What Made You Want A Freshwater Aquarium?

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Yeah , 8 zebra danios , 2 female dwarf gourami's , 2 zebra snails and 1 Gibbiceps Pleco


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As someone that currently does aquascaping full-time, my passion for the Fish keeping industry came from my mom.

What I was a kid, she had two 55 gallon longs, each with Live plants and a beautiful aquascape. It always amazed me how she could keep the water so perfectly clear, and it's what first drew me into the hobby. I got my first tank around 10 years old. It was a group of Zebra Danios (around five, I think) in 820 gallon tank that she had as a spare.

As I grew up, I got more tanks, and more skills in the hobby. I won a few local contests for aquascaping, and the prizes of those contests were usually more tanks.

By the time I started looking for a job, I was interested in websites as well. Around 2008 I started working for a local aquarium store on their website, as well as getting to work in store with fish and aquascapes.(At age of 20 I designed my first public aquascape in that store. It's still one of my favorite scapes.)

Their website experienced a huge surge in traffic and conversions thanks to my design and work, and that's when I started thinking that I could actually do this for myself.

Long story short, I worked a few large aquarium-related websites between 2010 and now, and after working for everyone else, I've just recently started Aquascape Addiction as my own site.
 
AquascapeAddict said:
As someone that currently does aquascaping full-time, my passion for the Fish keeping industry came from my mom.

What I was a kid, she had two 55 gallon longs, each with Live plants and a beautiful aquascape. It always amazed me how she could keep the water so perfectly clear, and it's what first drew me into the hobby. I got my first tank around 10 years old. It was a group of Zebra Danios (around five, I think) in 820 gallon tank that she had as a spare.

As I grew up, I got more tanks, and more skills in the hobby. I won a few local contests for aquascaping, and the prizes of those contests were usually more tanks.

By the time I started looking for a job, I was interested in websites as well. Around 2008 I started working for a local aquarium store on their website, as well as getting to work in store with fish and aquascapes.(At age of 20 I designed my first public aquascape in that store. It's still one of my favorite scapes.)

Their website experienced a huge surge in traffic and conversions thanks to my design and work, and that's when I started thinking that I could actually do this for myself.

Long story short, I worked a few large aquarium-related websites between 2010 and now, and after working for everyone else, I've just recently started Aquascape Addiction as my own site.
Click to expand...
Nice site.
 
AquascapeAddict said:
As someone that currently does aquascaping full-time, my passion for the Fish keeping industry came from my mom.

What I was a kid, she had two 55 gallon longs, each with Live plants and a beautiful aquascape. It always amazed me how she could keep the water so perfectly clear, and it's what first drew me into the hobby. I got my first tank around 10 years old. It was a group of Zebra Danios (around five, I think) in 820 gallon tank that she had as a spare.

As I grew up, I got more tanks, and more skills in the hobby. I won a few local contests for aquascaping, and the prizes of those contests were usually more tanks.

By the time I started looking for a job, I was interested in websites as well. Around 2008 I started working for a local aquarium store on their website, as well as getting to work in store with fish and aquascapes.(At age of 20 I designed my first public aquascape in that store. It's still one of my favorite scapes.)

Their website experienced a huge surge in traffic and conversions thanks to my design and work, and that's when I started thinking that I could actually do this for myself.

Long story short, I worked a few large aquarium-related websites between 2010 and now, and after working for everyone else, I've just recently started Aquascape Addiction as my own site.
Click to expand...

Pictures of your tanks??

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AquascapeAddict said:
As someone that currently does aquascaping full-time, my passion for the Fish keeping industry came from my mom.

What I was a kid, she had two 55 gallon longs, each with Live plants and a beautiful aquascape. It always amazed me how she could keep the water so perfectly clear, and it's what first drew me into the hobby. I got my first tank around 10 years old. It was a group of Zebra Danios (around five, I think) in 820 gallon tank that she had as a spare.

