What fish did you start off in the hobby with?

I think zebra danios are a good first fish.

If you think guppies of 7 years ago were hardier, think 35 years ago. My first fish were guppies. They were extras from a girl I went to school with. We spent lunch at that school, so basically they were in a bowl all day at school. I took them home and housed them in a 2 gallon goldfish bowl. It was unheated and unfiltered. Once a week I transferred them to a soup bowl and cleaned their "tank" and gravel with dish soap, rinsed well, put in new water, without dechlorinating it, and put the guppies back in. They lived for quite a while under those horrid conditions and even bred. I used to pull out the fry into another bowl, but they always died. Little wonder.

Then I finally figured out what I should be doing. My first tank with filter and heater was a 5 gallon aluminum framed tank; it is still sitting in my parents' basement. The canopy was aluminum, too. Very, very shiny. I had guppies in that tank, too.

The first fish that I had all to myself was a betta. He died in 1 day. A few bettas later and I finally now get what is going on in the world of fish and what it takes to make sure they survive.

Well, I guess goldfish would have to be my first fish. Although, I was really young and I thought they were really annoying. But this year, when I got back into fishkeeping, I started with zebra danios.

I started mine with flowerhorn mid last year and now keeping bichirs.

I guess guppies are or were a common starter fish back in the day. I also had a common pleco. I started with them somewhere's around 20+ years ago, and started with them with not so good habits as well. I had them in a 20 gallon, I had a whisper filter and no heater. I never did water changes. I never offered the pleco anything more than the falling fishfood that I gave the guppies and thought he could survive on just that. It seemed my plecos never made it past being 3 inches or so in them days.... I musta been starving them. 20 years and lots of trial and error, topped with exerience and the advice here, I've got highly successful tank (IMO of course) and I shine when people are in awe when they see it.

My first tank was a 20 gal with goldfish.

Joe

a ten gallon with with about 10 goldfish a betta and a pictus cat. Mind you I was about 5 years old. The one fish per gallon rule was quite popular way back when

black skirt tetras.

Aaron