How Did You Get Into Fish Keeping?

[chrismr]

For me it started innocently enough. I was feeling miserable about something one dy earlier this year, and decided I wanted gold fish.

So I went out and got a bowl and then got a ranchu and a lionhead.

I managed to break the bowl one day while cleaning it (kind of gladly ad always wanted a tank rather than bowl, but other half wanted bowl) so had to rush out to get a replacement and got a small tank.

Subsequently, we discovered that there were other fish you could keep in an unheated tank, such as danios and paradise fish. So we got a couple of paradise fish...

Unfortunately, one day when the other half was cleaning the tank, after cleaning it with kitchen products and not rinsing properly, we lost our fish )

I will stop for a moment here and say that we have learned a hell of a lot since this time. It is amazing the stupid things you can do when you just don't know any better!

So we had an empty tank... we decided we would get a heater and go tropical. This was not a very big tank, and I shudder when I think how many fish we put in it. Luckily not for long, because I decided I wanted a larger tank, which has now become 3 tanks.

I would love more, but for 2 lizards and 2 snakes there is just no room left in the house. Unles I sell a sofa

I could not say that I currently have perfect homes for my fish. e.g. my clown loaches in 3 foot tank - which will be rehomed before long because they are growing really quickly. These were bough a while back before we started actually thinking about what we were buying. They are still only a about 3 inches, so plenty of room for a while.

Have learned an awful lot about fish this year, and have really come to love them. I never thought that so many of them could have so much character, and be so enjoyable to watch.

Very time consumig though... I just sit and watch them for hours, and the time flies by.

How did you guys come to know and love fish?

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

My friend got a small tank for her birthday a few years ago and i thought it was so amazingly cool that i wanted one.



So i got myself a job, and bought a fishtank!

 

[pricey]

Well ive always liked fish due to the fact that i was watching the discovery channel alot and there was a lot of discovering of fish, there habitats and so on, so anyways after a big amount of consideration i decided that''you knowwhat im gonna getme some tropical fish'' quicky followed up by me sayin ''HELL YEAH'' lol
so i wentout andbought a small tank and 2 black moores which are quite nice fish but just not that beautiful!!! So i looked in the paper for a bigger fish tank and found a massive fish tank for sale[4 foot] so went and had a look but it had a crack in buut the bloke hadnt noticed. so we told the man that this tank had had a crack in it!!! He then apologised and asked us where he asked uswhere we had comefromto view this tank and my dad had said peterborough which quite the bit away from where we were at the minute, butwere really from a village in lincolnshire, my dad had said peterborough to try and get the tank for free as he would havebeen able to replace this cracked glass,butany way the bloke told us to follow him and took us upstairs and showed us a brand new unopened still in the box ligh/glo fishtank and then he sed you can haveit at the pricei was selling theother at, so we quickly agreed and said thanx but then my dad being the cheeky bastard that he is asked for the other tank for free, or to ''take it off your hands'' in dads case and the bloke agreed plus he gave me tons of accessories and so onbut thankfully no fish!!!!! so thereyou go thats how i started

 

[debiasir]

we used to keep 2 goldies in a 10 gallon about 15 years ago but my dad did all the cleaning feeding etc as i got bored of them after 2 days. then one day sat down to watch Finding Nemo and thought hey would be cool to have a tank so i went out and bought a Biord for £100 +, through it away about 2 weeks later and bought my first proper tank which was a 10gallon. So for me Finding Nemo started it for me ) also i gues i wold of got one anyway as i love any thing to do with marine life / fish / aquatic life in general

 

[Mbuna Dave]

A distant Aunt of mine from Leeds used to keep them in a beautiful 4 foot tank and purpose made cabinet and my distant cousin had a fish house in his cellar.

Every time i visited them some 20 odd years ago i have loved them,and because i liked them so much they let me have the 4 footer for a very small fee.When i took it home i then got myself a 3 foot and 2 foot tanks respectively and started to breed and try my hand at different fish.

Then i gave it up because of work,marriage and so on till now,i have just bought myself a brand new 4 footer and enjoying the hobby afresh.

A lot of new things have come onto the market now so i feel like a newbie again and reading lots of interesting things on this board to get me acclimatised to the new methods of fish keeping.

 

[TF Keeper UK]

I've always wanted to keep fish. I got a tank for my birthday last yr spent a month cycling it, 3 months to fully stock it and now have two tanks. The smaller one is in the bedroom and is home to the offspring from the main tank.

I've only one of my original fish left. We named her Blind Bob and she is a Bronze Cory and our favourite.

