So how did you get into fish keeping?

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Chrisplosion

Chrisplosion

Mean Cat
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2010
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Oregon, it's part of 'Murica!
We have always had fish but I didn't get serious about it until a year ago. A little over a year ago I was sitting in food class when we were watching this video about how to prepare lobster. While we were watching this I kept thinking to myself I want one of those as a pet. So I bought a 10 gallon and went to a local river to catch crayfish. They died shortly after that and I got some guppies. Few months later they dies of fin rot so I started over with a new 20 gallon and a blood parrot. Realizing that was too small I upgraded to a 55 and a 75 shortly after that. So now I have two 55 gallon and a 75 gallon with a 130 gallon being setup.

So how did you start?
 
Kids won a goldfish at their schools fundraiser fair. 2.5gallon with no filter. Three years later, goldfish are still alive and well(and 8 inches long), they reside in a 60g in the garage with two wild crayfish that just spawned, there is a 210 in the living room with a 15" Oscar, 15" sailfin pleco, 10" "regular" pleco, 20+Africans, 2female and 3male Salveni. Also, 2hand raised fivestars, a redtail blue botia loach...dont get me started on what the "set-up" is.
At one time I had 2-55g,2-10g and a 45g all going simultanously.
My wife is right to say I spend to much time with this hobby, but I cant seem to get over this "bug".
I am content with 0nitrates, 0nitrites and 0 ammonia...sometimes I wonder if its all about the fish or the water quality...
My 2¢
 
started with with a 10G with a goldfish few years later got rid of goldfish got 29G got a JD and a pleco few years later seen a 125G on craiglist for 300 whole setup(stand, tank, canopy, filter, lights, box of extras) from women divorcing her husband (bad for him good for me) thats when i really got into fish now got a 125, 55, and a 10
 
My dad brought home a 36g tank for christmas 2 years ago. Now I have a 125, with a 230 being built soon.
 
My grandfather gave me a 20g setup when I was like 9 yrs old... When I was 11 I had over 20+ tanks running with mainly CA cichlids, catfish, and a few oddballs... Then I quit for a while and got back in this summer now keeping mainly rare & ancient fish.
 
I got my ungle old hexgal tank idk what size he will be missed...:cry: i had pond fish in it....
 
when I was a kid in Brooklyn my uncle gave my pops a 33 and a 20 gallon setups with your basic gouramis tetras angelfish a redtail black shark and some cories my father then bought me a bowl and a couple of bettas which for some reason spawned for me but the male died trying to take care of the fry and they died soon after anyway some years later and im in ohio my wife buys me a ten gallon setup for my birthday and then I found a 29 in the trash and the cichlid addiction was started now approximately 15 years and 75 tanks and over 4000 gallons removed from the birthday ten gallon its a full blown addiction :nilly::nilly::WHOA:
 
My father had tanks since I was born, and I just took to it I guess. Now I have lots of tanks hehe.
 
when my dad was in college, i believe my grandparents (my mothers parents) bought him a 20 gallon tank as a graduation gift. i may be wrong about that part.

he had that tank for several years, and then it was put into "storage", also known as "chunked into a tractor shed", when my sister was born. then about 10 years later, when i was about 6 or 7, we bought a 10 gallon. we never had any luck with it because our water was too hard, and we knew very little on keeping fish.

we had that for about a year or two, and we finally took it down for good. later a sledge hammer fell of a shelf and busted it in our garage.

About 9 years later, i was rummaging through that old tractor shed for some chains and found the old, now completely brown, 20 gallon. i bought a cheap filter for it and got an oscar. after some work with a ton of vinegar, the tank was actually just about as clean as any i'd seen off craigslist (as in, seemingly perfect, but obviously old). i resealed it too, of course.

It finally got big enough to move out of the 20 gallon, i picked up a 55 off craigslist.

after i got everything transferred over, it turned from a very minor hobby into a major part of my life, and that's the story of how i got hooked. :)
 
I tossed a ball at the fair and landed the goldfish 3 years ago. Typical right. Then I freaked out when I foind out I was abusing it and decided to put it in a 2 gallon tupperware, and scrambled to get money to buy food and a tank. He died and I felt so bad. Then I got a 10 gallon shortly after that and got 6 goldfish. Fail. They lived but I felt like euthanizing them because I felt so bad having them there. From then on I swore to myself not to get any fish I can not keep adequetaly. From there I started breeding Ghost shrimp, and decided to get a fish besides a goldfish. I wanted to get a dwarf gourami. Good choice right? The walmart guy netted up a 3-spot, I thought it was a dwarf. -_- Then I grew her out in a 10 for 2 years, feeling bad again. Not really growing out right. I showed my parents I really cared for this fish, and this summer I got a 55g. (I didn't even know people kept tanks this big in their houses before I got here lol) And now I feel so happy she got the swimming room she deserved.

And now I got myself a 55g with a firemouth, pictus, senegal bichir, the 3-spot, clown barb, and some danios, And a 10 with two blue rams.

First chapter of my fishkeeping, and I got all the info I learned from this site, and you guys. :)
 
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