how did your fishkeeping get started?

[fishdude]

well my fish keeping got started by 3 goldfish i brought home from a fair and well (knowing NOTHING about fish) they all died because the tank temp was 76 degrees

so how many ppl had the same sortof thing happen?

 

[Watcher74]

A long time friend of my wife was getting rid of all his tanks because he was in the Merchant Marines and never home to take care of them.

I got a 29 gallon, 15 gallon, and a 10 gallon. Along with 3 heaters, UGF setups(which I have never used), gravel vac, gravel, decorations, hoods and lights, etc.

I got hooked but good. Almost everything in my current setup, except the tank, hood, and lights, I've bought new, including the stand.

 

[StreetCypher]

one teeny weeny little betta.
It snowballed from there.

 

[Blinky]

I passed a swimming test when I was four, and the prize for each kid that passed was a comet goldfish in a baggie. My mom set up a 10g tank in my room and I learned to help take care of my fish.
We must have given that tank away a few years later, there was no tank in our house after we moved when I was about ten, but on my sixteenth birthday when my grandmother asked what I wanted most I said I wanted a fish tank.
We went out and she bought me a 35g tank, stand and equipment, my parents shelled out for the fish, and I haven't been without a tank ever since.

 

[SnakeIce]

growing up in a mobil home or smaller more mobile residences I didn't have the room to have my own fish tank. So the 20 long that I used to go see at my grandparents and became my Dads after we stopped moveing so much had to be my window to the hobby untill I moved out on my own.

then I got a 20 gal tall and started it with 6 pretty fish from wallmart gotten in two batches a week apart. after learning about them and seeing them eat the 1/4 inch danio feeders I got to raise with them( 2 out of 10 survived) I found myself stuck with an agressive nippy tetra when I wanted peaceful fish.

so I learned to reaserch my fish befor getting them. which I did befor I got the inhabitants of the next tank. chocolate gouramis arn't beginner fish but that is what I got.

I learned my lesson on knowing the fish I get and I suppose I jumped off the deep end after learning that. I really enjoy my chocolate gouramis, interesting chalenging fish.

 

[anonapersona]

Pond to aquarium

I started with a small pond in the back yard as part of a landscaping project. The fountain masks noise from a major road nearby and the pond is in a courtyard which is a focal point from many parts of the house.

After many years, the fish got sick and died. Several more years passed, I rebuilt the pond and restocked and still fish got sick. I took a few fish inside to treat them, then discovered that fish food will go bad after several years and 10 years is far too long to keep fish food.

While I researched fish health, I discovered planted aquariums (Amano and AGA sites). At that point, I started several indoor tanks and began collecting used tanks and equipment. After one year with the small 10 and 29 gallon tanks, I set up a big 59 tank, then a few more, 58 and 110, and and soon I jumped into raising baby discus with a 65 gallon tank.

That's where I am now, I'll have 2 years aquarium keeping experience as of early September. With too many tanks, I am just past my ability to keep up with them and need to take down one or two of them.

 

[Johari]

My sister always had a fish tank going when I was little. Then for a long time we only had one goldfish in one tank. Dad loved that guy. he got to be about eight inches long. Anyway, My real fish stuff didn't happen until my sister got me two baby turtles. I then started raising them, and their food, which happened to be fish.

Though along with raising all of those guppies, I also kept a bunch of other tropical fish. I once had a fish tank lining every wall in my bedroom and a betta in every room of my house. Now I only have two tanks, I had really taken a break from it all for a couple years, I am back into wanting to keep fish again, though I have forgotten a lot of the knowledge that I had learned so long ago.

*Jo*

 

[chkltcow]

I grew up living nextdoor to my grandparents. Ever since my dad was a child, they've had a fishpond in the backyard. I've always been fascinated watching the goldfish that were in there, but I never had room and never could convince my parents to get an aquarium for inside. Well... then I got married and moved out, and now I've got room.... so I bought a 55 gallon and here I am. After we started stocking the 55 gallon, my wife loved the little betta fish and wanted another, so now we ALSO have a Minibow5 sitting in our bedroom with a betta in it too.

And.. the pond:
http://www.baneverything.org/pictures/fishpond/IMG_0266-01.jpg
http://www.baneverything.org/pictures/fishpond/IMG_0284-01.jpg

If it's not blatantly obvious from looking at the pond and the patio... my grandfather was a brickmason and built the pond and everything back there many many years ago. They haven't added fish to the pond in probably 15 years, and before a stupid crane decided to come visit and started picking goldfish out for his lunch, they had 105 in there the last time they cleaned it.

 

[WharfRat]

I was in 7th grade and my math teacher showed us her pregnant guppy in the science teachers room..that week end I had a 10gal and the next week I had some of her guppy fry. I've been keeping and breeding ever since. At one time I had a fish room with 38 tanks and 6 show tanks through out the house

 

[Cearbhaill]

My father started playing with tropicals in around 1960.

By '64 I remember garbage cans full of Zebra Danio fry in several rooms in the house.
In '65 we moved to a house with a huge basement where he built a fish room larger than many LFS I've seen.
In '67 he opened his first LFS, but kept his "real" job and left my Mom to run the shop. She eventually rebelled, and he became a full time LFS owner sometime around '68.
At one point we had a shop in Kentucky, one in Ohio, and one in West Virginia (we lived where the three states meet).

I began working the shops in the first one by bagging and cleaning small animal cages. By the time I left home in 1972 I was managing the fish departments in all three.
Couldn't WAIT to get out of the fish business and into dogs, where I've made my professional living as a groomer/handler/trainer for (AACCKK!!) 32 years now.

Pretty funny considering I am now wanting OUT of the dog game and enjoying my aquariums immensely.