What Got ya Started in the hobby?

[thuctoanvietnamese]

Simply by having a red slider turtle and some huge pond with unbelievable amount of mollies and swordtails when i was 3

 

[thuctoanvietnamese]

My grandfather made them all

 

[heatherpooreks]

I love the ocean and lakes. Would love to live on a beach someday. My family's snapping turtle we kept for 5 yrs passed, and my kids are older. Hubby won't let me get chickens or goats so I turned to fish! I am only able to have a ten gallon planted tank at this point but would love a 30gal. Here's hoping

 

[eatyourpeas]

Well, I am one of those MTS people as a result of disasters caused by ignorance, but I am learning!

I needed a subject to draw, so got neocaridina shrimp. Then came the mystery snails, only to learn I had overstocked the 5 gal. tank. Got another tank to redistribute the load and added some Amano, then added a sparkling gourami (6 gal.). Neocaridina shrimp had babies, so I added a nanny, a kuhli loach. Got another tank to house Nicodemus the pea puffer (3 gal.), because I knew I could not have him with others. Wanted a girl pea puffer, so Miss Ethel got the amano tank and I moved the sparkling gourami and the amano to a new tank with three albino corydoras (12.7 gal.) and got another 5 gal. as a quarantine tank. Am I done ? I certainly hope so...

I absolutely love this forum, it keeps me sane.

 

[DAnCSF]

Well, I am one of those MTS people as a result of disasters caused by ignorance, but I am learning!

I needed a subject to draw, so got neocaridina shrimp. Then came the mystery snails, only to learn I had overstocked the 5 gal. tank. Got another tank to redistribute the load and added some Amano, then added a sparkling gourami (6 gal.). Neocaridina shrimp had babies, so I added a nanny, a kuhli loach. Got another tank to house Nicodemus the pea puffer (3 gal.), because I knew I could not have him with others. Wanted a girl pea puffer, so Miss Ethel got the amano tank and I moved the sparkling gourami and the amano to a new tank with three albino corydoras (12.7 gal.) and got another 5 gal. as a quarantine tank. Am I done ? I certainly hope so...

I absolutely love this forum, it keeps me sane.

Well then you get to the point of saying why bother with lots of small tanks I'll just get one big one....kinda like moving from a studio apartment to a McMansion here in sunny Calif.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Well then you get to the point of saying why bother with lots of small tanks I'll just get one big one....kinda like moving from a studio apartment to a McMansion here in sunny Calif.

I like the idea of different worlds, albeit smaller. I get to know the inhabitants a little better and the challenges are different. Never been attracted to McMansions, prefer cottages and rainy weather.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Had fish when younger. Bought my grandkids some goldfish and their Mom wouldn’t let them keep them. End of story.

 

[utahfish]

What a great forum, so much knowledge and help. But I'm curious as what got ya all into the hobby? And as a new member I'll start, just to get the discussion rolling?

4th grade at Cabrillo ES, my teacher, Ms Barnum had simple 20 gal saltwater tanks with a few anemones and crabs. Everyone in the class took turns taking care of it and a few lucky got to take a tank home for the holidays. That started my love of nature and my B.S. in Marine biology. In those early years I kept Sun Lee Aquarium store in business, and like everybody else life happens. But a few years ago I got the time and the $ to rtn top my childhood hobbies and to them up right, now including tropical fish. My start, initially began with a 40 bow, and then grew to a 55, 30 tall and 29...finally ending up with my recent 100g And now I'm reading this forum...jeeze I wish this forum was around back eons ago....well thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your stories.

Awesome story.
When I was about 8 my dentist had a fish tank like most do and the bank id go to with my mom had one and I'd always park my face in front of it. That year for my birthday I got a fish tank a 20 gallon, it was a mess as my parents knew nothing about fish I had it til I was maybe 12 then converted it into a hermit crab tank which I had for a few years. After that it just kind of sat around for about the next 15 years when I decided to start it going again. Have that same 20 in my house as I sit in front of it typing. It's been a good friend all these years.

