How were you introduced to the hobby?

[LPXnoob]

I had tanks all my younger childhood and then discovered girls, cars, and sports and kind of drifted from it and only kept bettas for about 5 years.

Then my senior year of high school I took aquatic science. The class room was a freshwater aquarists dream. Tanks of ll sizes, shapes, and biotopes. We had a 180 gallon tank for a Adonis plec and a massive albino tiger Oscar. A 55 gallon heavily planted amazonian tank. A 20 gallon guppy haven. A 40 gallon native tank with fish we gathered from a stream running close to the school. And countless others. I was in charge of maintaining the Amazonian tank and I had my craving rebuild again. Now I have a pair of 29's and a pair of 10's in my room and am building a 90 gallon for our living room. MTS is a long standing disease that can stand dormant apparently. Lol.

 

[User]

I was introduced through two maybe three sources. Like you we had a large 100+ gal tank with all sorts of freshwater fish.

The first fish was a gift from my brother, a goldfish I still have today.

The second was buying my second tank and an aquaclear 30 (didnt know how great these things were!) for that same goldfish. Now I have 7 tanks, not all mine though but in the same house, that I maintain.

 

[BHead707]

Ive always been fascinated by fish but was always too busy to keep them during high school.Now that im in college i attempted a couple fancy goldfish in a 10 gallon(was not aware of this site or about cycling) after they died i stopped for about a year and just started up a little over a month ago and have had no issues. Now i want a bigger tank!

 

[tlkng1]

My first introduction was to freshwater in, hmm...6th grade? The science teacher had a 10 gallon tank set up in the classroom..that was arounf the 1978 timeframe. I was all freshwater until early 1995 when I met a lady down in New Orleans who had a 90 gal reef system. She got me hooked on reefs and even bought me my 75 gallon setup as payment for taking care of her two horses, for three months, in the heat of a New Orleans summer while she was on temporary duty in Florida .

I have bounced back and forth over the last 15 years but am now working more towards smaller reefs, eventually 2-28 gallon alll-in-one tank types, just due to the size of my house..the 75 had too big of a footprint to fit comfortably given the floorspace.

 

[NoFishingAllowed]

My KIDS!! They begged me for a betta forever. I finally gave in, and fell in love Now all the neighborhood kids come to our house to play cause we have "awesome fish"

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I'm not sure, I've just always felt this strange tie to water-related things in life...
I live by the ocean, my favorite foods are always fish, cooked or raw, I have a water horoscope, and have been always loving fish every since I was three when the chef at a fancy restaurant had a betta in a big salad bowl, and the salad was in a bowl on top of it...

 

[tarpon]

I said "i want a fishtank"

 

[Ibrahim]

I said "i want a fishtank"

lol............My first was when my aunt gave me their spare 5g

 

[stingrays4]

Hi i have always been fascinated by fish,and after a few very unsuccessfull attempts i said i would never keep fish again,but one Christmas, my sister got two goldfish and she loves anything with fur but slimy fish so i took the two goldfish and bowl and decided i would do it properly this time. Read as much as i could and drove the chap in the local fish shop mad {no internet back in them days}and so a little bowl became a little tank which became a bigger tank which became a tropical tank
The goldfish were re-homed in a fish pond

 

[HAVAMAL]

lol............My first was when my aunt gave me their spare 5g

My Aunt gave my family our first one too, it was a 5g. I was around seven? We always had guppies in the tank, my mother would buy feeder guppies since they were so cheap especially 40 years ago LOL I used to think we were so good at raising them, it wasn't until I was in my thirties that my mother admitted that when the fish started to die off that she would go buy another dozen while we were at school and when we got home she would say look they had babies!
LMAO My mother was a character, miss her all the time!!!!

 

[Phranque]

Aquariums have been in the family long before I was born. My grandfather had a house full of tanks, and I used to help him with feeding & cleaning. Just about everyone I'm related to on that side has at least one tank of some form.

 

[ashleynicole]

I have always liked all types of animals. I wanted to be a zoologist, a veterinarian, a marine biologist... well I wound up being a registered nurse, but that didn't stop me from keeping a menagerie of animals.
My first real tank was a 5 gallon hex tank, I think I was about 10 or 11 when I got it. I had an UGF and an internal power filter, didn't know a thing about cycling, didn't even have the internet, so listened to the people at the pet store fish after fish died in it. Finally I had a common goldie that lived as the single inhabitant for about 5 years until I put him in my aunts outdoor pond. I know it wasn't good for me to keep him in a 5 gallon tank, but I simply didn't know. I also had a betta in a bowl that lived for about 3 years. Again, I really didn't know any better, and I did change the water in the betta bowl a couple of times a week so maybe that's why he did so well? He used to flair and give me bubble nests all the time, and it was a pretty big bowl.

