What "sparked" you into keeping fish yourself?

Well when I was a kid my dad had a crazily overstocked sw tank (30 gallon with a lion, porc puffer, yellow tang, anemone, and some other fish I can't really remember) and I loved to watch the tank until all the fishes skin fell off, very gross.

A year ago my boyfriend and I got betta that we put in a 1 gallon tank (if you can really call those tanks) two weeks later we felt bad so we bought him a 10 gallon. Then we decided we wanted a sw tank so I went home, stole the old 30 gallon that had been sitting in the garage for years and started up sw tank. Then I wanted a green spotted puffer. So we got a 55 gallon tank for the sw fish, 30 gallon for the puffer and the 10 gallon now houses two bettas (with a separator) and some breeding snails.

Its crazy how once you have one tank, you want tons of tanks!
 
When I moved into the dorms I wanted a pet and the only thing they would allow were fish, so I got a betta in a betta hex (the shame). a few weeks later I found out that's not the way bettas are intended to live and upgraded to a 1g w/ a ugf. later on I got a 10g. my betta (loki) was so confused by the current, it took him over a year to get used to it but he lived a good long time until he became irreparably stuck in the turret of a deco castle.
 
My friend had a 10 gallon fish tank and I went to the LFS with her one day and saw a dwarf puffer and fell in love. The next day I was setting up a 10g tank with an albino claw frog (he was cooler than the puffer to me at the time). 2 weeks later I was setting up a 55g for the frog. A few months later (and many nights of chasing the frog down the hall) I saw angelfish so I changed my tank to anglefish. Next I went to a LFS that sold saltwater and was stopped dead in my tracks by the mandarin goby. A second 55g was purchased and set up for SW. That 55 was upgraded to a 100g shortly after and the second 55g was changed over to FW and set up for discus. That was 13 years ago.
 
About a year ago, my dad and I started a pond (Actually, a kiddie pool) to watch tadpoles mature into frogs. But the mosquitos would lay eggs in it and hassle us, so we went to Petsmart and bought 5 Goldfish for the pond. After they ate all the mosquitos, they were hanging out there for about 6 months until the frogs left.

Then, in early January, the pond had iced over 3 inches and I felt bad for the fish, so I took out a plastic trash can and put them in there (I only found 2 of them there). The original plan was to leave them there until March, but I got so interested in fish, I bought a 10 gallon tank, A filter and some plants. Now about 1 month later, they had about 20 fry and are living happily inside.
 
Fish were not allowed in my household.. so the moment I moved out of home.. I got a 20 gl.. and of course... overstocked it.. I had a betta.. neons.. angels.. the works... then one day the heater blew up and fried everything :cry:

I gave it up for years.. and one day went out and bought a new 14 gl tall so I could keep seahorses... which never eventuated... but my bf had a convict that he was going to flush :mad2: as it did nothing but hide and he hated it... so I took it off of him and put him in the new tank. Taz lasted 3 years and became my most loved fish ever.. he used to do a food dance when ever I walked past.. yet hide when it was anyone else. He used to sit there next to my comp and it looked like he was reading what ever I was typing :grinyes: I made the mistake of getting him a gf.. within a week they had mated.. within a day he had died from the stress of being a father (well not really.. he got white stuff all over him and died that night before I had a chance to get medicine :( )

Ive know got two aq... a 14 and a 36.. with just barbs mollies and a beta... but my brothers 10 inch oscar has sparked my interest again into bigger and better tanks... just as soon as i reinforce the floors!!! :headbang2:
 
A single male betta that my brother gave me as a gift has started my interest in the hobby about 2-3 years ago...
 
third... Always had a fish tank in the house. I was still wanting a tank for 5 years after our last goldfish died. So when I moved in to my apartment, it was my chance to start a tank again.
 
mom had a tank, she used to clean the whole tank out every week :eek: yep she put the fish in a bucket, and emptied the tank and cleaned it out. washed the gravel and put it all back together. yep she went thru the fish, but never knew any better.
when I got my fish I started out with a 29 and got oscars, what a mistake. but it was my first tank. I gave them back to the store. then I got a 55 gallon tank and got africans. 55 gallons 6 fish, and they all hid from me. my tanks were always perfect, and I did not know a test kit back then, I just knew to do water changes each week, and to maintain the filters. problem was, I alsways added new filters when they got dirty. Never knew about mini cycles, just did the water changes and once in a while changed out the filters. never lost a fish.
moved and sold my tanks, they were beautiful. 6 years later started out again, this time only a 15 gallon, raised convicts, got a bigger tank as they bread and bread, gave them all to the pet store and gave my tank away, next was another tank, and gave that 20 gallon to my son when he moved out. no more fish for 10 years until I decided one day to buy a 29 gallon tank. cycling it was so easy, fish did well, then I fell into a 55 with stand for 75.00 and I got hooked! both tanks are doing great, got another 10 gallon going in my fire place, and tomorrow will start up a hospital tank for babies soon to come from my guppies. I will try to feed excess to my big fish, unless my kids freak out, in that case they will be given away for free.
 
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