As I grew up, I got more tanks, and more skills in the hobby. I won a few local contests for aquascaping, and the prizes of those contests were usually more tanks.

By the time I started looking for a job, I was interested in websites as well. Around 2008 I started working for a local aquarium store on their website, as well as getting to work in store with fish and aquascapes.(At age of 20 I designed my first public aquascape in that store. It's still one of my favorite scapes.)

Their website experienced a huge surge in traffic and conversions thanks to my design and work, and that's when I started thinking that I could actually do this for myself.

Long story short, I worked a few large aquarium-related websites between 2010 and now, and after working for everyone else, I've just recently started Aquascape Addiction as my own site.
Click to expand...


Only 5 danios in a 820 gallon tank?!?!?! :ermm: Haha. Great site by the way. Reading the java moss carpet article right now :D
 
Country boy that grew up on a huge cattle ranch near a huge freshwater lake. Spent my life catching catfish, bass, crappie, carp, gar, perch, shad, etc, etc, etc... Natural love for freshwater Texas fish.

Anytime I get anywhere near aquariums, it both mesmerizes and calms me.

TADA!! :fish2:

Fiancé has a 29g tank with 4 African Clawed Frogs, a large Pleco and a couple decent size Cory cats. I'll sometimes catch myself sitting for long periods of time staring at it. But it's just..... for me.

Figure it's time to get serious and build myself a proper tank with fish "I" love. I've got an old 20L that I've had running for about 3-4 weeks now and I've been through maybe 5-6 fish that keep going fins-up. :facepalm:
Turns out I had no clue about the cycle process. I filled it with water, threw some of her old decorations in it, however much dechlorinator the bottle said to use, etc.

I been reading this site and others and now feel a LOT more educated. My 20L is looking great now. Has some simple Mollies, Guppies, Cory all appearing to be doing well now.

I've got a 40gal breeder tank sitting in the garage that I picked up and am patiently leaving it out there until I'm fairly confident that I can run this 20L successfully.

End goal?
Would like to have a modest size tank, maybe 75gal, running correctly with all natural rock, wood and live plants and some of the fish I grew up with and love calling it home. Those being 2-3 Channel Catfish, A largemouth bass and a crappie, some large enough perch that they don't get eaten.

And then I'll simply turn the 20L into a guppy/molly breeding tank making "fish food" for those guys. :angel:

I'm patient and pick things up quickly. I'll be scouring this site and others absorbing all the info I can and undoubtedly asking questions.

Wish me luck!!
 
What made me want a freshwater aquarium? My wife actually. I was hesitant at first, now I enjoy it. (y)

Mind you she doesn't maintain the tanks at all. :lol:
 
My uncle always had huge freshwater tanks when I was a kid and I was always so fascinated by them. Now at 23 as a gift I acquired a 10 gallon starter kit and some guppies!

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I got my freshwater tank because I won a goldfish at a carnival... I had a tank as a kid and missed it so here we go again! Hopefully I do better taking care of it then when I was a kid ha!
 
For me. It was the carnival fish story as well. My boyfriend at the time tried so hard to win me one of those little crappy goldfish (I now do not like goldfish). He spent SO much money trying to win one that we eventually just paid the lady to let us have one. He lived for only a few short weeks. He was stuck in a bowl with out even water conditioner. At the time I knew nothing about fish. So after the death of our fish we were sad, more so him. So for valentines day I bought him 2 bettas with this like half circle seperate bowls set up. It was pretty cool but he did not take care of them at all. When we finally broke up I took the fish... But changed 100% of the water and it put them into shock and they died... Then I got bettas from Walmart that were both sick at the time... They died as well... Finally I got 2 nice bettas from petsmart. They lived for about 2 years. Until I gave them to my sister and they got dropsy and passed away... I've learned so much about fish in the last couple of years. I now have a newly set up 36 gal and a 5 gal with my male betta. I couldn't be happier with my setups and I'm glad I got into fish keeping and have learned so much over the years and all of my fish now are happy and healthy. :)
 
