I've been interested in animals since I was really young but something about the water has always just resognated with me, I've been to many aquarium and always dismissed the fresh water and went straight for the salt there is more color, larger beasts, the mysteriousness of the deep sea, and way more diversity or more importantly more diversity in crustaceans! FW is just too brown for me and it's IMO tacky due to all of the ceramic crap they make that can be placed in fish bowls and tanks, I just don't like it
Now there was only ever one fish store near me as a kid and they were more of pet store to tell the truth, but anyways, they only really had FW. So what to get? "Mmmmm nothing is really cool..............mmmmmmmmmm....... WHAT!?!?!?! FRESH WATER CRABS!?!??! So I got 3 fiddlers, but I couldn't just have crabs (according to the parents
) so what to get what to get.... mmmmmmmm...... how bout 1 albino and 1 green aquatic frogs? yeah that makes sense, little kid logic hahaha." Well time goes on and then I had an empty fish bowl, by the way I'm probably 10 at the time, flash forward I'm 17 and now have my Jeep FREEDOM!!!!
So I start to push out of the local areas and I notice some shops but never go in. Flash forward, I end up going back to the local fish shop during the summer for a bunch of feeder fish for a kid's carnival game for a camp that I work at. Basically it's beer pong but you win a fish instead of pulling cups
While I'm there I notice some salt stuff but everything looks kind of baren or unhealthy, I walk up to the counter to pay for the feeders and then I see two things 1st thing is a 12g JBJ Nano-Cube on the counter with two Black Ocellaris and bunch of shrooms, gsp, and some zoas. HOLY CRAP!!! So I ask how much for that tank? I'm told $200 to take the tank out the door, I couldn't believe how cheap it was, I was thinking it was going to be around $500 for just the tank. Next thing I notice is a really small tank, probably a 1 gallon with just a bubbler and a desk lamp for lighting. It only had sand with maybe 5 hermit crabs in it and a sticky note reading "Saltwater is easier then you think! Just Ask!". I stared at that thing for about 5 minutes simply amazed on how cool it was even though it was so simple. I went home and talked about getting a tank for a month and forgot about it, probably because I realized I didn't have the money for it, another year goes by. I go to the local fish shop again for feeders for the summer camp and see the 12g and fall in love all over again, talk about it for a month and then forget about it. Yep again.
Another year goes by, I'm 19 years old and go to the LFS again, same reason. See the tank and say you know what I'm doing it this time it is just too awesome but I'm doing research. So I do some research and discover the larger sizes, go back to the LFS but they just have that one 12g. Well hey how bout those other stores? I go there and my mind was blown and I mean like a freaking small thermal nuclear device goes off in my head. WOW!!! I probably looked around in this one LFS for 2 hours in the livestock section alone, finally I move onto the dry goods and tanks and see the bio-cubes and nano-cubes all going for great prices. I go home to do research and decide on a 24g, I then go to the library and pick up some books, do some reading and head back to the ULTRA LFS I ask a lot of questions and I mean a lot and kind of waiver on sizes for a bit but stick with the JBJ 24g. I buy the thing, and am ecstatic about it. 4 weeks of letting water sit in my tank with the pumps and lights on with LS then I started my diary with the purchase of my two clowns, some hermits, some astreas, and my torch. Since then I've been rocking it as a nano reefer and loving every second of it
