What was in your first tank

[Matt_]

My first tank was a 10 Gal. with a Red Tailed Black Shark, a common pleco, a Clown Loach, and Tiger Barbs back in 1991.  The Tiger Barbs and the common pleco didn't make it very long, but I took great care of the tank and eventually corrected the stocking issues as well as upgrading to a 40 gal.  When I came back to the hobby a few years ago and saw Cory's YouTube videos on these fish it was like a eureka moment - no wonder why the tiger barbs killed each other, the common pleco starved in a new 10 gal aquarium, and the shark took over the entire tank.  Here it is in 1993 with the shark and clown loach still there.  I can say that I have learned a tremendous amount since.

[Cuernavaca]

1967, 14 year old, two 10-gallon tanks, one with undergravel filter, the other with internal corner box filter - an assortment of livebearers, mostly platies and mollies in the first thank;  2 kissing gouramis, neons and swordtails in the second - a few plants in each, elodeas and valisnerias. Lots of babies. Oh, and ick every once in a while (well, almost all the time). Very difficult to find any info on fish keeping back then. The good times !!!

[tolstoy21]

Alligator snapping turtles!

I don’t remember the tank size. Maybe 10 gallons. This was back in the late 70s.

I used to catch the babies from a freshwater lagoon near my house that fed into a brackish wetland. Tons of snapping turtles!

I’d get a few quarter-sized ones and feed them dried tubifex cubes and live killifish or frogs I’d also catch near the wetlands. 

When they got about silver-dollar-sized, I’d let them go and catch more!

Edited June 23, 2021 by tolstoy21

[Andy's Fish Den]

The first fish I kept was a goldfish I won at school carnival, in a glass one gallon pickle jar when I was in sixth grade. Then I mowed a few lawns and bought a ten gallon tank, box filter and some orange gravel for the tank. I often wonder if my mom would have let me play the game to try to win a goldfish if she would have realized that it would put me on a path that my the time I graduated high school I would have about 8 tanks in my bedroom and breeding angelfish and discus like it did. 

[Guppysnail]

Somewhere in the neighborhood of a 10 gallon tank with air pump mom and I found at a yard sale when I was about 7 early spring. Lived on the back porch.  Moms only rule was no snakes. All critters were caught at the creek by my house with moms kitchen strainer.  This was the most fun aquarium I ever had.  I collected rocks from in the creek and made a bubble volcano...little did I know this became the biofilter that kept things alive.  

I had an amazing bug, snail and worm population. Tadpoles minnows water skimmer bugs...anything that could swim and be caught by me.  Last inhabitant was a small turtle.  Mother Nature supplied mosquito larvae dragon fly larvae and Damselfly nymphs. By the end of summer I was hooked........

[Tanked]

First aquarium was the standard 10 gallon metaframe with the submerged corner filter, painfully hot chrome hood, bright multi colored gravel and an easily broken glass heater.  All of this sat on a knee high Iron stand that I still have. 

The fish that I remember were swordtails, Corydoras, a Redtail Black Shark, a Columbian Shark  and  a banana plant.  We had never heard of a LFS, so it was assumed that the employee in the pet department knew what they were talking about.  Needless to say a lot of fish were killed with too much kindness.

[lefty o]

On 6/23/2021 at 3:41 AM, tolstoy21 said:

Alligator snapping turtles!

I don’t remember the tank size. Maybe 10 gallons. This was back in the late 70s.

I used to catch the babies from a freshwater lagoon near my house that fed into a brackish wetland. Tons of snapping turtles!

I’d get a few quarter-sized ones and feed them dried tubifex cubes and live killifish or frogs I’d also catch near the wetlands. 

When they got about silver-dollar-sized, I’d let them go and catch more!

you made me remember, i had a quarter sized snapping turtle once. he was very cool.

[tonyjuliano]

Way back in 1972...

A ten gallon "meta-frame" tank with a bunch of shiners collected from the local creek.  I learned how to keep them alive, and the tank became a literal local biotope, as I later added any kind of creature I could collect from the same source. Snails, crayfish - if I could catch it with my hands or net, into that tank it went.

At first, my "filter" was a bucket for swapping old water for newly collected from the creek, but I soon graduated to a siphon fed HOB.  Lighting was via an old goose-neck desk lamp.

DynaFlow!  

Only someone as old as I will recognize that name.

Edited June 23, 2021 by tonyjuliano

[Hobbit]

When I was in high school I saw somewhere (probably TV) that you could have a betta fish in a vase and grow a plant out the top. We got our biggest vase, which was maybe half a gallon. I poked some holes in a plastic container to make a pot for the plant (pothos). Some marbles went in the bottom of the vase. Then we got a dark blue betta from the pet store that I named “Morier” which is elvish for “dark one.”

It lived on my dresser for probably two years. Knowing what I know now, I’m shocked it lasted so long! I rarely did a water change (the plant probably saved it.). I had no idea bettas liked warm water and more space. I should have known to do my research—I had done extensive pet research online in 8th grade when my two “male” gerbils suddenly had babies. I just didn’t realize fish had needs like other pets. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I remember it died after I did a water change. Maybe I used soap or something stupid, or maybe I used the wrong temp water, or maybe I ruined the cycle.

Sorry, Morier. You had a very boring life 😛 

[Leslie]

My mom had a goldfish when I was very young named Circles.  He was in, you guessed it, a round bowl that must have been about 3 gallons.  He would swim around that tank constantly.  No heater or filter.  Mom used to change his water out once in awhile.  We had him for probably 5 years then one day he jumped out of the tank and that was it for poor Circles.  A few years later when I was about nine I got a 10 gallon tank with an internal box filter.  Have no real idea what I had in there except a kissing gourami and a few neon tetras.  Not heated and probably did water changes twice a year.  Left the hobby for about 10 years then started back up when I was 21.  That was over 30 years ago.

