How did you get into the hobby?

[I Like Rare Fish]

How did you get into the fishkeeping hobby?

For me, I love animals. I have all exotic species, and I have always been interested in public aquariums. I thought I would try it out. Started with a 55g fish tank a year and a half ago...I now have five.... Fish tanks seem to relieve stress and anxiety - especially with larger tanks and smaller fish.

 

[Oblio]

Had fish when I was a wee lad, they lasted not long, we cleaned tanks with soap to keep then safe from germs (this was ca. 1968, and didn't know any better). UGFs, carbon canisters on top of the lift tubes, many sad mornings.

Decades later picked up a 125 gallon tank from a neighbor and rescued a few goldfish from table decorations, lost them all over time due to fish age and inexperience. I have now restarted to keep tropical fish and have a new passion to keep them healthy and thriving.

 

[Crispii]

Started when I was young. I remember me and my parents kept actual koi fish in a 29 gallon tank when I was in middle school. Come high school when I lost interest. That is, until I reached my senior year is when I got back in the hobby thanks to watching YouTube videos about aquariums.

 

[I Like Rare Fish]

I am sad to say that YouTube got me into it as well. When I was 7 I used to watch Catch 'em All Fishing, Nick Bingo, and more. I still watch people like Predatory Fins, and the occasional Paul Cuffaro (he is getting better).

 

[Colin_T]

I used to watch fish at the river when I was little. Dad used to go fishing as well and sometimes he brought back live fish for the primary school pond. They never survived long due to lots of fish being stuck in a small bucket for 12 hours or so before being taken to the school.

When I started going fishing with dad, I used to watch the fish and other creatures in the water.

When I was 9, I bought a plastic fish bowl and a couple of goldfish. They did well for about 6 months and then died. No idea why, probably poor water quality and bad diet. But back then I was told to feed the fish a pinch of flake food twice a day, and each week I was to take the fish out of the bowl, wash the bowl and gravel out under tap water. Refill the bowl and add some conditioning salt (rock salt with Methylene Blue), and put the fish back in.

A few months later my cousin got a 2ft tank and set it up with goldfish the same day he got the tank. He was told he could have about 10-12 goldfish in it so he got 10 x 2-4 inch goldfish. Well and truly overstocked the tank and he lost them. He tried several more times and failed. Eventually he left the tank in his shed and pursued other interests.

When I was 10, mum and dad got me a 2ft tank and I tried a couple of goldfish and they did ok for a few months but died. With the tanks, the pet shops told us to drain the tank each month and wash it all out, then set it back up with water conditioner (blue salt).

After trying to keep goldfish for a couple of years I tried some swordtails and they actually did well. I got angelfish and neons and kept them with the swords. The angels did ok but the neons died.

When I was 15, I decided to try salt water and brought back a heap of sea water in 2 litre glass bottles. I set up a 2ft tank with beach sand, a couple of small rocks with seaweed, and about 10 banded sweep (nippy little marine fish I found in rock pools along the coast). These guys ate well and I fed them heaps. Then they started dying off. After they all died, I got more sea water and drained and refilled the tank. I got some stripey fish (marine butterfly fish found along the coast in rock pools) and kept them for a few months before they died.

I went to my pet shop and found a book on marine aquariums. It was written for the US market and had all sorts of nice Caribbean and Atlantic marine fish in. The fish information meant nothing because I wasn't dealing with those types of fish. But there was a chapter on water quality and filtration. The filtration side made a huge difference and explained all about the nitrogen cycle, something that no pet shop ever spoke about, or probably even knew about.

I bought a 4ft tank and set it up with beach sand, more rocks, and sea water. I was still using 2 litre glass bottles to transport sea water from the ocean to my house some 40km away. They didn't have plastic bottles back then and plastic jerry cans were not even being thought about. I bought a bottle of ammonia from the pet shop for cycling marine aquariums, and a few test kits. The kits weren't cheap back then, they were around $15-20 each, just for 1 test kit like ammonia or nitrite. Even the freshwater pH test kit cost about $6.00 and it contained a small bottle of Bromothymol Blue and a small plastic phial that held a couple of milliliters of water. The packaging for the pH test kit had the colour chart on it. It was a rip off.

