what got you into aquariums?
- Thread starter j.p
- Start date
m0nk
Active Member
My son... we were at the National Aquarium in Baltimore towards the end of '06 and he said "I want some of these fish at home". I had no idea how many people were in the SW hobby until I started.... we had fresh water when I was a kid, and I remember going to That Fish Place a bunch, but I still just had no idea...heh. Now we're on our 2nd upgrade.
mike22cha
Active Member
Originally Posted by m0nk
My son... we were at the National Aquarium in Baltimore towards the end of '06 and he said "I want some of these fish at home". I had no idea how many people were in the SW hobby until I started.... we had fresh water when I was a kid, and I remember going to That Fish Place a bunch, but I still just had no idea...heh. Now we're on our 2nd upgrade.
That's awesome! Your son got you into it.
Nice
My son... we were at the National Aquarium in Baltimore towards the end of '06 and he said "I want some of these fish at home". I had no idea how many people were in the SW hobby until I started.... we had fresh water when I was a kid, and I remember going to That Fish Place a bunch, but I still just had no idea...heh. Now we're on our 2nd upgrade.
That's awesome! Your son got you into it.
groupergenius
Active Member
I have allways lived next to saltwater. When I was about 6 or 7 (1969-1970) I revived my folks old stainless steel frame tanks and started keeping critters. From The Pugent Sound to the Potomac River to The Mediterranian to the Gulf of Mexico. I have allways had a fish tank running in my house. I just recently started taking it a little more seriously.
S
saltycrab
Guest
Snorkling and seeing a 120 gallon reef. I really liked the kids cleaner shrimp and now I can't even have one because they eat my zoas. 
johnbob
Member
I got extremely bored a few summers ago and me and some friends decided to go to the Dallas World Aquarium. While we were looking around I was amazed to see a fish that had personality, a huge porcupine puffer. I thought I would never be able to keep it because it was something the aquarium had and I thought it needed extremely special care but i did some research online and found out about marine aquariums.
salty blues
Active Member
I got a goldfish when I was about 8 yrs old. Suffice to say this was many moons ago. My mom let me put it in a small bowl on the window ledge above our kitchen sink. Sometime the next day or so, my little brother who was about 4 yrs old, climbed up on the counter top and proceeded to add a bar of soap and most of a can of baking powder to the goldfish bowl.
Needless to say the fish did not survive this unpleasantness. I wanted to smack my little brother. Anyway, I eventually got another goldfish and a few years later got into fw tropicals. I've kept fish ever since. Got into sw 1 yr ago.
Needless to say the fish did not survive this unpleasantness. I wanted to smack my little brother. Anyway, I eventually got another goldfish and a few years later got into fw tropicals. I've kept fish ever since. Got into sw 1 yr ago.
bessycerka
Member
I was about 7 or 8, and the family was shopping in a large garden store that sold tropical fish. My dad bought me a fishbowl, and got 4 neons for $1 and we brought them home. The next day while I was at school, my mom had the brilliant idea to clip some ivy from the garden, and put it in the bowl. All 4 fish were dead when I got home. I carried on so badly, and was so upset, that when my dad got home, he felt so bad for me, that he bought a 29 gallon ( the kind with the stainless steel frame ) a Supreme hang on the back filter, gravel, live plants, and a load of fish. That was it for me...
ric maniac
Active Member
When I was 5-9 i went through about 30 betas named fred, some of which I didn't know died due to my parents replacing them. Then we got rid of the fred execution bowl that we called a tank when I was 9. After about 2 years of badgering my parents to get a fw tank, one of my moms coworkers / friend took me to walmart so I could help her pick something out. When I saw the fish i asked her about it, and she said her son had a 50g fw tank. I was stunned, I thought "50 gallons?!? who has that much room?" She told me that it was a fun hobby. We had just had a garage sale and I happened to have 60 bucks on me and I saw a 5g hex tank. I called my mom so that her friend and I could bug her to let me get it. She gave in and I slowly moved up from 1 tank to 3 and from goldfish to clownfish. I then found out shortly after that my cousin kept sw tanks, and he helped me out with it, and now I am addicted.
crashbandicoot
Active Member
When I was 5 we cashed in the piggy banks and bought a 29 gallon . we bought a few fish , That poor tank was put up and tore down a few hundred times it seams . Then one day My uncle came home and was bragging about the coolest fish he had ever seen . I asked if it was a pirhana and he said no it was better , It was a silver arrowana . So we went and checked it out . He bought it and we went home and set that little 29 gallon up and counted the days till arlow the arrowana could come home . Well that was the begining of bigger fish . With in a few months arlow got a new home and was eating 200 goldfish a week . Arlow out grew that tank and was then given to a profesor at CU Boulder . The tanks saw a few different things including a red belly pacu the size of a small plate and various other freshwater fish . Well after a long "dry spell " I had seen motor cycle mania on the discovery channle and jesse james had a huge tank with sharks and I was just in aww and said I must have some . SO after some research I got a 125 and set it up . We bought a shark egg and a cortez sting ray . The ray was awsome and every morning I would race to the tank to inspect the egg . Well after a few weeks it hatched and we had a baby shark . Unfortunatly he only lived a few weeks . After a few months we came home to the ray dried up on the floor . So we got a few damsels and clown fish . That were replaced by a few puffers and triggers and eventually an eel . Well now I have since down sized the tank to suit apartment life and it set "dead" and dry for a few months so its in the process of being set back up .
aquaknight
Active Member
x2 for my Dad. We've always had a tank up for as long as I can remember into my childhood. Switched back from FW to salt I dunno how many times. Usually the salt was just what we would catch in the ocean, mixed with LFS fish. Could never get a Yellow Tang, kole tang, bicolor angel and a wild caught snapper to last very long in a 29gal.
Thanks to the power of the internet, we are all much better off now...
matt b
Active Member
about 3 yrs ago i had a 10gal fw tank and me and my dad went to the lfs to get a 30gal fw tank and saw the sw fish so we started talking to the manager and i was like isent sw like really hard and he told me about it and i was like ok i can do this so i came home with a 55gal sw tank!!!!
jennythebugg
Active Member
just after tobin got diagnosed with cancer he got really depressed and the doctor suggested he get a hobby , he had done saltwater fish before and decided he would do it again so we got the tank then upgraded then upgraded again,i do not have a tank right now but i will have one again
I was completely addicted to Jaques Cousteau when I was a kid and always had a fascination with anything that lived in the ocean. Got certified in SCUBA in NY when I was around 20 and after my first tropical dive trip to Mexico when I was around 25 I decided that I had to have a tank someday and set up my first one when I was around 29.
abethedog
Member
I had no interest at all. My boss is one of those over the top guys that always has the best of everything. He bought the tank and set it up and paid a lot of people a lot of money to get it going. He than decided that it would be work after found out you couldn't just add something or pay someone to fix stuff all of the time. He made a deal with me and paid to have some people deliver it and set it up at my house. that was in 2004. I have a great boss and he really took care of me on this tank. I'm in love with this hobby and I don't like to pay ANYONE to do ANYTHING. So i love the tinkering and toying.