my first tank was a little hexagon no bigger than say 3 gallons, terrifyingly i had a small goldfish in it, and he thrived and i even won a science far doing an experiment with him =] (i did nothing but watched his breathing, no actual experimentation on him) and my neighbor has a few what i know now are mollies, and i took those from him when his mom wouldn't let him keep them, i cured one of ick and i have no idea what happened to any of them
my next was i think a 1.4 gallon bowl with my betta blueberry, i was so happy feeding him each day around 5 and i remember bugging my mom about it, i cried when he died, but then i was about 8 =[
now later down the road i was biking with my mom and found a turtle on the side of the road that didnt look too good so i took him and brought him back to my house, found out later that he had 3 legs, and the other looked like he had it bitten off and it healed, i named him Tripod =] he was no bigger than 3 inches then, and is now about 6 or 7 =] had him for a good 4 or 5 years now in a 10G now a 29G =]
also now have 3 bettas each in a 1.5 G tank each, a 10G with 4 giant danios and 2 Opaline gouramis with my girlfriend's turtle in their with them =] and my most recent addition and current addiction (besides my girlfriend of course =] she's always first) is my 14 biocube with a clarkii clown and firefish goby =]