Fish keeping longevity and why

[Rizzobitz]

Wondering why you got into keeping fish, how long you have kept fish?

For me, it has been 5 years. My son who has Autism is the motivating factor. He has always loved fish. We visit aquariums everywhere we go since he was 2. He is now almost 19 and his favorite place is home and near his fish.

 

[pops]

my son, I had a 10g tank in the garage, i have no ideal ware it came from, he bugged me to get a fish for it, and well, 800g of water later, here I am.

 

[duanes]

I started keep tiny fish in jars sometime in the late 1950s in Milwaukee, my father bought me tank soon after, and except for my time in the army, and some years when constantly on the road for work, I've kept fish, for nearly 60 years.
When on the road, I satisfied my fish jones with scuba diving.
Fish keeping also prompted my move into a career as a water microbiologist/chemist after I tired of the road.
And fish keeping is part of the reason I have retired to, and live in Panama today, some of my favorite species come from here.

 

[shookONES]

My dad always had a tank in the house growing up, so it had my interest for as long as I can remember. I officially went off the deep end when he gave me full reign of the tank and I bought a baby giant snakehead. Naturally, it systematically killed everything in the tank and my love for monster fish was born. I was probably 11-12 at the time. 15 years later I'm into the hobby more than ever.

 

[Evz jardini]

I started fish keeping in my early teens so 20+ years ago , community setups first , then slowly started getting the cichlid bug breeding smaller species such as convicts , fire mouths and kribnesis. Got my first pair of "monster fish" couple of years later (Oscar pair) had those for about 8-10 yr along with a few select catfish syno's plecs etc , after that I discovered the real world of "monster fish " started keeping aro's and found my much loved jardini bigger cats and bigger cichlids such as jags .
Since then theres been all sorts of oddballs lots of big cichlids and of course the fish I cant live without jardini aro's

 

[Oddball]

My 1st 'aquarium' was a gallon bottle with a tadpole and mudnose dace. I marveled at the metamorphosis of the tadpole to a frog. Then, I kept a slate-bottom metaframe tank at our summer house where we used to place juvie local fish (flounders, sea robins, spider crabs, etc. and watch them grow over the summer. 51 years and over 100,000 gallons of tanks later, I still find new things to be learned and experienced.

 

[tomojsg]

grew up with fish as my grandfather was a big fan and keeper of arowanas.
fell in love with them and started helping my grandfather as a kid. first tank
i got was a large tank with arowana from my grandfather. been in the hobby
close to 30 years and still going strong.

 

[rodger]

Guppies and tadpoles in mason jars. Then Christmas 1970 I got a ten gallon Metaframe. A few months later I got a used Metaframe 5. Saved my allowance and bought UG filters.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I started around 1959. Copied a friend. He quit the hobby and i kept at it. I will probably quit when I grow up.

 

[convict360]

My dad always had goldfish, wasnt until I turned 10-11 that I got my own small aquarium; populated with some goldfish, then drastically unsuitable species such as plecos lol