bought betta food which I feed him ever few day, and cleaned out his bowl every couple of weeks. Not that I understand how horrible the conditions that he lived in where, I’m shocked that he lived so long. Anyways, after three years the little guy seemed to be doing fine, that is until I asked my wife to change his water one weekend. To her this meant simply topping the bowl off, which was already turning a murky brown color. The next day the poor fella was dead. I still give my wife **** for killing him, though, she seems to think that three years was well past his expected life span, so his time was merely up. So ever since the passing of my betta I have been thinking about doing a tank, which I finally made reality three months ago. The cycle is finally done, and I will be adding fish tomorrow. I’m super stoked. Will post some pictures later.

[ElwoodPDowd]

When I was five, we won a couple of goldfish at a fair. They travelled halfway across the country in a tiny sweet jar.

Then sat around in a salad bowl dodging cats for another 10 hours while my dear mother went about trying to find a tank going cheap (the family was quite poor).

Then we went down to he beach and got a bunch of sand and some driftwood, rinsed them once under a tap, filled the tank from the tap, and dumped the goldies in.

For the next few days we fed them small amounts of leftover food from our dinners, which they loved. When we had algae, we dropped a few snails in. We never heated or filtered the water, and did a complete water change every month or so, using untreated tap water.

These poor abused goldfish lived quite a while; one died the year I started secondary school (he was 8, assuming he was 0 when we got him) and the second died another two years after that.

Roll on the clock another 11 years, I'm earning a fair bit of money and get nostalgic. I headed down to petsathome (like a pet department store in a warehouse) and had a goosie at the goldies.

Then I looked over the rest of the fish, and literally fell head over heels in love with some dalmation mollies. One 62L tank, heater, cycle, filter, expensive plant setup later, and I've got three dalmation molly girls (not named yet) and a silver boy. Who will be looked after much better than Terminator and Chips ever were.

[TJ08]

The reason I got into fish was due to that kids movie Finding Nemo. My
son was three at the time seen the movie, and would not stop talking
about fish. So a family member bought him a 10g for his birthday,well
that didnt last long because he thought the fish would like to see a
nice glass vase and cracked the tank! Got him a second hand 20g
which at age 7 he still has,and he is still into fish as much as when
he was three only now he goes to the pet stores and tells them what
they should be giving them!lol. Our tanks have expanded along with the
20g, my son also has a 30g now and I have a 75g,20g,and a 46g.

[WhiteDevil]

Cheaper then salt water.

[Lymore]

My mom grew up keeping various kinds of freshwater fish. She had one when I was born, so I've grown up with tanks since I was a baby.
When I was 7 or 8 my sister and I got a 55 gallon tank for Christmas. My mom asked if we wanted salt or fresh water, and kept saying "salt ware fish are prettier" so, we picked salt. I helped her take care of the tank and learned how to try and get finicky fishes like mandarin gobies and seahorses to eat. We moved when I was 10 and had to leave the 55 gal behind with my mom's ex. We had a few tanks when we moved to FL, a 20 gal reef tank among them.
I wanted my own tank in my room when I was 12, and so I got a 10 gal freshwater with guppies. The 2nd day of having the tank, one of the females had fry. From then on I was fascinated with the breeding of fish, and have had sword tail, guppy and molly tanks for the past 7 years.

I would like to do salt again, but its much more expensive