I guess what influenced me was that I killed a fish
. My sister was fishsitting a friend's Betta (Captain Saturday) and I wanted to give him a water change. He was in one of those one-quart Betta containers, so I used a big jar (I'd say it was a gallon or so? Possibly 2 gallons) after reading up on proper water changes on the internet. All the info said to use water conditioner to take care of the chlorine, but this was the first I'd ever heard of chlorine being in tap water. And since we didn't have water conditioner (seriously, who gives a fish to a friend to pet sit and doesn't give the proper tools to properly care for the fish?), I just took a chance and moved the fish from his filthy cold water to the warmer clean water in the jar. He went nuts, swimming 'round and 'round and 'round, having fun at the bubbles on the sides of the jar and showing energy and spunk at the heat of the water. But he gradually "wound down," until he was lethargic that evening, and before bed, he was laying on the gravel and it looked like he was huffing and puffing for air. The next morning, he was dead. Now I know it was definitely from the lack of conditioner (I'd also considered the idea of shock, from being dumped from cold (70 degrees or so) to warm). But in those couple of days, I was fascinated by him, the first fish I'd seen up close like that (an old childhood friend of mine had goldfish and while I was interested in them back then, I didn't have the slightest possibility of getting a fish of my own, and no internet to drool over pictures, and nothing to watch on TV, so the interest pretty much died there). This time I viewed the fish with a different perspective, and once Captain Saturday's owner came to claim him (she didn't care that he'd died, she went right out that very hour and bought a new one, which disgusted me), I decided then and there to do some more reading up on fish. And once I found out that it wasn't rocket science (in other words, not impossible for me to try, lol), I was hooked. I soaked up as much info as I could, researched products at the local stores (getting a visual idea of how big/small certain gallons are, and what the general price ranges are). And 3 1/2 months later, I got my first fish (red Betta named Sweeney!). I'm already anticipating problems, because I have 3 tanks (60gal, 3gal, 5gal) and only one fish (in the 3gal). When I bought Sweeney, I was also drooling over a blue marble, so the next day I decided to go back and buy him, only to find out someone else had bought him
. I fear that now, when I go to Petsmart, I'll no longer be viewing the Bettas as another pretty thing to look at (as I did when I didn't yet have a proper cycled tank to put them into). Instead, each time I'll be viewing them as a new prospective family member. Oy, someone help me! Or, don't... lol
And, I'm proud to say, the owner to the fish I killed recently gave her new fish to us to fishsit and this time I didn't kill him! I got to use my newfound fish-keeping knowledge to prove to myself I could keep a fish alive, lol. It was great, and I was sad to come home one night and find out the friend had come by and picked him up. I hear, though, that she's recently upgraded his tank size to, I think, 5 gallons. It's with two guppies, though, but I chose not to nitpick.
Quite possibly, fishkeeping was inevidible. Mom has apparantly wanted fish tanks her whole life but hasn't had time (or the confidence) to keep them alive and well. And my grandpa, who mom was close to, was big into fish. The way I hear it, he had a whole wall of huge fish tanks.
Now, I'm looking to get my second tank and betta.
water while sitting in a pyrex jug. 
