Generational fishkeepers?

[GaryE]

One of my daughters phoned last night (too excited to even text!) to say she had found two killifish fry thriving in her community tank. She likes catfish, and they evidently hadn't gotten to the eggs. She was feeling very proud of her set up and how things were working.

It got me thinking. My great grandfather apparently raised and sold goldfish out of a summertime, back court set up in the tenements of south Montreal. My grandfather jumped on the bandwagon when the hobby exploded in popularity in the 1950s. He bred Bettas and was into head and tail light tetras. One grandmother always had a small tank of white clouds. My grandfather's brother and his partner bred fancy guppies and had huge Oscars. I got into a fish (a little bit). and now the next generation is into it.

How many of you come from families where fishkeeping was or is a generational hobby?

 

[emeraldking]

My parents started off back in the 1960's. I was the only child who was interested in keeping fish as well.

 

[Fishareconfusing101]

I helped my dad keep a 180 gallon full of cichlids and now, even though I don’t get to see him anymore, I have 5 thriving aquariums of my own! So, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people got into the hobby through family.

 

[Colin_T]

My dad used to hunt (bow & arrows and fishing lines) and eat fish. Mum didn't have any interest in fish, nor did anyone else in the family except to eat them and that was mainly dad's side of the family. One of my cousins got an aquarium when he was about 10 and overloaded it with goldfish, which is what the shops let you do back in the day (70s-80s). He gave up fish keeping after losing all the fish several times to ammonia poisoning but did get back into it around 2005 ish when he got a secondhand 6x2x2ft marine tank. One of my younger cousins had a guppy in a bowl back about 10 years ago but I have no idea what anyone is doing now.

I was the only one in my family who got obsessed with fish and apparently I was fascinated by them even as a toddler. I remember being babysat by my neighbour (Mrs Turner) and she had a 4 or 6ft tank in her loungeroom with pink kissers and a few other bits. Whilst my sisters were watching television I would sit in front of the tank. When dad and I went fishing I would be watching the fish swimming in the water and he would be saying "catch them". I was just more interested in how they moved and did their thing. I was also fascinated by birds and bird eggs. If you want to keep me occupied, put me in a yard with an aviary or lots of trees with birds, or put me on a jetty and I will sit there all day watching fish and other things moving about in the water.

 

[gwand]

When I was a child we kept rabbits, goats and a small turtle tank. We never had an aquarium. My children were allergic to all non human mammals therefore no dogs, cats, horses etc. So we bought a fish tank and kept Mollys and two ADFs. We did not have a clue about what we were doing. Cycling? Never heard of it until TTF. The tank performed a fish-in cycle I guess. My children lost interest in their early teens. Fast forward 30 years and I started my very own tank upon my retirement. I set up a 10 gallon tank in November 2022 with White Mountain minnows and CPDs. That tank is still going strong. Since then I have added 5 more tanks of various sizes. I am having a ball.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My great aunt (grandma's sister) owned a fish store way back in the day when things like water changes, hardness, and compatibility weren't really issues that anyone worried about. My grandma had a 10 gallon tank with a random assortment of completely incompatible fish that I inherited when she died: A single angelfish, a pair of firemouth cichlids, a small school of mollies, and the ubiquitous neon tetras. Yep, all in a 10g. (The things I know now!) The love skipped a generation, as neither of my parents kept fish, but @TheLavenderBadger has definitely caught the bug, so hopefully some of the collected expertise won't die out whenever I cash in my chips.

 

[fishorama]

My close uncle had a guppy tank. Pretty but nothing else, no decor, just a ton of pretty guppies.

My very first dentist had a 20g? in his waiting room & they were interesting. More like a planted tank but the plants may have been fake, still cool.

A HS friend got a 55g that came with a blue gourami, a tiger loach & a RT shark, maybe tiger barbs. The loach & shark were slightly aggressive to each other but fun to watch.

When my sister's kids were young, we gave them a 10g. I told them how to cycle, but of course they didn't. They lost interest when all the fish died...a few times.

Years later, my bro-in-law & fam came visit us. The young teen niece really liked my cherry shrimp, So, after asking her parents, I offered her a 10g, shrimp & plants. She & her sisters liked it for several years. They got too busy with soccer, boys, etc.

So, no direct generational fish keepers, but I've tried. Maybe the great nieces & nephews? We live too far away now, but maybe not forever...

 

[Magnum Man]

I think I was the 1st.. no known elders with a fish tank… I think I started with those little green turtles they used to sell at the 5 and dime store, for a nickel ( may be giving away my age there ) first actual fish I had, were piranhas… my dad’s buddy ran a juvenile group home, and one of the trouble makers had a tank of piranhas, that they made him get rid of, so I started out with a 30 gallon, already overcrowded with 4 adult piranhas… I was in 4th grade, when he brought that tank home for me… that was my start

 

[GaryE]

If you're in the US state of Pennsylvania, the Penn family the state was named for kept paradise fish in the 1660s. Samuel Pepys noted that in his diary, and thought it was a quite remarkable thing.

So there's a little fish historical background.

 

[Back in the fold]

I got my first guppies in 1965 when I was in fourth grade . A girl in my class brought them for show and tell and said anybody who wanted some of them could bring a jar and have some so I brought my jar the next day . I took them home and Dad told me everything about them . I had them in that jar about a month and one day I came home from school and found a brand new five gallon all set up in my room and the guppies were in it . Dad showed me all what to do and then he told me he had an aquarium when he was a kid . That would have been in the late 1920’s and early thirties . He lived in Sharon Hill Pennsylvania which was a small town on the edge of Philadelphia. I have often wondered whether he knew of Dr. William T. Innes who was active in Philadelphia in those years . Anyway , Dad always encouraged my interest in the hobby and he was always looking in on my aquarium and talking with me about it and bought me anything and everything I needed for it as well as fish . A year or so later he surprised me with a twenty gallon , again all set up and ready to go only with three piranhas in it . I guess I’m a second generation fish keeper and one daughter and two granddaughters make three and four . It’s a great hobby and I’ve always loved it . Always will .

 

[Colin_T]

You lot and your piranha. Hey kids, I've got a present for you. It's a kiddy touch pool and you wiggle your fingers about in the water and let the fish nibble on them

 

[WhistlingBadger]

You lot and your piranha. Hey kids, I've got a present for you. It's a kiddy touch pool and you wiggle your fingers about in the water and let the fish nibble on them

Gives a new meaning to "feeding the fish."

 

[Magnum Man]

Back in those days l, I fed mostly chicken livers… man they loved that stuff… but it sure clouded the waters

 

[Colin_T]

I wonder if anyone who has kept piranha has done it to actually learn about the fish, not because they eat things. Everyone I know who wanted piranha, wanted them because they were predators and most of the people that wanted them, wanted to release them into local waterways.

 

[Back in the fold]

Back in those days l, I fed mostly chicken livers… man they loved that stuff… but it sure clouded the waters

Same here . When we had chicken for supper I always grabbed the sack of giblets and took out the heart and liver and hid them in the freezer for my piranhas . I would shave little pieces off to feed him and I had him for a couple years until he jumped out somehow . The top didn’t stop him and he got to about six inches in that twenty gallon . I started out with three but one disappeared entirely a month in and the other a month or so later , all but his bony head . Gruesome creatures preying on each other .