Who got you started in this hobby

[Patrick Kelly]

So who got you stated in this hobby?

In my case my Father always had a 10 gallon tank set up and it just
stuck with me.

[jb1edlover]

Bought an eclipse 29 gallon system. Wife bought some tetras, pretty.... then did a tank cleaning and all the fish died. Went to pet store and asked for some tougher fish. They recommended cichlids. 75 tanks and many many stories later here I am!
JB

[bobrfish]

James was probably the kick start. A LFS owner played a role in converting my addictive nature to keeping fish rather than just having a tank in the house.

[ikevi]

My folks got me (well each of the kids) a 10 gallon tank for our 5th? birthday. It was basically the first way they had us learn about keep pets etc. (Of course we had dogs, but we weren't responsible for them until we were older.)

From there I got a 5 gallon tank and started to try to breed Bettas... and it wasn't until I graduated from college till I had anything bigger then a 20 gallon.

[hazard]

My Dad got me started in the fish. I have had a few influential people inspire me over the 30yrs of having fish. Pet store owners and other hobbyist

Chris

[afrabat]

I was doing lawn care and noticed across the street there was a fish tank just laying there waiting to be thrown out sitting on the curb for the trash man. So I called my boss and made him come out and help me load it up. It was a 55g. When I got it cleaned up and inside sitting on an old coffee table we went to buy some fish. I tried to buy Oscars and Mbuna and thankfully the guy suggested it best that I didn't do that. LOL

[tjudy]

My parents gave me my first few tanks, but they were not hobbyists.

[Vaudeville]

Hey Gang
For me it started with a book when I was about 7 or 8 about Henry Higgens and the guppies that took over his house. I also spent alot of time at the docs when I was a kid and they had the standard big tank in the wall about 20 gallons.
I started with the standard metal frame 10 gal. I then went to work cutting grass (10 lawns a week). My dad made a promise that what ever I would save up he would match the amount. Thinking I would move to a 20 gal or the like. A few weeks later there was a 55 gal sitting in the family room at my folks

[Claudia]

My father, a scientist, conservationist, and naturalist, brought an invaluable appreciation to me for the beauty in all creatures, from insects, to large mammals, to aquatic life. For this, I am forever grateful.

Our home and grounds were filled with creatures, a number of them loose, and some held temporarily in any bucket or other receptacle that my brothers and I could find until their release back into the wild. At the age of eight, the first ‘real’ aquarium came into my life. In fact it was not one, but eight aquariums — all at once. A friend of one of my father’s patients out of unexpected necessity had to give away his entire collection of tanks, equipment, gravel — and fish. To our pleading chorus, and much to my mother’s chagrin — my father said ‘yes’!

I will always remember those coming days and subsequent years. In one day, in came a massive amount of tanks, stands, and equipment. Of course, through a child’s eyes, the enormity of it was immense! Through my mother’s eyes, I am certain it was more than immense!

There was one tank that seemed larger than life. In thinking back, it was probably 125 gallons, but you could have told me 300 gallons and my eight year old mind would have believed that. The other tanks ranged in size from there down. They all had metal frames and slate bottoms, and amidst the plethora of supplies, there were several tubes of epoxy, which I came to know well!

The person who owned this collection previously had obviously been a true aficionado, for it was a fish lover’s dream consisting of every bit of paraphernalia imaginable. Once unloaded, with fish in buckets strewn all about the basement intermingled with the trappings, the next feat was to sort through and set up the aquariums and get the fish placed in them. Mind you, I had never had a ‘real’ aquarium before! It is amazing to think back to the number of fish that actually survived!

The overhang filters were filled with angel hair floss that sliced through your hand if not handled with care. There were boxes of loose charcoal, foil background papers embossed with circular swirls in blue, green, red, and gold, nets of all sizes, pumps, heaters, thermometers, and the incandescent lights that I still wish that I could revisit. There was something about those lights — the bulbs were red, blue, and green — I loved that! Oh, and then there were books. I loved the books. They were old and well-used with notes from another era, and held a delicious musty aroma of a time gone by. I dreamed of the person who had read these books before me, and hoped that I, too, could one day come to understand these fishes and their needs, just as my predecessor had.

All my Best!
Claudia

[Gill Plate]

My first aquarium was a 20 gallon that my mother bought for me when I was about 11 years old. I remember watching the fish and listening to music then as I do now in my fish room. When I asked for another aquarium my father modified an old TV cabinet into an aquarium stand one tank on top, another where the TV had been and hinged the lower speaker section for a storage area for supplies, it was real cool. Then I started raising high fin mollies and selling them to the local fish stores and discovered sales and marketing!

[Mike Wise]

It was a book! I don't even know which one it was. I was working my way through college at a public library. I was at the 'check out' counter when someone returned a book on tropical fish. The cover had an exquisite photo of a Neon Tetra (reminds me of some of the photos of Stanislaw Frank). Kept thinking of those photos. Five years later, I bought an Innes Book and a 5½ gallon tank. I still have both and both are still in use more than 35 years later.

[Lisachromis]

I blame my parents. :)

Growing up we had a 10 gallon tank for a few years. My mother did everything wrong and the fish thrived! They spawned all the time. Later on, living on my own, I thought of that tank and just had to get those yellow snakeskin guppies at the store.

[Dean Hougen]

We had a few guppies in a glass container at home when I was a kid but it was really a GF in high school and then a roommate in college who opened my eyes to fishkeeping.


Dean

[CrazyFishLadyJulez]

I voted spouse, just because my first tank was origionally a birthday gift from me to my boyfriend.. he got bored with it rather quickly, so I took over... and 2 years later, I now have 3 in living room, 1 in dining room, and 2 at my Mom's house... :p