Your favorite yet earliest fish keeping memories

[FrozenFins]

What is your favorite earliest fish keeping memory? Maybe you only started keeping fish a week ago, or maybe it was 50 years ago, what is your favorite fish keeping memory.

I have a few:

-Setting up my first aquarium when I was 14 with my Dad. Then going to walmart and getting decor. Then a day or two later we went to the fish store to get fish. And oh, the fish I saw! I was so blown away by everything "you can keep seahorses!" "starfish!" "dory fish"! oh man! Keep in mind this was a saltwater store, with some freshwater. 

-Also keeping my first betta when I was 7, named him swimmy (for obvious reasons). He was my best friend. I thought he would get lonely so I got pictures of cartoon fish and taped them to the side of the tank. Each picture had its name. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by James Black

[ChefConfit]

When I was 5 I think. I won 2 goldfish in at the fair. They were fantails. One was Calico the other was a solid gold body with white fins. They were beautiful.

Unfortunately I was 5 and my parents knew nothing about fish. We had them in like a 2 gallon bowl. The Calico lasted maybe 6 months the other lived 8 or 9 years. Then I had a betta in the same bowl for maybe 2 years and then a common goldfish in a 5 gallon that died while I was away at college. All those fish were won at the same fair stand. 

I learned about proper fish keeping shortly after I got the last goldfish because I went to a highschool that specialized in marine biology but my parents refused to let me buy a larger tank.

After that I didn't have fish again until about 2 years ago when we got a 5 gallon for my daughters room. Now I'm planning out a rack of 7-8 tanks for the basement, a new tank for my daughter (she's been asking for a betta) and changing out my 29hex display tank for a 36 bowfront (the hex is very hard to aquascape) 

Edited February 25, 2021 by ChefConfit

[CT_]

Easily choice: "Helping" my mom dig our fish pond.  I was 5 I think so I probably wasn't actually helping.

[Brandy]

Being sick in the school nurses office in grade school and seeing a tank filled with guppies and snails. Listenting to her explain basic genetics, ecology, and animal husbandry in that context may have shaped my entire life actually.

[Jennifer V]

We always had fish tanks growing up. I would sit for hours watching the neon tetras or zebra danios swim around the tank. It just made that corner of the room so peaceful and beautiful. And of course, my dad would insist to get crabs, which would always climb out, and become a fun game of hide and go seek. It all seemed so simple and mezermizing, that I knew I wouldn't fully love my home as an adult without a tank. And now it's here, so the joy it brings comes with lots of memories and a connection to my dad that is invaluable to me. 

[CorydorasEthan]

When I was around three or maybe four, and my family would keep a betta fish in a large-ish vase (we didn't know anything about fish keeping). He was an orange/red one that we named Bubbles. When he died after three years or so, I was really sad and I got really upset when my dad flushed the body down the toilet. We got a couple more bettas (Rainbow and Rainbow Jr., one at a time of course) for the vase later on, but we stopped keeping them after those ones died (maybe three or four more years later).

When I got back into the hobby recently, my first and favorite fish are the cory cats.

[Brian]

I too have so many.   That first fish is certainly one of them.  But, the older I get more and more of my fish memories pertain to people.  My father and that first fish, and so many great friends that I have met over the years.  Especially since since some have passed away.  
I sure do miss sitting around that fish show and talking into the night with friends.   

[Daniel]

One of my favorite memories was back in the late 1960's when I wanted to put a baby sunfish I caught while out fishing with my dad into my 10 gallon tank with my neon tetras but my dad's said:

"Don't do it, son."

I said, "don't worry dad, neon tetras are the fastest fish in the world!"

But when I woke up the next morning, there weren't any neon tetras in the aquarium, just a very plump baby sunfish.

I miss my dad!