I had a split tank with two bettas when I was probably about 7. I've always loved fish, and I loved aquariums. I was always catching tadpoles, minnows, and more in ponds and creeks, and keeping them overnight in vases and such.
After the bettas passed away (I'll admit, we probably took bad care of them) I hatched tadpoles in a 10 gallon on the back porch a few summers.
I moved houses and kept goldfish. I had a couple small tanks, about 10 gallon, and I kept having goldfish thrust upon me. The neighbors gave them away as party favors! So of course I rescued a ton, and I was very busy keeping them healthy in a most likely overstocked scenario, but it was either that or they die at some little kid's house. I had my goldfish for about 2 or 3 years, and then had NO fish for a long time. It just seemed hard to set up care for them on vacations, etc etc.
Then, about 6 months ago I was at Walmart, and found they only had two bettas in stock, and they looked just awful. Well, I have multiple small tanks I collected over the years, so I decided to rescue them. It's miraculous how healthy they've gotten, and how their color and fins have improved.
I decided that I wanted a larger tropical tank, and that I was responsible enough and willing to keep up with it.
That's where I'm at now, with two betta tanks and a 20G tropical community. Of course, I don't want to stop there.
I'm currently on the search for cheap tanks at all times, and I want to expand my collection in my "play room" where my computer is. Plenty of room in there for a "fish table"
 
Once upon I time I had a bird. He died of a disease. Sad. I wanted to wait a bit before I got a new pet. I didnt want to feel like the bird was being replaced. One day i got a call. I was going to be catsitting. I then discovered I was extrenely allergic to all kinds of fur, just not feathers, or fins. A while down the road, my brother bought a betta fish. Bless that fishes soul he lives in a tiny bowl. Anyway, I began researching about fish and I became hooked. I can identify any freshwater tropical fish by sight. Now, this summer, I saved up 150 dollars to buy myself a 30 gallon tropical freshwater tank! YAY
 
platybreeder26 said:
Once upon I time I had a bird. He died of a disease. Sad. I wanted to wait a bit before I got a new pet. I didnt want to feel like the bird was being replaced. One day i got a call. I was going to be catsitting. I then discovered I was extrenely allergic to all kinds of fur, just not feathers, or fins. A while down the road, my brother bought a betta fish. Bless that fishes soul he lives in a tiny bowl. Anyway, I began researching about fish and I became hooked. I can identify any freshwater tropical fish by sight. Now, this summer, I saved up 150 dollars to buy myself a 30 gallon tropical freshwater tank! YAY
Click to expand...

Became hooked.... lol nice one. I used that last week when my husband and I got a 75 gal at bargain price. I just wanted one tank now we have 4 because I got him hooked. Lol. My journey into freshwater tanks started with seeing a Tiger Oscar eating little fish. Slightly morbid but there was a beauty to it.
 
How I got into keeping fish.....

My youngest son bugged me to get him an aquarium - I knew nothing about fish keeping nor did he. So, like an idiot I took him out and bought him a cute little 7 gallon setup with a young jack dempsey LOL - I have to laugh now because I know now how stupid that was.

Well after only a couple of days - I quickly realized this tank was no way big enough for this fish. By the third night - the fish had jumped out of the tank and spent the night on the carpet - needless to say it didn't end well.

I then took my son out and bought him a complete 29 gallon setup with a cabinet too. This went good for about a month and then I noticed my son was not holding up his side of the bargain and was not taking proper care of the tank. So, I ended up moving the tank out of his room and into a common area and took it upon myself to care for the tank.

The rest is history - I have loved it every since. At one time I had several tanks running but am back down to one 120 gallon setup for my Oscar fish. I have too many other animals to care for so I limited myself to one tank for now.

I have my then 12 year old son to thank for getting me into this wonderful hobby.:)

Lessoned learned - never buy a fish tank for a child unless you fully intend to take care of it - the novelty wears off very quickly with kids.
 
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