 

[Ellie Potts]

What a great forum, so much knowledge and help. But I'm curious as what got ya all into the hobby? And as a new member I'll start, just to get the discussion rolling?

4th grade at Cabrillo ES, my teacher, Ms Barnum had simple 20 gal saltwater tanks with a few anemones and crabs. Everyone in the class took turns taking care of it and a few lucky got to take a tank home for the holidays. That started my love of nature and my B.S. in Marine biology. In those early years I kept Sun Lee Aquarium store in business, and like everybody else life happens. But a few years ago I got the time and the $ to rtn top my childhood hobbies and to them up right, now including tropical fish. My start, initially began with a 40 bow, and then grew to a 55, 30 tall and 29...finally ending up with my recent 100g And now I'm reading this forum...jeeze I wish this forum was around back eons ago....well thanks for reading and I look forward to reading your stories.

I'm a young keeper (soon to be 17) but have been enjoying fish since I was a baby. My dad always raised/bred snakes and allowed me to raise and breed fish in a few spare tanks. I fell in love with the research and wrote a few pieces on the hobby (my best being ~80 pages and specifically on keeping freshwater fish as a beginner). It's been a safe place for me and a distraction from the craziness that is high school.

 

[FFGuest6357]

Always loved fish. As a kid I loved the fish tank at my doctors office. Had turtles when I was young, used to feed them fish ( barbaric maybe, I don’t necessarily subscribe to that practice now)

I love fishing for fish(for sport and food), I love eating fish(as a classically trained chef) I love keeping fish as pets and building them a home (as a newly trained carpenter/handyman). I love learning about fish. I love going to the LFS and looking at fish. I spend way too much time reading, watching stuff online about fish. Before I met my wife, my ex-girlfriend and i were keeping guppies, cories and otos, and I got the tank in the split. kept the tank until I had to move.

life goes on and now i have three boys with my beautiful wife, and they want fish too, so now I’m right back in it.

I think above all, I love learning and this hobby is an endless pit of that. So now I’m pretty much going to be a lifer.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

This is a fun thread. I enjoyed reading everybody's stories.

My fish habit started with a fascination for nature in general, and for ponds in particular. When I was little, I think before I could even read, I had a "National Geographic World" magazine about pond life. It had instructions for making a simple aquascope, and there was a picture of a kid looking through one with a little turtle sitting beside her. That aquascope was a window into another world, an alien world that existed right here on our planet, a world populated by sticklebacks and dragonfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae with their portable stone houses. I never got to build an aquascope, living in dry Wyoming with nary a pond in sight, but that magazine was magical. It was miraculous.

It didn't take me long to discover real caddisfly larvae and baby suckers on fishing trips to the mountains, but those semi-barren rocky mountain streams somehow never captured my imagination the way ponds, with their vegetation and richly varied life, did. To this day, when floating on a river or lake, I will stick my hand under the water and feel like I'm entering The Other World. It is still amazing.

Some time in elementary school, two things happened. One was that one of my friends caught a few crawdads from a ditch and put them in a tank in his back yard. He had dechlorinator that made normal tap water safe for fish--another miracle to my small mind. About that same time, we visited friends that lived on the North Platte River. One day, we caught a few tiny fish--trout fry, perhaps?--with a hand net. I had a cracked aquarium at home that had once housed gerbils, and I put them in there in about two inches of water. They didn't last long, of course, but I was hooked. This idea, that it was possible to take The Other World and bring it inside to be created, observed, and cared for, took hold of me and has never entirely let go.

That's what this hobby is to me: Creating a habitat, a tiny, almost self-contained world, a living work of art populated by living jewels. The Other World. Right there in my living room.

 

[FFGuest6357]

This is a fun thread. I enjoyed reading everybody's stories.