My first big tank is my 55 gallon that I still have. It was given to me and my husband when we were first married (we were 19). We didn't have kids yet so I spent all my extra income on this tank, and luckily I actually did my research at the time and was successful with it. When my daughter was born my finances were focused on her so I took it down and it is still stored in the garage. I had a 12 gallon planted that got broken in our last move, so I have been without a tank for the last couple of years and finally decided I missed it too much. Within a month I am back up to 3 tanks, a 29 gallon and two 5 gallons, . I am trying to find a place to set up the 55... I think I have a bad case of MTS! I am 27 now and I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old and they are loving mommy's hobby. You should here them say everytime we get ready to go somewhere "Mommy are we going to the fish store? " LOL

 

[aqua_chem]

Father worked at a large breeder in Florida, and passed on the art.

 

[Ice Man]

I am a photographer. One of my assignments required me to photograph slice of lemon falling in to water. In order to do that I bought 10 gallon fish tank. After it was done I forgot about the tank for about 4 years. 2 years ago I wanted to buy a pet for my son, unfortunately me and my wife are allergic to almost everything (to each other as well). Fish were the only option! For about 2 years I had 10g with random fish. Couple weeks ago I got 25g (the biggest that would fit in to designated aquarium space). Now I got really hooked up!!! Already decided what fish I am going to put in to new tank. A LOT of research and help from AA users went in to that. Right now I am in second week of fishless cycling.
I am giving my old 10g to my neighbor's daughter (6 year old), with all fish and required equipment. Hopefully she will get hooked up as much as I did. (my wife said today "I'm glad you have a new hobby, but why it takes so much time!?)
BTW, I had little 2g tank with some grass and guppies about 20 years ago. Maybe that's why I like fish so much today.

 

[00youknowit00]

Well I took my brother to the lfs to get stuff for his rescued turtle, and left with a 20H, now I have a 2.5 shrimp tank also. Don't really know why but I just had to have a tank one I saw all the fish.

 

[JessahMoose]

Kay well im new to this site for sure, but i got into wanting a pet fish, because when i was 9, i got a free red Betta from a family friend, little did i know he was sick or something, he had died a week later, , since then i had been inlove with Betta fish and their colors, i currently have a blue and red male, i named him Felix ^___^, but since i put him in a Fluval Tank, hes been hiding, he doesnt like the water filter making currents, is this normal at all?

 

[PHP]

The Fair.

Won a goldfish and it all started from there.

At first I had them in a bowl, then I upgraded to a 10 gallon.

I then upgraded to a 30 gallon and finally learned about the Nitrogen Cycle.

So that's basically it.

 

[Tfain]

I started out with a 5 gallon tank with neon tetras. Then I went over to my cousins house and he had a eel and some other cool fish. I went out that night and got a fire eel. Unfortunately I didn't know about cycling and he died. So I turned the 30 gallon tank I specifically bout for the eel into a salt water tank. I let it cycle and it now has a banded coral shrimp, a dwarf lion fish and my newest addition a banded cat shark that will be going into the 180 gallon tank I got last week. I plan on getting clown fish and a sea anemone soon

 

[silent_froggy]

When I was between 5 and 8 my parents had an aquarium with gold fish and turtles. Of course the turtles ate the gold fish... Then when I worked for my dad he had an aquarium at the service desk for a couple of years, until the tank wasn't being taken care of and he got rid of it.

I honestly was never all that interested in keeping them until this year. My husband loves fish and was trying to convince me that it would be a great idea to get a 55gallon. I was hesitant right up until we entered the pet store and started oogling. I fell in love and am now more obsessed than he is ^_^

 

[Nyghtfire]

Been fishing recreationally for aslong as I can remember got taught catch and release.
What I found is I love watching them swim I remember sitting on the end of a jetty watching them for over an hour swim by feed. 3 years later I've got 5 tanks. Only one set up as a planted now was a 75 gallon reef but gave up the reef in favor of a low tech planted due to the 60 hours + a week I'm currently working. Same reason for taking down the other four.

I'm a navy child I've always been within a kilometer ( roughly half a mile) from the beach. Probably something to do with it.

Or you could put it down to a Pisces. With my starsign tattooed onto me for a very long time. (two fish)

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