[H.K.Luterman]

When I was in elementary school, I remember going to my neighbor's house to play and being entranced by a "huge" (I was maybe 6 so it looked huge, it might have been a 55) tank full of guppies and little bladder snails that was kept by my friend's dad. So when I won 3 little comets at the school fair, I wanted to make a tank just like that. My mom is not really an animal person, and keeping a tank was a big no no, but my dad was able to get a 2 gallon fish bowl in my room for them (I know, I know). There was a little tiny box filter in it, and he showed me how to clean it, and gave me a demonstration on how to siphon gravel. Needless to say, the little comets didn't last long, but it definitely was a positive memory that cultivated my fascination. 

[Lemon]

my first time realizing there are place that sell fish besides petco and petmsart the first dedicated store I went into had a 120ish gallon aquascaped tank and a 180 gallon reef

[Will Billy]

My first memory was my dad getting a 10 gallon tank and some gold fish. I remember digging up earthworms in the back yard with him, and my mom fussing at him for cutting the earthworms up on her good cutting board lol. Eventually my brother took over the tank, and added these things called filters and airstones, and a heater. My fondest memory was when my brother saved up enough money to buy his own 20 gallon tank, and the old hand me down 10 gallon finally got passed down to me. I was so excited to finally have my very own tank. My brother taught me everything i knew about aquariums at that time. I kept that tank for about 8-9 years. Fast forward 25 years or so later and here i am now with my 55 gallon tank. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

My earliest favorite memory is when I was about 12 years old, I had bought some angelfish at the pet store and they grew up. I came home from school one day to find that two of them had laid eggs on a side of the tank. I excitedly called the store to tell the guy that owned it my angelfish spawned, but was sad the next morning because the eggs were gone. The next time I went into the store the owner talked to me about how to raise the babies and gave me a piece of slate to put in the tank for the adults to hopefully lay eggs on the next time, which they did. That got me going down a huge rabbit hole of breeding angelfish.

[Hobbit]

My dear mother is not an animal person at all but lo and behold she gives birth to her first child (me) and I am totally obsessed with animals. At one year old we all went to a petting zoo and apparently I was sticking my hand through the fence trying to pet the gigantic pigs. It totally scared her, but I had no fear!

Regardless of her personal feelings, my mom has always firmly believed that pets (and sandboxes) are good for children’s development. So when I was six we got our first pet. I was SOOOOOOO excited. I had been waiting for this day my whole life. It was a goldfish in a 5 gallon with a hang on back filter and some multicolored gravel. I remember sitting on the counter with my brother and watching the tank eagerly. “What can we do with it?” we asked. “Feed it,” my mom said. We each got to take a tiny pinch of flake food and put it in the tank. “Now what?” I asked. “Well, you can feed it again tomorrow.”

That’s it????

I stared at the tank thinking there must be more I could do with this fish. But no. There wasn’t. It was a bit of a letdown honestly. 😆

The other memory I have to share is not actually mine, but my neighbor’s. She’s in her sixties and has a bleeding heart for animals. (We get along really well.) When she was a girl she won a goldfish at the fair, but unsurprisingly, after about a week it was not doing well. She was super distraught. Her mom, being an animal lover herself, was determined to do her best to help. So she did the only thing she could think to do—she took the goldfish out of the water and tried to pour Pepto-Bismol into its mouth!

Needless to say it didn’t work. But it’s one of my neighbor’s iconic memories of her mother, and now an iconic image of fish care for me!

[JJC]

Not my earliest memory but a happy one. Riding my bike several miles to my local fish store. Fixing a small clip-on duffel bag to the frame to carry 2 inflated plastic bags containing platies and moss home.    

[Celly Rasbora]

I once had a betta fish in a one gallon jar. The fish store called them beta fish back then. I would catch insects and throw them still alive onto the surface of the water to feed him. His name was Mr. Beta.

I have earlier memories, catching minnows and tadpoles to have as pets, but my adult brain passes judgment on my child behaviors and the memories are now tinged with the shame of torturing critters through ignorance.

[Jungle Fan]

My earliest fishkeeping memory is also my earliest memory period and goes back to late 1964 when I was two years old. My Dad had come home from work and fed his Angelfish which he kept in a heavily planted 400 Liter, roughly 106 gallon tank that had a steel frame and which my brother later told me my Dad had built himself. He was barefoot, in jeans and a white t-shirt, sitting in his easy chair and smoking his pipe, relaxing, life was good.

