I too had "rope" my fiance in the hobby. "here hunny I bought you your own 10g setup. You can pick the gravel,fish,plants, ect." she was really happy. The 10g in the sig with the pairs of fish is hers.
My girl got me into it. "hunny I want fishies. I've never had them before" So my buddy gave her a 25g compleat setup. I wanted aggressive fish and she said not in her tank. The same friend gave me his grandmothers 55 and 30 gallon when she past away. and that started it all!