My fish habit started with a fascination for nature in general, and for ponds in particular. When I was little, I think before I could even read, I had a "National Geographic World" magazine about pond life. It had instructions for making a simple aquascope, and there was a picture of a kid looking through one with a little turtle sitting beside her. That aquascope was a window into another world, an alien world that existed right here on our planet, a world populated by sticklebacks and dragonfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae with their portable stone houses. I never got to build an aquascope, living in dry Wyoming with nary a pond in sight, but that magazine was magical. It was miraculous.

It didn't take me long to discover real caddisfly larvae and baby suckers on fishing trips to the mountains, but those semi-barren rocky mountain streams somehow never captured my imagination the way ponds, with their vegetation and richly varied life, did. To this day, when floating on a river or lake, I will stick my hand under the water and feel like I'm entering The Other World. It is still amazing.

Some time in elementary school, two things happened. One was that one of my friends caught a few crawdads from a ditch and put them in a tank in his back yard. He had dechlorinator that made normal tap water safe for fish--another miracle to my small mind. About that same time, we visited friends that lived on the North Platte River. One day, we caught a few tiny fish--trout fry, perhaps?--with a hand net. I had a cracked aquarium at home that had once housed gerbils, and I put them in there in about two inches of water. They didn't last long, of course, but I was hooked. This idea, that it was possible to take The Other World and bring it inside to be created, observed, and cared for, took hold of me and has never entirely let go.

That's what this hobby is to me: Creating a habitat, a tiny, almost self-contained world, a living work of art populated by living jewels. The Other World. Right there in my living room.

Well. Said. Cheers

 

[vanalisa]

Cat +
Needs food +
Betta in a tiny tiny cup on a shelf at the end of the isle where the cat food lives +
One tender heart =
-----------------------------------
What got me started.
So, basically....

(Not this one specifically, but you get the general idea. ; )

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Always liked to see fish swim in the river and pond, wanted to see how it would look like if they cut a chunk out of the river and put it in a glass cube - that’s why I’m so big on aquascaping.

My first fish was a betta named “Zen”, just an ordinary veil tale betta. He was in a 0.5 (yeah, I know, ) gallon tank, non filtered or heated. I upgraded him to a 2.5g heated/filtered tank. He lived for about a year then died of dropsy. My second fish ever was a betta makes “Pheonix”, he was a mustard gas delta tail. He lived in the same 2.5g tank until he died of, again, dropsy.***

Then, we moved to KY. I got really back into it after about a year, when I went to my LFS. (You guys have seen pictures, it’s awesome)

Next tank was a 10g betta tank. That bettas name was “Blaze”, he was a beautiful dumbo ear/super delta tail betta. He died of a tumor.

Shortly there after, I got my biggest tank yet; my 29g. Stocked it with shrimp, an BNP* and neon tetras.

*Thats part of the reason why I got such a big tank, is so I could actually get a BNP because I love them so much, lol.

Up and running now, I have a 5g, 10g, 20g long, and a 29g tank.

My next goal, is either a 55g or a 75g. (Gonna have to convince the parents on that one...)

*** That’s where my name comes from “Pheonix” (for my second betta), “King”, (because I treated both like a kind after I learned what they really needed to lead a happy life), and “Z”, for “Zen”.

PheonixKingZ is my username is pretty much everything.

Obviously I have regrets, but who doesn’t? I still love the hobby and the hobby loves me.

(I also would love to setup a BioTope tank one day - that would be super cool)

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I'm a young keeper (soon to be 17) but have been enjoying fish since I was a baby. My dad always raised/bred snakes and allowed me to raise and breed fish in a few spare tanks. I fell in love with the research and wrote a few pieces on the hobby (my best being ~80 pages and specifically on keeping freshwater fish as a beginner). It's been a safe place for me and a distraction from the craziness that is high school.

Well said, I feel you, lol...

There are a lot of young fish keepers here! I think it helps them get a break from the stress of life. (I know it helps me... )