 

[ccg]

My first tank was a 3foot, 35 gallon. I feel a long story coming on...

My Grandfather use to breed and keep many fish. When I was younger they had dozens of tanks everywhere in the house. Over the years this died off and now he is down to 3 x 6foot tanks. When I was about 6-8? he gave me a old used 35 gallon tank, with some old filters and heaters. Also, for christmas he built a solid oak stand for it (he is into wood working and spends most of his days in his wood shop). This is when it all started. I now have 5 tanks setup. Anyhow... This orginal 35 gallon tank he gave me is like a trasure for me, I have had it setup for the last 15 years with all the decorations and slate he had in it when he gave it to me. The tank must be about 20 years old I would guess.

Everytime he visits its the only tank he comes down stairs to see, he doesnt pay any attetion to the nice ones Just likes to look at it.. must bring back some good memoires. It was one of his first tanks too so I know it means a lot to him.

On another topic... I need to fix this tank up soon, I plan on draining it, maybe on boxing day while I am off work, and resleaing the tank. What has happend, over the years, the silicon has started to bubble, and the entire tank is almost shifting??? The glass on the edges is no longer flush...I guess I'll start on post on that to get some advice on redoing this tank as I need to keep it going.

 

[Animation]

I first started when my friends at school got into it, i first thought it was a stupiud hobby and they never shut up about it, after a while i started to enjoy learning about them and then i got hooked like a lowlife on XTC.
After a hile i started pestering my mum about it- she kept saying so and i was so determined to get some. Then my uncle moved out of his house and could not look after his 60ltr tank full of goldfish anymore. I asked for them and i got them. They were fun at first but all my friends had tropical fish. After a while my goldfish got whitespot and fungus and they all died. I cleaned out the tank and replaced everything inside.
I got myself some tropical fish in whichh i still have in that same tank in my bedroom.
But then i aimed higher and got myself a 126ltr tank. I ahve this downstairs!

 

[willtang3000]

was always into fish and first got sea monkeys great lil things and then somehow it started to build up into building a pond to buying loads of tanks lol and once my dad realized I liked fish so much he got me into betta breeding at the age of 6 lol so I've pretty much grown up with them

 

[Annastasia]

When I was about 6 we moved to Maryland where my aunt lives. She had always been a fishkeeper, and had a 55 gallon in the living room with a Pleco, 2 Angel Fish, and a Kissing Gourami. I always loved that tank, and I helped her take care of it every weekend when I went up to see her. Eventually she moved to get married, but I was so attached to the Kissing Gourami, I didn't want it to leave. ) So she set up the 30g she had in storage for me to keep the Kisser in, and I've just gotten more and more tanks over the years. Very addicting. By the way, I still have that Kisser.

 

[Jen]

I wasn't allowed to have pets in the house due to allergies. So when I was 17 I was at a family get together at my uncles house who has a bunch of tanks. I was admiring them, and he was going on about how much he loves his tanks. He then told me that his stepson has a 35 gal tank sitting in his garage collecting dust. I talked to my mom and dad that day and I went out to get it the next! I got everything for $75, and had water in it by the end of the week. I would love to set that tank up and have some different sorts of fish, but my parents wont let me. I wonder if they would say anything if I went and set it up today. lol.

 

[akudewan]

I wanted to keep fish since the first time I saw a tank. and then there was no looking back

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

Kind of the same story for me as the one who posted this. I was depressed and went to walmart one day and saw a bunch of bettas and decided to once again[4 the millionth time] beg my mom for a pet and this time! So I got one, fell in love with it, went tropical, then soon after started studying SW and then 3 months later got a saltwater tank! Ive had no deaths with SW{2 months} and more when i did FW{2 weeks} cuz i didnt know about cycling. But now i know a lot more than most people who have only been in the business for 4 months because all i did for about 3 months straight when i got home from school until i went to bed is study the cycling, equipment, water stuff, and of course the wonderful fish and corals. The colors are so enticing and the animals do such funny things and actually have personalities that freshwater fish really bore me compared to my fish.

 

[Durbkat]

When I was in the 7th grade (2 years ago) our science teacher wanted us to do a project so I looked through her books for a project idea and saw one where you take 5 goldfish and count how many times they open and close there mouth in a minute. So went to lps and got a 10g and told the guy I wanted 5 goldfish and luckily he said they would get to big for the tank or I would have gotten them so he said to get black widow tetras so I did and after the project was over I got an A- on it. So I kept the fish and got a common pleco then I got a long 20g and thats how I got started and now have 5 tanks with fish in them.