how did you get into the game?

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hamster

Gambusia
MFK Member
May 17, 2011
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16
Ipswich England
Hi all I am interested to find out how everyone got into fish keeping and how they came to choose the type of fish they have today.
For me I grew up watching nature documentaries and am really into anything about how animals fish birds or bugs live in the wild. So when I realised I could have my own little piece of nature in my front room I was hooked and I haven't looked back since. Please share your story.
 
My dad has always had fishtanks, and I've always had a love for animals. He let me get a little 10 gallon at 15. Then he let me upgrade as time went buy and eventually let me take over our largest tank. I keep cichlids cause that's what's he's always had and i love them.


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Im like you hamster, always been a nature boy, and loved goin to the woods amd creek to see what i could catch. My uncle gave me a 10 gal when i was 8 or 9, and i have grown bigger and better in the hobby ever since. I like to have really nice aquascapes and beautiful, interactive, personable, or odball fish that peoples eyes lite up when they see my fish and tanks and setsme apart from others


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Started with being a tomboy... I was always in the mud always fascinated by bugs/worms/critters... you name it. My Dad though had tanks when he was a kid threw his pre-kid years... some of my favorite pictures of him and I have a 55 gallon SW tank in the background.. he tells me still how much I use to love helping him feed and care for that tank ( particularly now that I have a daughter and do the same types of things w/ her and the fish) I eventually took over the 55 ( at that point he got out of the hobby, but in the last few years my mom and I got him a 29 bio-cube for xmas that he now loves) I kept your typical FW community fish but my first 10gallon I got a peacock eel for... never forget that fish of all the other fish I killed that first year... From that point on I had to have the weirdest/oddest fish I could find. The challenge of keeping/breeding many fw/sw species was what really put me into fishkeeping... the past 15yrs i'de say I made the usual mistakes in learning both fw and sw... and I was an avid horseback rider, worked with large reptiles, and exotics.. I'm a Big dog and Cat person in general.. so Big fish really didn't surprise anybody when I got my first Fire eels... Which brought me here. 1k pool, 120w, 75, 20's and 10's everywhere.. 40's 56... later... I don't see myself keeping community fish 'cept for the kids my daughter loves her community tank ( of course I have a few tiny grow-outs hiding in it ;) ) The bigger, healthier, happier my fish are the more enjoyable this hobby is for me. Took me 20+ yrs to find my happy place lol.. but I have.
 
hamster said:
Hi all I am interested to find out how everyone got into fish keeping and how they came to choose the type of fish they have today.
For me I grew up watching nature documentaries and am really into anything about how animals fish birds or bugs live in the wild. So when I realised I could have my own little piece of nature in my front room I was hooked and I haven't looked back since. Please share your story.
Click to expand...
this might be the 4th or 5th thread about how you get into fish keeping that I've seen in this site, but well...
I grew up watching a lot of stuff like you, but it's also from the family that my dad, uncles(12 of them from both side and in law), relatives are all fish keepers(well, you know, Asian).
 
My dad started out with an aro, oscar and some angelfish... Much aside I enjoy water very much. Then came to the point I'm courting this girl who knows a market of Fish Store, then as I go and fed my eyes, I decided to have some of those fish, I'm still somehow a newbie. :woot:
 
Had a garage sale, got some cash, and I just decide I wanted a fish tank so I got a small 5 gallon and 2 years later I've got a 72, a 20 reef and a 150 gallon reef.


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I grew up in a time of rotary telephones. Where kids played outside made forts . Had to find things to keep us interested. My parents had a fish tank when I was very young. When we moved to our new house the fish tank was re-setup in my room. So I got to keep the fish. But it was natural for me being a kid that liked to explore creeks catch mosquito fish and keep them. Keeping fish at an early age fit my personality and interest.
 
14/15 years ago fish sat for my sisters bf while they were on holiday. 3 goldfish in a filterless 5 gallon plastic tank. 5 days later I had an 18x12x12 tank with 3 fancy goldfish (chain store said it was fine- I know better now!) I had a spell of a few years with nothing (disaster with saltwater tank destroyed all enthusiasm) now im back and hooked again!

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I started with ant farms when I was 7-8, turtles when I was around 9-10 (unfortunately for the turtles, I was horrible at that), and progressed to guppies and snails by age 11. My parents didn't know anymore than I did, but luckily they never bought me enough guppies to over stock my 20 gallon. (That was about 50 years ago.)

The guppies lived long enough to reproduce (a lot) and that snagged my interest. I don't ever remember thinking about or doing water changes. Amazing what under stocking can do!

:ROFL:

My real hobby interest began much later when I wanted to have a 55 gallon for my kids to enjoy. Luckily for the fish, I found a bookstore and did lots of research this time.
 
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