I can't recall precisely when I got my first tank, but I do recall catching tadpoles in the creek in fourth grade, and watching them morph into frogs, and buying those poor baby turtles in the wretched plastic bowls with their equally wretched plastic palm trees. They never lasted long, poor things. Found one turtle shell in the rafters in the basement, I guess our cat got that one.
Ended up, by the time I hit high school, with a 30G tank. I think the tank and basic equipment was a Christmas gift if memory serves. Had a lovely pair of angels who spawned often, but of course, never managed to hatch any eggs. Had a mystery snail, and used to wish its eggs would hatch too. TIger barbs, one poor lone kuhli loach, a pair of corys of some kind and a swordtail, and one poor Betta that the barbs nibbled all the fins from, until he died. I wish I'd known then what I know now.
Later I got some guppies and other live bearers, platies and mollies, which were fun because they kept having babies. And I had one Black Moor goldfish, kept in a tank by himself, who was a character. He'd eat from my hand. Called him SOB because he used to nibble the turtle's bellies and drive them crazy, when I'd drop them in his tank to eat the snails. They were nowhere near big enough to be a danger to the fish. He went to live in a huge pond when he outgrew his tank.
I think had four tanks when I finally graduated from college, and then had to get a job. Lacking the time to do the maintenance or enjoy them, I think I gave away all the livestock and slowly, as I moved around, the gear all went too. My turtles got really lucky, an architect with a huge indoor/outdoor pond that could be closed off from the exterior in the winter by an enormous sliding glass door was looking for snail control, and took all six of them, promising they'd have a home for life.
Got back into it finally last year, after my mother had to enter a nursing home and her house was no longer available for long visits and I knew I'd be around to care for the tanks. Wanted a planted tank, then I found out about shrimp and that was my undoing. Now I'm hooked for life.. five tanks, shrimp, fish & snails and while there are no turtles, I have floating frogs in one of them, with some shrimp and snails. I culture live foods for them all.
Things have changed so much since I kept fish before, it is an entirely new hobby now, but much the better for it, I think.