How did you get into the hobby?

[Levi_Aquatics]

I have always been interested in hearing how other aquarists got into the hobby so if you could comment on this post how you got into the hobby that would be great! I guess I should share my story. So, my family had had a 2.5 gal aquarium for as long as I can remember and we would get fish every now and then that would only live a few weeks. When I was about 10 I started watching some YouTube videos about aquariums and started getting more serious. I found the aquarium coop channel and learned so much from @Cory I even had the amazing opportunity to meet him at a fish club a couple years ago. I now have 6 aquariums and am hoping to set up a few more soon. I will be interested to hear how you got into the hobby. 

[Chad]

Bought my daughter a betta. She was bored by it, I killed it (unintentionally, I’m not a psycho). Tried again with the next daughter. Same results. I was hooked after that. 

Edited January 9, 2022 by Chad

[Patrick_G]

I’ve kept fish only tanks on and off since I was a kid. I always had a tank or two in my room and Mom had a 75 gallon. In high school and for a few years after I had cichlid tanks, both African and Central American. As an adult I’ve had small tanks on and off but I didn’t get serious about planted tanks until 2020. As a lockdown project my wife ordered a Betta from Thailand and housed him in a 3 gallon ex terrarium with moss balls and some Java fern. After a few months she wanted a larger rimless cube. I helped her with the process but somehow got myself hooked. Several small cubes and a 75 gallon followed soon after! 

[scott the fishman]

As a far back as preschool i was into dinosaurs as i got older i learned that became extinct that led me to sharks. you all know the rest of the story true facts about my community aquarium

[PineSong]

From childhood on we always had a fish tank: mixed "tropical fish" when we lived in S. Florida, then goldfish after we had moved up north. In my teen years I had a single fantail goldfish and my parents had a goldfish pond for a couple of decades. 

After college, there was a long spell of no fish. Goldfish had left me feeling like fish were a lot of work.

When my kids were little we inherited two veiltail goldfish (in a 10gallon, of course) and one thing led to another--pretty soon I had a 55 for the goldfish, a 20L for the insane giant danio that came with the 55, a 10g with endlers and a Walstad-inspired planted tank for platies, and a few bettas. That would be the official start of my adult participation in the hobby.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2022 by PineSong

[Gail Kali]

I started in the’80’s after moving across the street from the lfs after a divorce. After a couple of years I gave it away… too much going on to pay attention to it. Fast forward to November when a 20 gallon showed up on my porch as a birthday gift from my son! And now I am addicted! My wife is picking up my new aquarium from Petsmart as we speak. 

[Isaac M]

I was interested in keeping poison dart frogs and/ or some form of reptile as a kid. However, I was not allowed to have any reptiles. That still did not stop me from going to the pet store and looking at them though. Then one day a local pet store opened up and the owner gave the people in line to his grand opening a 10 gallon aquarium kit. And well, the rest is history haha 

[WhitecloudDynasty]

I was the kind of kid running around in the California levees/storm drains collecting mosquito fish.

At that time I kept fish in shoes bin and did daily water change

[lindabee53]

When I was in 5th grade, my parents gave me a 10-gallon tank kit for Christmas.  According to my mother, they couldn't figure out what to do for me, so that's what I got.  I kept a tank all the way through high school, even through several moves.  What I didn't know then, is that my mother would flush the fish whenever we got ready to go to my dad's next duty station.  At the time, she said she gave the fish to someone she knew who had an aquarium.

Hard to believe, but that was in the 60's.

[Flumpweesel]

Won a fish at the fair (actually this was probably the 3rd or 4th from the annual fate). It lived for 28 years so forced my hand really. Nearly gave up on fish after it died but then time heals and lock down meant it was really hard to avoid the huge aquarium in the living room. So started adding some algae eaters to the corys that had survived the goldfish and built slowly from there. I now have a modest planted community tank that I can enjoy again.

 

[scott the fishman]

On 1/9/2022 at 3:32 PM, Flumpweesel said:

Won a fish at the fair (actually this was probably the 3rd or 4th from the annual fate). It lived for 28 years so forced my hand really. Nearly gave up on fish after it died but then time heals and lock down meant it was really hard to avoid the huge aquarium in the living room. So started adding some algae eaters to the corys that had survived the goldfish and built slowly from there. I now have a modest planted community tank that I can enjoy again.

 

Glad some thing good came out of covid lock down!

