What Got You Into Fish Keeping ?

[kylealastairlove]

just wondered what it was that caught everybody's attention and what it was that made them want to keep fish

for me i remember it was many years a go when i was a youngster and my dad used to keep freshwater tropicals, i remember he had a 4 foot tank and he kept lots of neon tetra along with some other fish, but it was the neons that stood out to me. i always wondered how they produced that magical blue glowing sparkly line, i thought they actually produced some kind of light always baffled me as to how they did it, obviously now i know they dont produce light, but i used to think it was amazing, still do find them amazing in fact still find them magical to look at my dad took his tank down in the end as he didnt have the money or time for it, few years later i suddenly remember how wonderful peaceful and interesting i thought the whole fishkeeping thing was, then i always thought about having my own tank, it was only last year i finally got my own tank, after years of wanting one i kind of wanted to stock my tank with some neons to sort of dedicate my tank to my dad, bit soppy haha but i know he likes them and he still wants a tank of his own but yet again he doesnt have time money (or space) for it, so i thought it'd be nice for him

 

[RichardA]

I was about 12 or so and a teacher gave me a pair of guppies. They spawned and I dealt with them and the fry.....was hooked ever since. Up over 20 years of keeping and breeding now.

 

[Didge007]

I've always attempted to keep goldfish or guppies I brought from pet shops when I was little but without any fishy family members or knowledgable staff members to steer me in the right direction they'd just die. I gave up for a while and then about 5yrs ago I visited my brother and his wife who had a fish tank set up. It was amazing to look at and they took me to a fish shop so I was hooked instantly. I am much older now, much more knowledgable and I always aim to learn more The thing that probably keeps me going is fish magazines with new aquascapes or visiting new fish shops with different varieties of fish and I start researching on whether they would suit my tank. I love re-designing tanks but unfortunately I just haven't had the money of late so I'm stuck with what I've got

 

[kylealastairlove]

never kept guppies myself, i started out with platies, and before that i kept goldfish, in a small hexagonal tank. at the time i wasnt very knowledgeable about the care of fish i never even managed to breed my platies, bet its a great feeling though knowing you've successfully bred a fish, id like to experience it at some point , i love re-designing tanks too! or just thinking of endless scape ideas in my head along with plant arrangements and fish stocking :') its nice to just day dream about it im always learning about fish too still just as hooked on them as i was at first, always browsing the internet or books and magazines for info love learning stuff about them

 

[ScholasticSpastic]

I was collecting carnivorous plants and set a tank up to keep bladderwort in. Then I couldn't find any bladderwort, so I put a few other plants in while I looked some more. Eventually people bugged me to put fish in my tank, so I bought a few danios. Turns out, fish are more fun to watch than plants.

 

[Livewire]

Well, I was first interested in fish when my mom brought home a small comet goldfish she won at a carnival, It was in a small plastic Not even a gallon fish Grave.
So shortly after I had gotten it I went to petco and picked up a 10 gallon fish tank, I put the gold fish in there, I knew so little about fish at the time I didn't know what cycling the tank was.
The goldfish lived for about 3 days after putting him into the tank, I did a lot of online research on fish after that had happened because I wanted to know what had killed my fish, So I learned that you needed to cycle water.
Shortly after learning that I became impatient and bought a bottle of the Instant cycle stuff and I bought a ton of kuhli loaches because Loaches are so cool.
Little did I know that kuhli loaches like small spaces, they all swam themselves into my filter and died after a month of having them.

So I had stopped keeping fish for a while, then I got a job at my Mom's pet store, I work there as a stock boy and I've had numerous people ask me questions about fish and what no, being unable to really answer their questions I decided to learn even more about fish, and so I bought a 40 gallon tank from work and just recently started getting really into the hobby about a month and a half ago, to help me with my job and the fact that keeping fish is awesome.

 

[raptorrex]

I just remember my dad keeping guppies in the late 60's

But i got into fishkeepign through my daughter.