He died the following year from shrapnel he had received during WWII when his tank had its turret blown off. A piece of shrapnel had traveled to his brain and blocked blood supply, he died in his sleep, My Mom later often told me that keeping fish and raising them, and also breeding Canary birds was his way of dealing with all the ugliness he had experienced during the war.

[JJC]

Waking up in the middle of the night to see if Santa had left me an aquarium for Christmas; in the dark, I couldn't find one and went back to bed disappointed. In the light of morning, I found it inside a wrapped box, a 10 gallon tank for Christmas!

Edited February 25, 2021 by JJC

[MAC]

We always had a fish tank in the living room growing up. Thinking back it was probably about 30gallons and I was always very interested in it and have many memories of the different fish we had. But my favorite memory was when I was about 12 when my uncle got me a ten gallon with all the accessories. It was my first tank that was all mine. I put it on the desk in my room with a few white cloud minnows and live plants. 

Somewhere I have a picture of me sitting on the floor christmas morning with my brand-new ten gallon "kit" and I look like the happiest kid in the world. I think that day I was. 

[FrozenFins]

28 minutes ago, JJC said:

Not my earliest memory but a happy one. Riding my bike several miles to my local fish store. Fixing a small clip-on duffel bag to the frame to carry 2 inflated plastic bags containing platies and moss home.    

OMG SAME!! It wasn't MILES, it was more 15 minutes. And in when there was snow on the ground I would go for that 30 minute walk just to see all the fish. It was tough not having a drivers liscense.

I took my backpack with me and filled up with fish, my family was always surpirsed that I brought home a fish all the way from the fish store!

[Ben_RF]

I actually don't know what my first memory in regards to fish keeping it would be. We always kept a few tanks (lowest was at 3 the most was a little over 20) in my childhood.  The creature that was my own personal one was a clawed frog.  I kept him in a 20g from third grade until my senior year in high school. He was my  little buddy who was ravenous and always hungry.  To be perfectly honest I do not know how he survived all those years in that tank as unkept as it was. 

[Celly Rasbora]

@Jungle Fan that's a bittersweet memory, for sure. I lost my dad when I was a bit older than you. Tough to lose a father so young. Did your family keep the fish tank?

[Kwag222]

Love this topic!!  My earliest fishkeeping memory is setting up a tank with my Dad when I was a kid.  I have no idea what size tank it was but i remember we had swordtails.  I also remember being amazed by a gar at the fish store.  It is a strong memory of doing something with my Dad from my childhood.  Why this topic strikes so close to home for me now (some 40 years later) is that my daughter expressed an interest in fish keeping recently.  That was all the incentive I needed and we just set up her first tank about 2 months ago.  Now I'm enjoying the hobby through a totally different perspective and relishing memories with my Dad!

 

[Jungle Fan]

@Celly RasboraNo sadly my Mom didn't know much about fishkeeping, my next older brother  didn't know much about it either, and my oldest brother who knew a lot was about to be drafted. On top of that Mom needed money to cover some of the medical bills and the funeral cost and so she ended up selling the tank including the fish to a lawyer in town who had several big tanks already and kept Angelfish and Discus, she also sold all of the Canaries, we only kept one male that he had raised by hand because his mother had rejected him. I didn't get a tank until I was six, and the fish were Cardinal Tetras.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Jungle Fan

[Kwag222]

Looking at so many of these posts, I'm blown away by how many of them are Father/child memories, and how many like me, have lost their Father.  Can we rename the thread to "One more reason I miss my Dad?"

 

[DaveSamsell]

Visiting a "Mom & Pop" style fish store with my folks at an early age.  Everyone was very friendly & the store had a nice "vibe" to it.  Even though I was young at the time, I caught onto the feeling of the comradery.  The store was not very big, but from what I remember, had a decent selection of fish & supplies.  Good memories.