Support Group Meeting inside.

[Blade]

ummm, I was promised punch and pie?

Jeremy,

My father has always been into fish and one of my first memories is of dumping an entire container of food into his 100gallon African Cichlid tank, killing many of the fish. This was around 79-80 when it was not uncommon for to see African's selling for $100ea.

When I was about 12 my parents bought me a 10gallon. I loved designing it and then wathing the fish. I kept this tank for 4 years, then when I was 16 we moved to a new neighborhood. To my delight one day while skipping school I ran across of neighborhood fish store, eventually working there a few months. Seeing and learning about all the different types of fish really solidified my obsession.

Eventually I graduated from HS and went off the Army.

Three years later I returned to my home town and around that time my father had picked up a 50gallon tank which he used for African's. Well I had money now and thinking this was a good idea picked up a 55 gallon for myself and set up a nice discus community tank. The something funny happened, I went to visit a LFS and they had a 125 gallon tank on sale. I had a tax return which I promptly exchanged fro the tank. Funny enough as I got around the hobby I learned much later that I vastly overpaid for the tank.

Having a large tank is like being given the keys to your own world. I kept it going during much of college but eventually took it down close to graduation and left it that way when I went to work.

My Brother and Father were going strong. They built a shelving system much like the ones found in many fish stores ans we have assembled a collection of probably 25 tanks with various fish types.

Last year I quit my job to play poker professionally. This gave me two valuable resources. #1, I do most of my playing from home on the internet and along with setting my own hours gives me plenty of free time. #2 poker pays me very well. Having these resources has refueled my fish keeping fire. I currently have in my house 3 55gallons, a 29 gallon and a the 125gallon which I am working on now. This summer I will be buying a 255gallon!


I did not proof read as I have to go.

 

[littlefishie]

Cool !!
If ever a strange woman stares at your name tag and declares TFF Rocks !!! You'll know its me. I won't be hurt if you look away and act like you have no idea !! Just kidding I wouldn't do that.Its more like if you ever see a woman almost falling into the cove cuz her kids thought they should pet a whale thats me. Good luck and beat the tourists

My name tag wouldn't say littlefishie on it! My name's Crystal.

Tourist beating! Living in a tourist area, you have no idea how much that makes me smile. I'd either end up beating them, or educating them on fish and why they shouldn't throw trash in the pool..

And next thing you know they'll be on TFF, declaring their addictions just like us!

 

[SuckerLove86]

Hello, I'm Sean, and I'm a fishy addict.

It all started with my mother. When I moved out of the house, she gave me one of the two bettas we had, named Wanda, because my mother was worried that I would get lonely. Well, Wanda was ignorantly kept in a 1 gallon bowl with no heater, though I did do water changes with aged water. Eventually though, I had a tough time for animals. In my home I had two gerbils in a 10 gallon "tank" with wood chip bedding. I did not know the potential of the 10 gallon. I decided to adopt an additional two cats to my family. The cats promptly ate Wanda and gave one of my gerbils a heart attack (seriously). I decided to move the remaining gerbil to a different home where he would have more places to climb and more to do. Suddenly, I was fishless and with an empty 10 gallon. I cleaned out the 10 gallon and went to Petsmart, buying gravel, decor, and mollies (again ignorant about cycling). Got home, filled up the 10 gallon with water, and WHOOPS! A leak in the tank. I drove like a madman back to Petsmart to find that they had no more 10 gallons, only 20 gallons that had a light fixture. Cha-ching! Brought it home, filled it up with gravel, water, filter, decor, and floated the mollies (at least I knew that much). Bam. Ich. Found out mollies do good in salt, and it kills ich, but would hurt my cories. Bought a ten gallon and put the mollies in it. Made it brackish. Ich gone from the 20 gallon after a bit. Suddenly grandmother has a spare tank sitting in her garage. Everything is still in it. Filter, heater, airpump. It's mine! And it basically snowballed from there.

Overall worst justification for a new tank? My firebelly toads needed a light for their terrarium... hmm, it was cheaper to buy a $30 10 gallon starter kit that included a hood, light, filter, and plants than it was to just buy a $20 light... ended up buying the starter, then going back and buying the light to put on the empty 10 gallon... )

 

[Blue Lobster]

Wow this thread hit two pages.

I think we should move the meeting to the veranda and since there is such a positive response I added some desserts to the coffee and cookies.

 

[lovebuzz]

Well I wouldn't say I have MTS or anything yet but I'll tell my story.

I go out for dinner one night, and there were centerpieces--3 goldfish in 3 bowls. I won one

We took it home, and brought out my brother old ten gallon. Silly me, I filled it up ON THE FLOOR! lol. I also didn't dechlorinate the water properly Silly me. So I dumped the goldfish in and for some mysterious reason I added a heater

My sisters begged for more fish. So my dad took us out and they wanted the deal " TEN GOLDFISH FOR 2.22!" Feeders of course, very sick too. I tried to persuade them for just a black moor goldfish, which even then would be too much, but they wouldn't listen. Got home, dumped the goldfish in the ten ( yes all ten of them )

I knew nothing then about overstocking and such

Well, as you can probably guess, all of them died slow and horrible deaths. The feeders all came down with ick. It then spread to the original. I hope all of them didn't feel too much pain I HATE ICK!

I would have completely quit if it wasn't for me getting a male betta when we got the feeders. The betta was in his own 2.5 gallon tank and seeing him everyday persuaded me to continue keeping fish. He was awesome
In november, I had gone out to wal-mart, came back and saw him on the floor The tank lid was no fully covering the tank, grrr. I dumped him back in. He was breathing heavily but I was able to keep him a week or so after that, then he died. Poor thing.

Even after he died I decided to go on and get a new fish. I got another male betta and he's still alive today. I also got a 5.5 gallon tank, live plants, and made an aquascape I love. I'm soon to get 4 female bettas for the ten--but I'm also thinking about other options. Fishkeeping= choices, choices.

It's kind of funny seeing how my knowledge of fish has increased so much since August

 

[Ben]

well it started innocently enough with some guppys,guppys bred,needed bigger tank,got 25 gal,got community fish,heard about and researched cichlids,needed a bigger tank,heard about yellow labs needed other tank,bought some jewels,they bred,needed another tank,saw a plakat,needed another tank.

i feel so helpless

"MTS isnt a disease,imbrace it"