Morgen is or was, a 5 year old child diagnosed with Classic CDLS.
she took very little interest in anything.
but she would not leave a friends tank alone.
so when they offered it for sale, we snapped it up.

like so many, i had no idea how to keep fish (I'd not even done a cycle)
yet i bought a poorly cycled vastly over stocked Rio 180.
fitted with the appalling Jewel 600 filter.

it had been treated continually for different illnesses. (i did not know this at the time)
so the first few months were a struggle.

fortunately the tank split, requiring the quick purchase of a clearseal 200l tank and a Hydorprime 30 filter.

I short fed, after i seeded the Hydor from the juwel item.
but lost only one fish, a black molly.
since that i have not medicated or had a fish die of unknown problems.

my daughter first stood up @7 using the tank.
she also took her first steps, whilst holding on to it, @8.

only recently she has started really looking at the fish, and following their moments.
this she can do for 10 minutes at a time. (a massive concentration span for her)

 

[mossonthemoon]

I was in a shop and fell in love with a pair of cockatiels. They seemed to "choose" me, as well. I wanted to bring them home so badly, and it haunted me for two weeks, but my lifestyle at the time (working a lot, travelling a lot) wouldn't allow it. That and my two young cats. I got a fish tank as a distraction to the birds. It worked, but I do hope those birds are in a nice home now.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

My children wanted a pet and we rent and aren't allowed to have a cat. So... I decided gold fish... which was a disaster and we ended up switching to tropical and now we are hooked... or is that just me?

 

[fluttermoth]

I was almost exactly the same as you, kylealastairlove; although it was my uncle's tank that I saw when we were on a family visit, way back in 1977.

Again, it was the neons that I loved; that blue! I'd never seen anything like it on a living thing before!

We'd always had goldfish (in an unfilitered, plastic bowfronted tank, that my mum used to clean out in the sink , but from that day on (I was 7!) it was tropicals I wanted.

After many, many years of fishkeeping (yes, it took me that long to get there! Kept getting distracted by other more 'interesting' things, although I always had a dozen neons around somewhere!) I finally have my big shoal of neons; 42 in a 240l tank in my bedroom, although I did end up with false neons; they're even more stunning without the red, IMHO

 

[kylealastairlove]

some great stories here fluttermoth what are the chances! haha sounds like we had a very similar experience

 

[KCB]

My uncle got me hooked. He's always kept fish for as long as I can remember and he has a huge tank that I would always stare at as a child. I got seriously into fish keeping when my uncle gave me my first 127L Clear Seal tank, which was awesome. But as I had little knowledge of the actual hobby and was pre-occupied with school/university I wasn't a very successful fish keeper and considered giving up the hobby a few months ago...but I changed my mind.

Now I've downsized to a 46L Fluval Edge and this time around things will be done properly, with the fishes welfare being the top priority and hopefully I'll make up for all my past wrongs by making some new little fishes happy.

 

[elmo666]

I live near Chester zoo, they had a great discus set-up when I was a teen. Once I started working and had abit of cash I eagerly went to my lfs for my first dabble into discus. Heartbreak! To his credit he told me they were not fish for the inexperienced, and so now have kept evrything fom platys to malawis, discus to 14" oscars. Once one gets the fishy bug your hooked for life!

 

[Mr.Tan]

My sisters old boyfriend got me into the hobby when I was younger. I always had fish of some sort (gold fish) but when he came around he got me into keeping tropical fish, and then saltwater. He worked at a extremely nice fish store (it was nice because he took care of everything)while he was in college and would bring me free fish and plants and would scape the tank and all for me (i was young and didn't know what i was doing). He builds terrariums and does a lot of fancy stuff now a days, worked for the baltimore national aquarium, went to samoa looking for new types of snails, and does all sorts of crazy stuff. I look up to him with it all hah

Ever since I have not been able to be without one.

 

[Livewire88]

My mum gave me a small tank and it all went out of control from there!!