[ErinV]

I remember there being a gold fish bowl on the piano when I was little and we would fight over who got to (over) feed it. No idea if we did water changes. I had my first personal tank in grade 6 and it was a 5 gallon with the most annoying little box air filter thing that would always float to the top. Just kept adding rocks to it. I think I had Molly's most of the time. At some point I up graded to a 10 gallon. Had many things in it. It's longest occupants were a white angel fish names Gab (Gabriel) and a common pleco named Kirby. Fun fact, all my cleaning bottom dwellers have had vacuum cleaner names. Current one is Dyson. I now know way to small of a tank but the both had very long lives. 5-10y. Currently have a 30g and working on setting up a 90g 25+ years later.

[GameCzar]

One guy I do remember from my youth was a little freshwater flounder.  I want to say it was about 2 - 2.5 inches long.  I'm not even sure if those are around these days at all.   

[tonyjuliano]

On 6/23/2021 at 7:17 PM, Hobbit said:

I had no idea bettas liked warm water and more space

How could you?  When the dominant picture in the industry is a Betta living in a cup of water.  Even today, that’s what most are presented with.  Walk into any Petco.

Edited June 24, 2021 by tonyjuliano

[Chiclid addict]

On 6/23/2021 at 6:52 PM, tonyjuliano said:

How could you?  When the dominant picture in the industry is a Betta living in a cup of water.  Even today, that’s what most are presented with.  Walk into any Petco.

Couldn’t agree more

[Gucci Gourami]

My first fish was a betta (named Eddie, from full house) in a one gallon bowl. *cringing* now that i know they need 5 gallons + 

[Gucci Gourami]

They even sell bettas at some hardware stores in bowls for cereal :{ @tonyjuliano

Edited June 24, 2021 by Gucci Gourami

[James Holbrook]

My first tank was a 55 gallon back in 1985. If I remember correctly I had an old Marineland HOB. Don’t remember the heater.

I kept one Oscar named Grumpy. I had a lot of fun with him. I didn’t even know I was supposed to change water. I just topped it off. I fed him all kinds of worms and feeder fish. I also didn’t know he would outgrow his tank. I’m surprised he lasted three years because looking back I made a lot of mistakes.

[OfficialThomas]

Mine was a 20 gallon with goldfish.

[firstname-lastname]

10 gallon with 5 rosy tetras. A good friend was moving away around november last year and it wasn't practical for them to take the fish with them. I was entrusted with them and I tried my best as I learned the ropes of the hobby. Three of the originals are in my new tank.

[JackH]

I used to have one of those 2.5g betta tanks. Eventually I got a 15g.

[keddre]

I don't know why I remember this, but mine was a 5 gallon with a black moore, betta and Bala shark. I was a young kid and my parents got it for me. I've had one constantly since though

[cavdad45]

My first was a 20gallon community tank my wife got from the neighbors when they transferred.  This was back in the early 80s, we didnt know of cycling, etc and many new species have come along since.  

Fortunately, we got a lot of good help and advice from Ray who owned Waterline aquariums, who became a great friend and fish-mentor

[Odd Duck]

It’s been so long ago that I don’t remember everything I started with, but my favorites back then, and for a very long time, were harlequin rasboras.  They were by far the most entertaining and loved to swim “upstream” in the return flow from the HOB’s.  I also had orange sword tails, some gold platies, a male Betta, might have had some guppies, but I can’t remember when I got them relative to when I first set up the tank (it will be 47 years ago in 3 weeks). I’m sure I had others, but those are what I remember best from those very early days.

[L_goodei200]

A 10 gal. With 4 feeder goldfish I rescued from one of our stock tanks one fall. Hob, airstone, no plants. Somehow they survived for several years before the power went out during a winter storm and killed two of them, the other two went back out to a stock tank that spring, and must have run into a raccoon. The tank then housed various aquatic insects and snails for several years until I took a 2 or 3 year break before getting back into the hobby in the fall of 2020.

[Baphijmm]

We'd kept "carnival goldfish" basically for as long as I can remember; our school district's local carnival would often have that particular game, and so we'd regularly win them as kids. Naturally, they never lasted very long.

My first personal dedicated tank was a 29-gallon "community" tank, in quotes because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I had absolutely no money with which to actually do anything, and so the "community" was extremely stilted. Growing up in Cincinnati in the '90s, we had a local pet store chain called Jack's Aquarium and Pets (I'm not sure if they're still around? Doing a quick Google search, they were apparently acquired by Pet Valu in 2016, so I guess not); they used to have a "Fish of the Month Club", where, if you were a member (which cost money, naturally, but my parents covered it), you'd get your choice of four different fish that were basically, the first one was free (of any one variety, meaning you only got one free fish a month), and any more were deeply discounted. Being of the poor persuasion, I often went just to get one free fish.

The problem with this was, naturally, many of the fish they offered in this way were best off in large groups. I didn't know this, and honestly I'm pretty sure most of the employees didn't know either. So like, this tank had one molly, one swordtail, one Cory, one tiger barb, one clown loach, etc. I did have two gold gouramis, as that was my first variety of fish in that tank and I thought they were so pretty I paid for the second. Not many survived very long; ironically, the longest-living fish in the tank were the gouramis, lasting a couple years.

Looking back on it now, it's quite embarrassing, but you know, you don't grow without making mistakes. I certainly know better now!