I set the marine tank up and cycled it as per instructions. Two months later I went to the local pet shop and bought a few humbug damselfish who proceeded to kill each other. I bought a few more damselfish because they were meant to be good beginner's fish and they killed each other. These fish were expensive too, $20 a fish for a 1cm long humbug damsel. I went to the beach and got my own fish and they actually did really well, and it didn't cost anything to collect them.

Once I figured out the nitrogen cycle, everything fell into place and fish keeping became much easier.

 

[itiwhetu]

When I was 13 Mum and Dad went overseas for work, for three months. They bought me a fish tank to keep me off the streets. I had swordtails. When they returned, I had three tanks. When I left home, I had forty-five tanks in a fish room. I have always kept fish.

 

[Circus]

A complete impulse buy on my part for the tank. My great grandma had a tank (probably a 55) when I was a kid, and I remember my brothers fair goldfish, and other odds and ends fish, living in it for about 10 years before she had to move.

So I saw a 15 column tank on sale at Petco ($150, complete rip off). I had just moved into my own place for the first time and wanted to make it my own. Instead of hanging up pictures like a sane person, I got fish. I have made a lot of mistakes that I cringe at now, but I really do love fish.

 

[BakerJoe]

Probably the worst way . Won a goldfish at a fair with my dad when I was about 9 . Had it in a plastic goldfish bowl . Then that escalated to a 2ft tank then a 4ft tank the goldfish acquired new tank mates and the rest is history

 

[Essjay]

I'm sort of the same, but it was my sons who won the goldfish in their teens. 4 of them. One didn't make it through the first night, then we got some plastic critter keepers, then a couple of weeks later a 2 foot tank. 9 months later we gave the goldfish to someone with a pond, and I bought a heater and tropical fish.

 

[OliveFish05]

According to my mother, we had a goldfish (in a bowl of course) called Herbie when I was like 4. My first fish that I remember though were two little feeder goldfish my sister and I won at the fair when we were maybe 7 and 9 years old. We were visiting Ohio at the time, so only had whatever my grandparents would let us use to take care of them. My grandma gave us a half gallon vase, a slice of dried out bread, and told us to get water from the pond. My sister and I were DETERMINED to keep them alive, we Would even clean their water every day. Then my aunt hid them from us and they died. A few years later when I was about 13, my cousins and a couple of my friends got bettas and kept them in bowls, so I wanted to as well. My sister and I each picked out a female betta, their names were Glory and Kiana. Through all the effort, trouble, and research after having kept them in bowls, Glory died and I was putting all my effort into keeping Kiana alive. I was hooked and bought a 10 gallon tank for my 14th birthday. After that, it has only escalated... and continues to escalate...

 

[connorlindeman]

When I was about 7 years old, I went to my uncle's house. He kept a 100-gallon reef tank with starfish and shrimp and I think clownfish. There were some others but I don't remember them. I thought that was really cool so he bought me a 30-gallon fresh water tank. He stocked it and set it up in my house.

I found some pictures I took of it a few weeks ago and I was able to see some of the fish that were in it. From what I could see it had red eye tetras, neon tetras, longfin danios, 2 black mollies, and a molly that was black and white that my sister and I named moo moo. There was also a pleco that lasted about 3 weeks then died. Sometimes there would be goldfish in the tank but they would die really quick. My uncle bought two freshwater crabs for the tank but they escaped and we think the dog ate them.

I also kept bettas on and off. They would last about 7 months then die. I guess that because I kept them in really small bowls. (I didn't know any better)

My grandfather was the one that kept the tank clean and saved the tank when it got ick after buying fish from Petco. I remember he left church one day and told my mom that he needed to take care of the fish. He really enjoyed taking care of them.

