Help a young/new fishkeeper, spread the hobby.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Great post! i totally agree with you. when i started out with fish about 5 years ago i got sooo much help from a guy at my LFS, if it wasnt for him i would have given up ages ago. now one of my little brothers friend was interested in my tanks so i gave him a tank of his own. hes getting another one and now we talk about fish all the way to school- sure makes the 1 1/2 hour trip more bearable. most people think im nuts for being so into fish so when i find someone who loves them i get really excited!
 
I totally agree.

I am only 17 and currently have quite a large selection of tanks and fish. A lot of people do not believe that I pay for my own tanks and fish when indeed I do. Everything I earn goes into this hobby. I sacrafice a lot of things in order to do this...but it is my passion.

I do owe A LOT to a few certain individuals for helping me out with major deals over the years though.....and I mean A LOT.

So I also intend on doing the same when the time comes for me to help out an up and coming hobbyist.
 
I am only 20, and get no help in paying for my fish and my tanks, and I am unemployed due to poor management. But I will still continue my hobby, and continue to provide the best care for my fish, even if it breaks me.
 
I totally agree, great post i got my frist 55g gave to me with JDs and GTs in it. I quickly learned bout them nd reallized I had to have a bigger tank. This was 23yrs ago and a hugh # of give aways later. I had a 4yr hult in the hobbie do to having 4 major back surgies and not being able to do any of the clenings and stuff for thefish. So when i got back into it about 4yrs ago. i started small and with just a single 75g tank. My 8yr old daughter wanted a betta. So i got her 5.5g tank nd a chep vail tail from fish pros here in town. Later she wanted to try breding them. So we did and she did bred them. That started a fire in me that is still going strong.
I use to bred bettas for yrs and this just put gas back on the fire. So I now have 24 tanks from 250g,120g x 2, 75g x 3, 55g x 2, 20g x 7, 10g x 10, 5.5 and 2.5g betta tanks x 25, Now breeding Apistogrammas,GBRs,Mollies, Plattys,Purple moscow guppys, Bettas VT/CT/DT/Daltas/HM/HNP/HM dragons. The list just keeps growing and my Daughters dose to. We have gave away 100's of bettas with 1.5g tanks to a number of her class mates nd a few of the teacher for the in class teaching of fish, also 10g tanks with breders for the same reason to show the kids about fish and breding and even there habitats.
Out all the tanks we have gave to the school nd kids. Around 150 parents now have tanks of 20g and larger. One of the parents has even built a house with a 2000g tank and he has told me personlly " I got the fire for fish from your dughter and you. So your to blame for this!" LOL
So I'm a srong beleaver in sharing the hobbie with others nd helping the little guys and gals out so that one day they to will know the ture meaning of this hobbie and joys it brings to me each and everyday.
 
My worst enemy helped me into the hobby, he was a little tattle taling D*c* but he sold me a 12g for like 15$. but i realize now it was a terrible deal, it came with nothing.
 
probably the part i miss most about working in a LFS.. Having families walk in w/ Kids obsessed with wanting fish, and a Parent looking around going.. Holy crap what are we getting into here? Then that same family coming back in monthes later to upgrade, or get yet another tank. amuseingly enough I've probably gotten more people my elder into the hobby then kids over the years. But the kids sparked it.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com