What Fish Made You Want To Keep Fish

[That Trinindad Pleco]

What fish when you saw it made you get interested in fish keeping. For me it was the Common/Trinindad Pleco. Most people buy their commons not knowing how big they get, but that’s the fish I wanted. I wanted a bottom dweller that got big but no to big, so I started researching the Commons. Now I have a 9.5” 2.5 year old Trinindad Pleco that lives in a 135 gallon community. So I’m interested to here what fish first got you interested in fish keeping and if you have it, tell what tank size its in.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

The fish that made me want to keep fish are, surprisingly, not fish I'm interested in anymore. Fishing for North American native fish got me interested in having fish as pets, but at the moment my fish interest lies solely within tropical fish.

My North American natives were in 151-600(?) liter tanks/tubs when I had them.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

A P. Delhezi and some congo tetras.

 

[Midwater]

Fifty years ago, my dad used to have a fish tank with an undergravel filter. The only fish that I can remember were cardinal tetra.

 

[Deadeye]

I’ve had fish as long as I can remember. The pacu and leporinus is what got me into monsters though.

 

[Cadillac15]

For me it was Angelfish. I have had several but am down to just one in a 75g community tank now. I enjoyed my breeding pair though. Now that I've been in the hobby for a few years I'm much more into Large Cichlids and Rarer Plecos.

 

[duanes]

I was fascinated by Angelfish, and oscars as a kid.
And cichlids became my obsession for the next 60 years.
To the point of traveling to countries where these cichlids came from (Mexico, Costa Rice, Colombia), diving with them, ending up with an entire separate fish house.


Now retired, my obsession has compelled me to move to Panama where some of my favorite cichlids are endemic, and I am satisfied with creating a smaller scale biotope for the cichlids, and other species, either I catch, or are caught for me, and snorkeling with them when possible.


The tank above contains couple Panamanian Gobys, Andinoacara cichlids, tetras, and a Panamanian pleco caught locally by friends, and plants I and friend collected.

 

[Sinister-Kisses]

My now-passed Nana got me a blue veil tail betta in a bowl for my 8th birthday. I named him Grumpy because of the exaggerated down turn of their mouths. That was all it took to start the obsession and 30 years later I don't even want to contemplate the amount of money I have spent on this hobby ?

 

[esoxlucius]

I was introduced to the concept of having fish in a tank in the house back in the early 70's. My dad had a small tank with goldfish in. But as a kid I didn't pay that much attention to them really.

When I became a teenager a local man stocked up a pond at the bottom of our meadow with European perch. My love for angling began then, and a little later I joined the concept of having goldfish in a tank in the house, from my early childhood, to keeping perch in a tank in the house instead.

Unsurprisingly it didn't work out, let's just say my aquarist skillset was somewhat lacking back then, lol. But those initial perch were the segway into my hobbyist future.

And to go full circle, I want to eventually keep European perch again some day, they have always been my favourite fish.

 

[Wideglide04]

I was 14 or 15 walking thru a pet store. I kept snakes at the time, and saw my first blood parrot. That was it, since then I've had an aquarium and always kept BP's. I'm not sure how I feel about them now that I know more and yet I still have to have them...
I enjoy their personality and the fact they can be kept with cory's and smaller schooling fish.