When did you get into the hobby?

[FrozenFins]

When year did you join the hobby?

 

 

[CorydorasEthan]

Around the fall of 2019 I think. I got interested a year and a half earlier though, like in early 2018 

[Paul]

The mid - late 60's. My first real aquarium (10 gallon) had a slate bottom and a chromed steel frame a box filter, a non submersible heater and the whole thing was lite up with 2 40 watt tubular (china cabinet)bulbs

 .

[Sal]

I should really vote 2019...  BUT, my first tank (a 29 gal hexagon) was in like 1995 when I was a teenager and I maintained and kept it all on my own and LOVED it.

Got back into it at the end of 2019 just before the pandemic and SO glad to have had this to keep us busy all year!  

[Daniel]

Like @Paul it was the 60s. I got my first guppies in 1969 and I immediately succumbed to MJS (multi jar syndrome).

[H.K.Luterman]

My first fish tanks were kept in the 80s-90s, but I was a kid back then with no funds, no car and no internet. I had to rely on my parents letting me get supplies, and it was often a "no." Needless to say, I had very little success. I did dabble a bit in keeping goldfish briefly in the early 2000s, but then after a disaster, I took a 10+ yr break. 

So I chose 2010-2019, since I've plunged very deeply into the hobby ever since coming back to it in 2018.

[Aubrey]

2007 was when I first got a tank on my own. I kept it for about 3 years before moving and passing it on.

At some point in the 90s my parents got my brother and me a tank, but I don't recall really wanting it. Not that I wasn't interested in it, but it wasn't something that I solely cared for.

I got back into keeping aquariums in 2016 or 2017. This was the first time that I had multiple tanks.

 

[Paul]

9 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Like @Paul it was the 60s. I got my first guppies in 1969 and I immediately succumbed to MJS (multi jar syndrome).

@Daniel by my reckoning we were playing with glass boxes full of water & fish back in the preindustrial times before the internet & YouTube. How did we ever figure stuff out?

[Kalita]

First tank was in 90s. I have 2 brothers (one older and one younger) and we got a family tank, not knowing anything. Brother seemed to pivot a bit and go with turtles. I kept tanks with goldfish or bettas. I got serious about around 2009 ish.

[Jungle Fan]

1968 with some cardinal tetras, some guppies, a catfish, I don't remember what species anymore, a few swordplants, some cabomba, and some vallisneria, It was a 120 L tank (approximately 32 gallons) home made, and home made fluorescent light my brother had made for me. He worked as a machinist before he got his engineering degree, and had built it the way my dad used to build his tanks but he never taught me.

[Anita]

9 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Like @Paul it was the 60s. I got my first guppies in 1969 and I immediately succumbed to MJS (multi jar syndrome).

Arrgg! Where are my reactions when I want them?! 😂 @Betsy Perhaps we should add this to the TLA list? ORD, Out of Reactions for the Day. 

This was totally me as a kid! Except my jars would include fish, lizards, toads/tadpoles, insects, spiders, birds, snakes, rats, mice... and so on... and so forth. 📣

[Daniel]

12 minutes ago, Paul said:

@Daniel by my reckoning we were playing with glass boxes full of water & fish back in the preindustrial times before the internet & YouTube. How did we ever figure stuff out?

TFH magazines and books. And the people who ran or worked at the couple of local fish stores I frequented really knew what they were talking about. The advice I remember hearing was that plants are really good to put in an aquarium and don't forget to dechlorinate and age your water.

Also I don't remember hearing about cycling or having a test kit so there was much less to worry about.

And Wow! @Jungle Fan had a homemade aquarium!

[Paul]

@Daniel to clean the tank we netted out all the fish put them in a pale of water, drained all the water from the tank, rinsed the gravel, cleaned out the filter and put in new charcoal & fiberglass then wiped the glass down with windex(inside and out) filled the tank back up, hooked everything back up let the water settle for a few minutes and then dumped the fish back in. Cycle smycle🤣😉

Edited March 10, 2021 by Paul

[Aubrey]

16 minutes ago, Anita said:

This was totally me as a kid! Except my jars would include fish, lizards, toads/tadpoles, insects, spiders, birds, snakes, rats, mice... and so on... and so forth. 📣

Agreed. Mason jars and window screen were hot commodities when I was a child. I had a teacher call my parents on more than one occasion to come pick up whatever critter I decided to take to school for show and tell.

[gardenman]

40 minutes ago, Paul said:

The mid - late 60's. My first real aquarium (10 gallon) had a slate bottom and a chromed steel frame a box filter, a non submersible heater and the whole thing was lite up with 2 40 watt tubular (china cabinet)bulbs

 .

Pretty much the same for me. My grandfather kept fish and handed down tanks and stuff to me in the early to mid-sixties. I dusted off an old light like that a while back and used two of the CFL daylight bulbs in it an it did a credible job growing plants, but the lifespan of the bulbs was pretty short. There wasn't enough venting in the hood and the bulbs overheated a bit.

[Anita]

6 minutes ago, Aubrey said:

Agreed. Mason jars and window screen were hot commodities when I was a child. I had a teacher call my parents on more than one occasion to come pick up whatever critter I decided to take to school for show and tell.

ORD...   💜

[Daniel]

6 minutes ago, Aubrey said:

Agreed. Mason jars and window screen were hot commodities when I was a child. I had a teacher call my parents on more than one occasion to come pick up whatever critter I decided to take to school for show and tell.

