All I wanted was a goldfish
My family never kept fish as a child. At some point around 15-16 my sister got a beta it lived for a few months I had nothing to do with it.
Me and the wife moved in together, get a kitten (wanted a dog, but it's not fair for a puppy in an apartment so a cat it was).
7 years and we moved into a house, finally got a dog.
I decide I want a goldfish, cause I like fancy goldfish every time we go to the petstore I look at the fish.
I just wanted a bowl for a goldfish. So I filled a 3 gallon vase with water, some pebbles, a bit of gravel, stuck a fake plant in and the cat started to drink out of it.
My cat got a decorative drinking fountain that she loves as the water is always moving for her. Great she owns that now.
Didn't get the goldfish.
So okay we have to get a tank with a lid and all that (lights better filterthan bowl) but we're moving again soon. Another year goes by.
So we move again and I put off the tank.
A week after moving we go get dog food, there was a nicer 30gal fluval kit on clearance 75% off. So we buy it. My wife has kept a couple of tanks before so she knows what i'm in for.
So we get it home, I open the box and inside is a 80 page guide... Wife makes me read the whole thing before I can set the tank up. Around page 25 I realize:
this is going to take months to cycle (i've already waited for a couple of years)
the book stand I was planning on using will not hold the weight
Gold fish are dirty and I can either have 2 goldfish for 2 years and then find a home for them or I can give up on the gold fish and get a whole bunch other fish
So I reinforced the stand (2 by 4s, plywood, melamine and paint it all black tank is just sitting in a box for 2 days)
Thanks to this forum I found a way to speed my cycle
Start cycling with plants and seeded media (handful of gravel, filter squeezings into a paper towel in a ziplock bag from LFS) whole tank was good to go in less than a week.
I still want a goldfish but that might have to wait for a few years till I can get my hands on an excavator and build a decent pond...