After about 2 years of having that tank my grandfather passed away from cancer and the tank had to be gotten rid of because nobody would take care of it.

Fast forward about 5 years, I got a 20g tank and started stocking it with whatever fish I liked. The fish wouldn't last more then 2 weeks then they would die. I think this was because I completely didn't understand the nitrogen cycle and all that kind of stuff. The fish got ick once and they all died because I didn't know how to treat them.

After that I just let the tank sit for about 2 months. My uncle(the same one who had the saltwater tank) couldn't stand to see an empty tank so he bought me two fish. They also died.

Then I let the tank sit for about another year. By this time I was 16 and decided to try again. I watched lots of videos and read lots of articles. So far they haven't died and now I'm 17.

I guess you could say I've been keeping fish on and off for 10 years

So that's my history of fish keeping.

 

[GaryE]

When I was 8, a salesman came to the house and failed to sell my parents his life insurance plan. So he sold them his 10 gallon tank with mollies and guppies instead. My great grandather (goldfish) and grandfather (Bettas) had both been fish breeders, so it was a natural. I was a seriously ill child who missed a lot of school, and I became fascinated with the tank. Pretty soon, all the relatives were giving me old tanks (there had been a bit of a fishkeeping fad back then) and I was breeding guppies. By my early teens, I had met the proverbial mentor, an 85 year old aquarium store owner who taught a curious kid an enormous amount about his experience with fish.
By then, I had recovered my health and was set for my wild years, but I always kept a tank or two (or 3) going.
Once my first child was due, I realized that the late night, bar and cafe poet's life was going to be impossible, and I would need to become a person who actually lived in his house. I was quickly able to expand my fish interest while using it to bring in needed extra income - enough that it was worthwhile to maintain a large fishroom after the little ones had gone to bed.
Somehow, water changes at midnight and getting up for work at 5:30 were doable back then.
And here I am, freshly retired, adjusting to no longer having to steal time to do my main hobby. Over 50 years of fishkeeping - I'll let you guys know if I ever get bored.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Back when I was little, my parents got my granddad's old fish tank, think it was around 4ft from what I remember. Had a common plec and some clown loaches. My dad's always been into fishkeeping too, kept oscars, panaques, a featherfin squeaker, and pretty much every other fish that the 90s tropical fishkeeping crowd was into.

Christmas 2020, I asked for a "goldfish bowl". Was thinking a standard bowl, like the ones you see in cartoons - rainbow gravel and a princess castle. Instead, got a 2ft starter and my very first fish: Iago the red-tail shark, Pocoyo the sailfin plec, and their dearly departed friends from Pets at Home: glowlight tetras, neon tetras, yoyo loaches and bronze corys.
By February, I'd gotten a surprise upgrade: a 170L, 3.6ft, really strangely shaped Juwel tank. Second hand, came with a whole load of bits and bobs. Some will remember in April of last year I made the painful - but rewarding - switch from gravel to sand. As some of you know, it was a stocking nightmare. That's when I started on the African fan shrimp - only had one to start with, which I named Kabal after the Mortal Kombat character.
Had the 170L for almost a year, and just got a 230L this past Christmas. Lots of work planned on it, but very pleased with it right now.

With plans of moving to Canada with my partner within the next few years, my tank will probably become my dad's to take care of. I'll be spreading the fishkeeping bug to my in-laws in the meantime, since apparently I could be quite useful as a live-in tank maintenance guy!

 

[AbbeysDad]

I started in the 60's and nearly escaped but then it's all Abbey's fault as One Thing Led to Another!

 

[Big Boy Fish]

I got in the hobby in 2014 from my older cousin who won a fair goldfish and it had a 5 gallon tank, me and my brother had a debate over the tank so we both hot 10 gallons. My brother quitter soon after a year or two BUT i kept going and ive went from goldfish to a oscar, bichir bichir and a blood parrotfish