how did you get into fish keeping

[SeanTrollope]

hi all. as i was introduced to fish keeping by my older brother i am curious to know how you were all introduced to fish keeping and would like to know where you all started off.

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Jealousy believe it or not.She got a fish,I wanted one so I bought one of those little 0.7 gallon betta things and a betta.Betta died and it took.I started getting into it.next tank was 1 gallon,then 5 gallon.then 10 gallon peaked there and I got more 5 gallons then a 20 gallon tub and now a 60 gallon.

 

[fish boi]

a friend has a 120 gallon and said i should get fish, i have a 20 gallon tall that was for my hamster but now he is in a 40 gallon breeder and he loves it in there! so i am hopefully getting a heater and filter for the 20 gallon tomorrow.

 

[fluttermoth]

I fell in love with a black moor in a pet shop when I was three, so my grandad bought it for me. Its name was Oggle Boggle and it lived for a short while in a plastic bow fronted 50l tank (it was the 1970s; it was lucky to have that, tbh!), with no filtration; not even an air pump, and my mum used to put the fish in a jug and scrub the whole tank out in the sink once a week. Oggle Boggle sadly didn't live very long, but we had a couple of fantails after that that managed to survive about five years

Then I went to visit an uncle when i was about seven and he had a tropical tank. I fell instantly in love with his neon tetras, but I didn't actually get any tropical fish for years, as everyone told me they were terribly, terribly delicate and expensive (I suppose they were in those days!).

 

[Sunnyfish]

the only fish i've kept are bettas. i've told this story in posts before, but like the other few members here i wasn't doing it very well. it wasn't intentional, of course, but my mother and i could've researched beforehand and we didn't. they were put in either a small little "betta tank" that was part of a kit or in little bowls. no heating, no filtration, and they were rarely cleaned. just about a year ago i found out what i had been doing whilst getting into researching other animals as well and rushed to get my current betta into a bigger spare tank my brother had used for his bearded dragon when it was younger. sadly i didn't ever manage to treat his illnesses that probably came from the store conditions and/or my own care, though he did last a really long while with them. nothing wanted to work, and i'm not sure why. a month or so ago i came home and when i went up to his tank he didn't swim up to see me. normally he would because i had been covering his tank with a towel (for velvet) as well as fasting him (for bloating of some kind?) and he would know when i was there. i immediately knew what happened, and after searching for a minute there he was, completely gone. i feel horrible still, but in fretting over him and even having him pass possibly due to my own irresponsibility, i've learned a lot. learning about bettas led to me learning about other fish as well, and i'd honestly love to have a planted freshwater community someday, though it would be a while. it's been a tough but interesting experience.

 

[Essjay]

20 years ago my teenaged sons arrived home from the fair with 4 common goldfish in tiny plastic bags. They spent their first night in a mixing bowl in undechlorinated water. One of them didn't make it through the night. After a couple of weeks in unfiltered critter keepers we bought a 60 litre tank on the advice of the shop. We had no internet back then, just a few out of date books from the library (eg water changes are bad, do them once a month if you really have to; don't do a water change for at least a week before going on holiday in case the water change kills the fish while you are away ) 9 months later the fish had grown so big we gave them away to someone with a pond, I bought a heater and replaced them with tropical fish.
We finally got broadband in 2004 (our exchange was low down on their list of priorities) and I've been educating myself ever since.

 

[Gruntle]

The kids wanted a dog. We live in a city, so I thought it would be hard on the dog (lack of roaming space) and neighbours (noise).

Yes, we eventually got a dog but he actually went to live on a farm (with my mother) once it became obvious a small suburban backyard was not a happy place with a large dog (he wasn't supposed to grow as big or boisterous as he did).

We got a fish tank. We lost a lot of fish due to poor pet store advice. I got educated. I got more tanks...

 

[HazMatt]

My mom set up a tank for me when I was four. This did not last very long as four year olds are bad about dropping candy into the tank... Not me, it was my friends, I swear mommy.

I did not have another for about a decade. At 14, I did better however, we did not research fish enough, a baby Jack Dempsey in a 20g , and then my thoughts turned towards girls and video games.

Next, around 15 years later, my then fiance wanted to set up a tank that she was given for free. We were keeping 4 different tanks within 6 months. This lasted for almost 3 years, until we, now ex-wife and I, separated.

Now, it's been almost a decade since my last stretch as a fish keeper and I'm looking at getting back into it. I keep looking at different possible community set ups and trying to decide which I like better. I'm definitely giving more consideration and research into what will thrive in my local water conditions. I actually enjoy thinking up different community make ups. To bad I don't currently have 6 different tanks ready to go

 

[Cup o' Joe]

Started off with some goldfish and bettas here and there, neglected them pretty badly just out of ignorance. Finally got a 30 gallon tropical tank 7 years ago, actually did some research and had some moderate success (had 4 widow tetras that almost hit the 5 year marker). Sadly, all my fish died when the moving company cracked the tank. The makeshift setup I had with a bucket and air pump just wasn't enough to keep the fish alive in the long term.

Fast forward from that tragedy 2 more years, finally decided to give it another go. Got a 16 gallon bow-front this time. Unfortunately I've been having supremely bad luck with this one. I think the LFS has just had bad stocks, because my retention rate is only 50% right now. The fish that did survive are doing great but multiple have died within 2 weeks of leaving the store due to parasites, etc.

 

[jasong55555]

tbh was watching random youtube videos and one of the king of diy videos came up on the recommended videos to watch. So l started watching his videos then went to aquarium co ops videos then went to aqua pros and a whole list of other aquarium youtube channels. After that l wanted some fish and started my hobby