[BettaQueen124]

I kept bettas (in much-too-small tanks) as a kid. I got one last year for my toddler to watch, but he got sick. I started doing research on how to heal him and found out I was essentially killing him slowly and painfully. He's a happy, swimmy boi today and I'm working on putting together my first community tank 🥰

Edited January 10, 2022 by BettaQueen124
Typo

[HH Morant]

When I was 5 or 6 years old, my father did carpentry in his spare time. He built a bar between the kitchen and the dining room. He built-in a 50-gallon aquarium. The aquarium was about 18 inches off the floor and we kids would sit on the floor to watch the fish. I remember how excited the fish got - especially the angels - when my father fed them "wiggle-tails" (mosquito larvae).

Since then I have been out of the hobby more than in. But I would never have considered fishkeeping if not for the aquarium in the bar.

[Guppysnail]

I was roughly 6-7. Mom and I found a 10 gallon tank and air pump at a yardsale. I kept it on the porch over the summer. I was allowed to keep anything I caught at the creek the only exception was no snakes. Mom was crazy scared of snakes. I piled creek rocks around the bubbler to make it look like a bubble volcano and scooped up mud with my little sand box bucket. I spent a few days trying to hand catch fish. I only caught awesome cool bugs so they were my pets. After a few days I remember i was crying when i got home because i could not catch fish in my hands or bucket vthe next day i stubbornly got ready to try again. Mom met me at the kitchen door and gave me her kitchen strainer. I caught minnows that day was over the moon happy and have been hooked ever since. I still use a small plastic strainer to chase fish into in my tanks snd scoop them up. Works fantastic. 

[The Aquarium Zone]

As Far back as I can remember, I always had two feeder goldfish in a 3 gallon fishbowl. The bowl with the two flat sides. There was blue gravel, a couple of happy meal toys, and a fake plant. No matter how many times the fish may have been replaced... they were always called Larry and Balki after some TV sitcom my mom liked. When, I was around 10, I was gifted a used 29 gallon. I started with Tetras, and the basics, and as the years went by, I got into Cichlids. I would ride my bike to the nearest pet shop, buy what I could afford, and ride them back home hooked on the handle bars! LoL In high school, I found this guy on the internet called Uaru Joey, and his website was the best! (no Youtube yet.) I would spend hours studying different kinds of fish. I remember my Mom telling me "If you'd spend half the effort on your school work as you do looking at fish stuff..............."  Anyway, the rest was history. Great question!! It was really enjoyable to look back and remember all of these things.  Haven't though about it in years. 🙂

[gardenman]

My grandfather kept fish and handed down a tank to us (an old Metaframe tank with a slate bottom) when I was a very young child. I took over control of the tank and have kept fish ever since. I'm 63 now and we've had fish forever. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

When I was a kid, like 5 or 6 years old, I barely remember having at different times a goldfish or betta that was kept on the bar separating the kitchen and living room, in a one gallon pickle jar. My mom would clean it out every couple of days as there was no filter in it. Fast forward a few years, and when I was about 12, I won two goldfish at the school carnival. I went into the :LFS pet store that I went to for supplies for the guinea pigs that I kept and raised, and bought a ten gallon tank and all the stuff for it by trading a couple of young guinea pigs that I had raised. Next thing you know, a year or so later, I had four tanks in my bedroom ranging from 10-29 gallons, and raising some angelfish babies. Sold my guinea pigs because I figured out I could put a 55 gallon tank where the two good sized cages I kept the guinea pigs in. At one time, in my bedroom I had 10 fish tanks ranging from 10 to 180 gallons. Ever since then, I have had at least one aquarium, so over 30 years in the hobby. 

[sairving]

Growing up, my parents kept a tank in my room. In it was Burt the black moor goldfish.  In high school, I tried keeping fancy goldfish again.  I was really terrible at it and gave up.  Then the pandemic happened.  My state had a three month stay at home order and I was furloughed for almost four months (airline industry). In need of something to do until I was called back to work, I watched YouTube videos about fish keeping. Three months of research later, scouring the internet and local stores for sales, I setup a 3 gallon planted betta tank.  The rest is history.  

Edited January 10, 2022 by sairving

[Wingman12r]

I'm currently in my 3rd iteration of fish keeping.

In the late 90s when I was in middle school, my dad bought a 55 gallon we stocked it with Angels, Red tail shark, neon tetras, danios, common pleco, albino corys. We had to give it away when we moved from Utah to Texas in Dec 1999.

Then in 03-04 my dad was given a used 55 with a stand, light and an aquaclear filter. It just happened that a girl I liked in High School worked at a PetSmart. So to make an excuse to go talk to her I decided to start up the fish tank.

I murdered so many fish in that poor tank. I overstocked an un-cycled tank with, neon tetras, danios, a couple of angels, a couple of Bala sharks, a clown knife, common pleco. Sometime later after the tank had stabilized I was given a Tinfoil Barb. He proceeded to kill everything other than the pleco. After I met my wife and moved across Texas my dad kept that tank going for several more years.

After I bought my house in 07 my wife and I thought it would be cool for her 3 kids to have guppy tank. We got a Walmart 55 gallon tank and stand kit and filled it with mutt guppies and platys. We had a great time with the breeding and babies.

That tank is still set up and currently houses my Xenotoca Lyonsi Rio Tamazula. Now my grandkids come over and get the same excitement thier mother did with the same tank.

[Odd Duck]

A friend of mine had a fish tank and I must have mentioned to my parents how much I liked it.  On my 13th birthday, they gave me a well used, metal frame, slate bottom, leaky tank with 2 HOB filters missing parts, and gravel that was heavily infested with MTS.

I got it sealed up after a few tries, picked most of the MTS out of the gravel, found parts for and rigged the HOB’s so they worked most of the time, and away I went with my rusty metal hood and incandescent lights.  I still remember saving my allowance to buy fish and equipment.  Once that first tank was mine it was 100% mine.  No input from the parents.  As far as I know, I’m the first fishkeeper in the family.

I as up to 19 tanks at one point.  I’ve done reef tanks (first one back in 1983), including a seahorse tank, but surprisingly few planted tanks since it was a lot harder to grow most plants with flourescent and nearly impossible with incandescent unless your tank got some sunlight.  I did dabble with plants off and on and was having some success with some HO fluorescents before I got too burned out and busy.

I got very burnt out on a job working way too many hours and stepped away from fishkeeping for about 10 years.  Rescued a pair of Jack Dempsey cichlids and their common pleco buddies as a favor to a friend in April of 2019, and I was hooked all over again.  Up to 24 tanks now, working to consolidate all my small tanks into my “Offish” fish room.

I just sold my 46 G bow front to make room for my free 100 G tank. I’ll have 100 G tanks flanking either side of the TV.  Guess what I’ll be watching most!

Edited January 10, 2022 by Odd Duck
Added a bit more detail.

[Patrick_G]

On 1/10/2022 at 7:57 AM, Odd Duck said:

just sold my 46 G bow front to make room for my free 100 G tank. I’ll have 100 G tanks flanking either side of the TV.  Guess what I’ll be watching most!

Oh nice, you’ll have to post a pic!

[Odd Duck]

On 1/10/2022 at 10:21 AM, Patrick_G said:

Oh nice, you’ll have to post a pic!

I will!  I posted a couple very prelim pics in the “What did you accomplish today” thread just to whet your interest.  I’ll do a full build thread on the “new” 100 G when I’ve got more to show.

[Tanked]

I started with the requisite gold fish bowl as a small child.  somewhere around age 11 it was determined that I was allergic to almost everything.  The doctor's ban on anything with fur, or feathers suited mom just fine, so she added reptiles to the banned list for good measure.  It wasn't long before we got the first 10 gallon aquarium. 

[isaly]

Around July of last year I stumbled across some videos about fish keeping that got me thinking “I’d like something like that.” I took my time because I remember thinking about whether I’m willing to do the work. I also knew I wanted plants. So many fish! How to choose? I did research, watched a lot of YouTube videos, and spent lots of time thinking about the possibilities.

I wanted a nice sized tank for viewing, something I can make pretty if I work a little, get a little lucky, and weather the bits of bad luck. I decided that a 55 would be best, nice size for my living room but not too big. For about 15 minutes or so I thought about a 75 but chickened out. My 55 is starting to shape up and I’m happy with it.

I dove in September, 2021.

I made one rule, one tank, at least until I demonstrate to myself over time that I’m willing and reasonably careful. So much can go wrong, fish dying, tank(s) smelling bad, accidents, buying too much crap because it becomes about stuff rather than enjoying keeping fish and plants…all magnified by living in a small apartment. It’s so easy to get hooked on stuff, always looking for the next thing rather than just relaxing, taking my time, and enjoying puttering in the tank, enjoying the aquarium for its own sake which, I think, was the point.

It’s really nice so far. I love watching ‘em in low light, watching ‘em school, the feeding frenzy and, you know, it seems like they’re beginning to know me a little…maybe they appreciate the big blob creature who drops in the food, vacuums the gravel bed, reaches in to move stuff around, and puts his mug up against the glass to watch.

[Shadow_Arbor]

My Elementary School always had an aquarium with a small Ancistrus. I was infatuated  and in the first grade promised myself when I got older I'd get myself one. At the age of 17 I did all my research, built a wooden stand for a 250 litre tank, planted it and got a trio of Ancistrus that bred for me. Five years later I have six smaller aquariums and am now breeding LF super red Ancistrus in one of them.