How long have you been in the hobby for?

[Scapexghost]

On 10/22/2022 at 12:42 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I take it your birthday is May 17 ?

Nope. But my little brother's is. He got a tank for his birthday, but since he was a little kid, i helped him take care of it. That's how i got interested in the hobby. I got my own tank for christmas later that year, hense why it's a little debatable when i actually got into the hobby.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/21/2022 at 10:18 PM, TeeJay said:

I first started in the hobby when I was a boy. A couple of 19 gal tanks with goldfish to guppy's. Then in my early 20s with cichlids. Mostly convicts.

Then I didn't have tanks for close to 20 years. Until I came across videos from the co ops, primetime aquatics,kg tropicals and md tanks. Watching all of them inspired me to get back into the hobby. And with loads of help from folks here. Especially @Guppysnail @Chick-In-Of-TheSea @nabokovfan87 has help me grow into the keeper that I am today. I now have my 29 gal least killi tank. My 10 gal shrimp sanctuary and 10 gal Cory tank. These tanks I have had only set up for just under a year back in the hobby. I had never had live plants before now. Or shrimp and snails either before now. Mini mts set in lol. The only thing saving me is I live in an apartment and can't set up more tanks....well maybe another 5,or 10 gal sometime..🤔😮🤫

My brother and I raised convicts. It was so much fun! I also never tried live plants til this year. Or maybe I did but they died. I am sure I didn’t fertilize if I tried them before. I was watching ACO videos too and found out about Easy Green and that’s why I now have a nice planted tank.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/22/2022 at 10:49 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

My brother and I raised convicts. It was so much fun! I also never tried live plants til this year. Or maybe I did but they died. I am sure I didn’t fertilize if I tried them before. I was watching ACO videos too and found out about Easy Green and that’s why I now have a nice planted tank.

Can’t wait till the next Aquashella! I’ll have to bring an extra suitcase for all the stuff I’m going to bring back! 

An entire barrel of Easy green😂

[Flumpweesel]

I won a goldfish at village fair and it was my pet until 2018 approx 28 years.

When he died I didn't deal with tank very well I threw the contents of my nano tank in and kinda left the survivors to themselves, I fed it and water changed it but I didn't like being around it as I really missed my goldfish. But the tank is kinda built into the centre of my living room so it was easier to tick it over than remove it. 

Then I had to work from home I don't like working from home so I needed noise around me and started using you tube this (mainly Cory) helped me literally turn the lights back on and start looking at the tank again.

I currently have a 10 year old population of pygmy corys that have maintained their numbers without assistance from me and my peppered corys are also tank grown that  started in with my goldfish.

I don't think I'll ever love another fish like I did that goldfish we had been through a lot together and it had a huge personality.

So I make it about 32 years with fish.

Growing up before that we had a tank in the garden we could use to try and keep things in but other than some shrimp we found nothing much lasted in that

[Tanked]

On 10/22/2022 at 8:44 AM, Flumpweesel said:

I won a goldfish at village fair and it was my pet until 2018 approx 28 years

Early fish death is an irritant for me. After you have one for a few years it hurts. 28 years would be like losing a family member.

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

I’ve been keeping a tank for almost ten years now. 
 

As far as my favorite fish, it has to be Corydora. I love watching Cories explore. 

[Anjum]

On 10/22/2022 at 10:49 AM, Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics said:

As far as my favorite fish, it has to be Corydora. I love watching Cories explore. 

I forgot to answer that part of the question. I could never choose one favorite fish of all time. But right now it's definitely my Corys. They're so fun. And I have my 1st baby 🤗

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/22/2022 at 8:01 PM, Anjum said:

And I have my 1st baby 🤗

What species?

[Anjum]

On 10/22/2022 at 11:08 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

What species?

Corydoras paleatus 🤗 I wrote about it in my journal. Absolutely wasn't expecting it! 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/22/2022 at 8:13 PM, Anjum said:

Corydoras paleatus

You’re very lucky that you have managed to breed them. They’re supposed to be the easiest thing going and I have never managed!

[Fishoutawater]

Ive been keeping fish for 30 years.started with a carnival goldfish and weekly tank tear downs and bleach soak. This continued for some months before borrowing a book from the library and discovering the cycle and actually having some success.over the years i had all sorts of different fish and when my kids were born i had a community planted tank and was raising guppies and bn but living in a tiny 2br house ended up with just one 55 gallon tank that i ended up losing interest in for the most part and my aquaponics system. Around 4 years ago i got an oscar for that tank and it reignited the passion for fish. Then 3 years ago we moved into a bigger house with a garage and now have a little fishroom. I have 20 tanks and loving it all except for the power bill in the last few months.my favourite fish are my oscars and my dog faced puffer its their personality that gets me.

[Lots Of Loaches]

My adventures in fish started in the 70s keeping minnows out of the creek behind my house. I'm pretty sure my turtles ate most of them but I don't remember. My first job was in a pet store in '81 selling tropical fish and small animals. I wish it wasn't true but back then the advise we gave new fish keepers was terribly inaccurate. Too many fish and only monthly water changes was the standard advise and unfortunately I'm sure a lot of fish paid the price for that. I kept a few tanks with African cichlids and different loaches until '88 when I went to work for Uncle Sam but still managed to keep a tank wherever I was stationed.  I now have 3 tanks that I enjoy with a bunch of different kinds of loaches (I'm color blind so their antics and patterns are what I like), a pink tail chalceus, a brichardi, a gold calvus, and a red tail shark. I'm going to say the red tail shark is favorite type of fish but my loaches (especially clown loaches) are just as loved.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/23/2022 at 12:06 AM, Fishoutawater said:

except for the power bill in the last few months.

Ah yes, you too? I take it you also live in Europe.

[Fishoutawater]

On 10/23/2022 at 5:15 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

 

Nah Australia.power bill has gone from 250 a month to 450 so not as bad as you poor buggers but still enough to hurt

 

On 10/23/2022 at 5:15 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Ah yes, you too? I take it you also live in Europe.

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:37 AM, Fishoutawater said:

Nah Australia.power bill has gone from 250 a month to 450 so not as bad as you poor buggers but still enough to hurt

 

 

People could buy so many neon tetras with that!😉

[Odd Duck]

On 10/20/2022 at 10:20 AM, jwcarlson said:

how do you see the fish when your tank is made of stone? 🙃  

Funny guy!  You make jokes but my first tank had a slate (stone) bottom and was older than I was back in 1975!  It was a bugger getting that tank resealed since it was originally sealed with asphaltum.  I spent hours scraping that stuff out and resealing with silicone sealer.  I resealed that tank about 3 times over the decades before I finally broke a piece of glass I was trying to add to the bottom to maybe get the darn thing to stay sealed.  It would have been way more work to get that broken glass out than I thought the tank was worth at the time.  Now I wish I had it back!

I remember when there was no such thing as a submersible heater and now you really can’t find anything else.  There was no such thing as a canister filter, it was box filters, sponge filters, HOB’s, or undergravels.  I’ve used pretty much every type over the years, done fresh, salt with fish only, my first reef tank was in 1983.

We had to actually read books back then to learn anything about fish.  😂 🤣 

You young whippersnappers have got it so easy nowadays with this newfangled interwebs thing.

Now get off of my lawn! 😈 😂 🤣 😉 

Edited October 24, 2022 by Odd Duck

[Tanked]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:20 PM, Odd Duck said:

Funny guy!  You make jokes but my first tank had a slate (stone) bottom and was older than I was back in 1975!  It was a bugger getting that tank resealed since it was originally sealed with asphaltum.  I spent hours scraping that stuff out and resealing with silicone sealer.  I resealed that tank about 3 times over the decades before I finally broke a piece of glass I was trying to add to the bottom to maybe get the darn thing to stay sealed.  It would have been way more work to get that broken glass out than I thought the tank was worth at the time.  Now I wish I had it back!

I remember when there was no such thing as a submersible heater and now you really can’t find anything else.  There was no such thing as a canister filter, it was box filters, sponge filters, HOB’s, or undergravels.  I’ve used pretty much every type over the years, done fresh, salt with fish only, my first reef tank was in 1983.

We had to actually read books back then to learn anything about fish.  😂 🤣 

You young whippersnappers have got it so easy nowadays with this newfangled interwebs thing.

Now get off of my lawn! 😈 😂 🤣 😉 

My slate bottomed dinosaur is a curb find and still sits in the basement waiting to be sealed.  I haven't gotten around to it yet partly due to lack of time, and partly because the previous owners patch job seems to indicate that the slate is in 3 pieces.  I'm not sure it is sealable.   Nice lawn btw.

[Odd Duck]

On 10/25/2022 at 7:45 AM, Tanked said:

My slate bottomed dinosaur is a curb find and still sits in the basement waiting to be sealed.  I haven't gotten around to it yet partly due to lack of time, and partly because the previous owners patch job seems to indicate that the slate is in 3 pieces.  I'm not sure it is sealable.   Nice lawn btw.

I hope yours is resealable, they’re cool tanks.  If I had it to do over, I would pull everything out of the frame, even if I broke the glass.  The glass wasn’t anything special and usually ended up pretty scratched up.  That would allow better clean out of the old, dried up asphaltum.  Then I’d reseal with black silicone to mimic the asphaltum for more authenticity.  If your slate is broken, you can replace it with glass, obviously.  There were still plenty of tanks made with metal frames and glass bottoms.  To be more authentic you would get glass with a slightly pebbled surface (installed pebbled side down).  I don’t have any idea why they used pebbled glass on the bottom where it wouldn’t be seen once the tank was in use unless it was on a metal stand.

Those old slate bottoms would often seep slightly right through the stone.  If you had a metal stand and hard water (like I did), you could look from underneath and see the mineral accumulation at the site of the imperfection in the stone.  It was usually such a slow seep that you didn’t get actual drips.  Usually.  😆 

[John Ebsen]

I have been in the hobby a bit over 10 years. My Dad had an aquarium that was having a massive die off because of not quarantining new fish and he gave up and was just watching it die. I couldn't just watch, so I took it over and saved what I could with my limited knowledge. I started going to a LFS up the road from us to learn and buy medications. Turned out the guy running the store was Cory. This was well before the Co-op, and that store has been closed a few years now. I spent many hours pestering Cory and learning what I could. The store went downhill fast after Cory left, but I was hooked on the hobby and now have a house full of tanks. My favorite fish is dwarf chain loaches, just so much personality in a manageable size.