I got in big trouble for bringing a copperhead to class in 5th grade. The science teacher put it in a 10 gallon aquarium with a screen top and killed it by pouring formaldehyde on it.

[Maggie]

I have moved a lot over my life, so I guess that's why fishkeeping never really entered my thought process as a child. I had a small tank around age 18 or 19, but had no idea what I was doing so it failed and I felt guilty when the fish died. Spent 7 years in the Air Force, got married, had kids and a job (sometimes 2) - no time and definitely no money for any hobby for the following 3 decades. Now I'm retired and have the time to put into and enjoy it, and the money to fund it. 

[Daniel]

Bunch of grumpy old men!

[Jungle Fan]

@Danielmy godfather was a glazier and had his own shop, and both my oldest brother and my dad had worked as machinists for a company that produced machines for factories that produced pressed wood, it was one of the pieces my brother had made for his apprenticeship where it was all about measurements and accuracy. The frame was steel. He built it just before he got drafted, a couple of years later my mother bought the equivalent of a 20 gallon for me and my brother got his apprenticeship piece back, don't know what happened to it. I wish he and my dad had written down how they built things, would have possibly saved me a lot of money through the years. I'm not sure how they sealed those tanks but it definitely wasn't silicone there always seemed to be some kind of fabric tape and stuff that looked like tar showing at the frame and the frame was painted in some kind of laquered light green paint. Definitely would not have won prizes for elegancy by today's standards but it worked, the glass was clear, my fish were happy, and it was my prized possession at six years old. It took my mom a good while to come up with money for an aquarium, money had been tight since my dad had died and left her with three boys.

[Gideyon]

I had my first fish when I was a child in the 80s. But all I did was overfeed it. 

Had a goldfish in the 2010s as a last minute decision seeing it in a vase. That lasted a little over a year. 

After much desire for a while, and with the help of my oldest being interested, I got back in last month with a betta.  But the research started in 2020. 

[Trish]

My grandmother bred tetra's in the 60's for a local fish shop, and kept about 20 tanks.  My first job was to pick the snails out of her tanks!  

When she retired, I inherited and stored all her equipment and books.  I've always kept fish, but not like I have for the last 5 yrs.  @Daniel I remember TFH magazines as well.  I was allowed to keep tanks at school , mostly fancy goldfish.  

This book of hers used to be my bible. 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Trish

[Fish Folk]

From father . . . he from father's father . . . and he from father's father's father . . . 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Fish Folk

[Trish]

33 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Bunch of grumpy old men!

I'm not grumpy... but I am out numbered!

[Anita]

At any rate, I kept lots of critters in and out of the house when I was young and living at home. When I went to college, I decided against keeping any pets because I was never home. Same with my early professional career. I finally got a rescue cat when I moved into a pet-friendly apartment and my life had slowed down a bit. She was followed by a dog. And then another dog. And then another dog. At present, I have two rescue dogs.

When I bought a house, I started organic gardening, xeriscaping, natural landscaping, and permaculturing. Aside from the dogs, still no critter-keeping on a long-term basis. Although my electrical contractors raised their eyebrows and started laughing when I jumped in and scooped up a a praying mantis that got knocked down during some rewiring project. Ever after that, I was the "Bug Lady."  🦗

One summer a few years ago, I started a backyard pond (plastic kiddie pool with a sump biofilter and fountain) stocked with Petsmart guppies, for the mosquitoes. That fall, I didn't pay attention to the weather and they succumbed to the cold before I could transfer them inside the house and into a tank. 😒 Heck, I hadn't even purchased a tank yet. 🥺

I waited until last summer (2020) to have a pond again. The guppies and Neocaridina shrimp flourished, growing fat and happy, and multiplying, in their little wading pool. As fall approached, I felt more prepared to successfully overwinter everyone. I waited for a Labor Day sale to purchase tanks and stuff. I figured I had another month to cycle the tanks and then migrate the beasties. And then, dum-dum-dum! The weather report forecast a cold snap with 3 nights in a row dropping into the high 30s!!! 🙀

So, with my tanks barely set up, I spent a frantic afternoon racing the sunset and approaching cold front. I was splashing around in the freezing wind, trying to net guppy fry under menacing clouds. Feeling around under pots and rocks, trying to flush the shrimp from their hiding spots. Putting everyone into 5-gal buckets while I tried to figure out who was going into what tank. Hitting Amazon up for bottles of fast-start solution that would be delivered in one day. Yikes! I managed to rescue about 75% of the community residents, including the shrimp. 🥴

When the storm hit, the winds knocked out the power for three days. Fortunately, I have a backup generator wired into the house. Haha, but it's not for the fish! I live in a neighborhood with very old wiring. I also work out of my home, so I have a full office setup in one of the spare bedrooms. When I rewired the house, I asked the electrician to add a fail-over circuit. When the power goes out for more than a few hours (sadly about once/year), I fail-over to the backup wiring, which includes the two bedrooms, office, stove, refrigerator, and furnace/AC. Then I prime the generator and let her rip! Fortunately, the same circuit for the furnace keeps one of the basement outlets powered. So, I was able to run the tanks off the backup outlet. 💪

And that folks, is how I came into the hobby! 🐟🌿🐌