When I was really little (less than 18 months old) my grandma had a tropical tank full of neons in her house. Some of my earliest memories are of watching those silly neons flirt about. Let's just say it was before 1980.
When I was a 4-9 years old in Montana and lived on my other grandparents ranch I had a 3 acre pond. It was full of turtles, frogs and minnows and an occasional fish. I had a innertube raft and spent all of my summers on and in the water. We used to catch the turtles and spray paint their backs with red or orange so we could see them swimming in the pond (painted turtles was the species of course).
Then when I was 12 and we lived in eastern Oregon my crazy parents drug us out to the county fair one day when it was 114F outside. At one of the games I won 3 feeder goldfish that we brought home. My mom went out and bought a cheap 20 gallon tank. I kept two of them alive until I moved away. They died within 4 months of me leaving (my dog died too but that's a different story).
I spent a couple years in England and kept a little goldfish there even though I moved every other month. He saw a lot of different places and I finally gave him away to a girl before I came back to the states.
Then in college I got a 15 gallon tank and kept one goldfish in the tank. I kept him through all 4 years of college until I graduate and moved to Minnesota. The water in Minnesota was just too different and he died in a few days.
A few months later I tried to change to tropicals. That lasted a year until the power went out and every last fish died. So I went out and picked up a feeder goldfish and kamakazee is still swimming around right now in my 125 gal three moves later. I've had her longer than my wife and she's never told me to take out the trash.
When I was a 4-9 years old in Montana and lived on my other grandparents ranch I had a 3 acre pond. It was full of turtles, frogs and minnows and an occasional fish. I had a innertube raft and spent all of my summers on and in the water. We used to catch the turtles and spray paint their backs with red or orange so we could see them swimming in the pond (painted turtles was the species of course).
Then when I was 12 and we lived in eastern Oregon my crazy parents drug us out to the county fair one day when it was 114F outside. At one of the games I won 3 feeder goldfish that we brought home. My mom went out and bought a cheap 20 gallon tank. I kept two of them alive until I moved away. They died within 4 months of me leaving (my dog died too but that's a different story).
I spent a couple years in England and kept a little goldfish there even though I moved every other month. He saw a lot of different places and I finally gave him away to a girl before I came back to the states.
Then in college I got a 15 gallon tank and kept one goldfish in the tank. I kept him through all 4 years of college until I graduate and moved to Minnesota. The water in Minnesota was just too different and he died in a few days.
A few months later I tried to change to tropicals. That lasted a year until the power went out and every last fish died. So I went out and picked up a feeder goldfish and kamakazee is still swimming around right now in my 125 gal three moves later. I've had her longer than my wife and she's never told me to take out the trash.
. Now I have a baby silver arowana that will soon be a monster as well so I plan on getting a 8x2x2 ft 240 gallon tank or possibly a 8'x2'x30'' 300 gallon tank sometime towards the end of this year after we redo the flooring of the house and I throw out some old furniture to make room. 
erv:
