vintage Show Your Earliest Fishkeeping Photos!

[Daniel]

I dropped mom off after her dental appointment today and asked, 'Do you have any photos of my first aquarium?'

I kept guppies in jars starting in 1969 so we looked through the photo albums but there no photos of that or my first 10 gallon with neon tetras.

I started keeping white clouds in pools outdoors in 1973 and the earliest picture I could find of the pool was this one from 1974.

By 1975 I had convict cichlids and archer fish in the pool complete with wild collected native plants.

First native fish collecting trip to Okefenokee Swamp was 1977.

  

And to prove it was 1977 check out the orange shirt!

So what are your earliest photos of your fish keeping endeavors? Post them here (even if your first year was 2020).

 

[Randy]

Okeefenokee Swamp, yes!  These are great photos, @Daniel.

I need to have my dad dig through his photos to see if there is one of a young Randy next to our family thunderdome 55g.

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I don't believe anything exists from my pre 2000's 10 gallon, but this was my 2006 125ish gal.

Edited December 1, 2020 by TheDukeAnumber1

[Daniel]

@TheDukeAnumber1 what are the dimensions on that tank? Is it like a really tall 75 gallon?

[TheDukeAnumber1]

4 minutes ago, Daniel said:

@TheDukeAnumber1 what are the dimensions on that tank? Is it like a really tall 75 gallon?

IIRC approximately 4' ish long x 3'ish tall x 2'ish 🙂

Edited December 1, 2020 by TheDukeAnumber1

[Daniel]

I looked for 125s with those dimensions the other day and they were not easily available. Love the wood grain trim on your 125!🙂

[Aubrey]

I'm fairly certain that no pictures exist of my childhood tank because my parents were not much for taking pictures. This is the Firemouth that I had in college, and the third fish I ever kept as an adult. The first being a betta and the second a common pleco. You can also see the common pleco looming in the back of a couple photos. These are the only pictures I ever took of that tank and these fish even though I had them for 3 years. I had just bought my first DSLR that took me almost a year to save up for. circa 2008.

 

[Daniel]

17 minutes ago, Aubrey said:

These are the only pictures I ever took of that tank and these fish even though I had them for 3 years.

I can't believe that in 11 years of fishkeeping 1969 -1980 and all I could come with was the ones above. All I can say is I didn't control the camera back then. 🙂

[FrozenFins]

These are pictures of my first fish I puchased for my first aquarium.

I had kept a betta, named "swimmy" when I was like 7 or 8 but I can't find pictures of him. He's one of the reasons why I keep fish today. 

This Guys was my first angelfish, I named him angel (I wonder why...) I still have him, not in a 10 Gallon anymore though, in a 40gal. He is fullgrown (6") and has 2 more angel friends.

This is my female swordtail, I named him Astro thinking he was a male turns out he/ she was a female snow I switched it to Astrid. I am looking for a friend for her, I have two guppies in QT maybe they will work.

This my corycatfish I named him shadow, but unfortauntley he died when this aquarium bursted, when I was away. (always have a backup plan) Luckly I did have a backup plan, put them in buckets, got a new 10 gallon later that day, but shadow didn't like all of the stress he ancounterd that day, and passed the following morning. You can also see my glofish in this picture, I named him Finn. I later re-homed him to my LFS after relizing that glofish aren't for me. (If you know what kind of corycat that is let me know)

 

I really dislike the scape of that tank, eow!

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by James Black

[Andy's Fish Den]

I am planning to work down in my basement this weekend cleaning stuff up, I will have to see if I can find my box of pictures, I know I have a bunch of  pics of my angels and discus I was raising when I was in high school.

[Daniel]

53 minutes ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

I am planning to work down in my basement this weekend cleaning stuff up, I will have to see if I can find my box of pictures, I know I have a bunch of  pics of my angels and discus I was raising when I was in high school.

@Andy's Fish Den was it you who had Paul Spiece as judge in the state fair?

[Andy's Fish Den]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

@Andy's Fish Den was it you who had Paul Spiece as judge in the state fair?

Yes it was me, I will have to see if I can find pictures from that. I know my mom had taken pictures, and my dad gave me a whole box of pics of me after mom passed, I just have to sort through them all. 

[Matt_]

Here is my original 10 Gal tank shown on 1993.  I had a Red Tailed Black Shark, Clown Loach, Dojo Loach, Dwarf Gourami at this point.

Here is the 40 Gal from 1998 with Australian Rainbows and Angelfish: