How I got into fish keeping

Before we got the first fish tank, we were going to home Wayne's corn snake that was still at his ex's place. However, amazingly, when he mentioned he had found a new home for it, she promptly gave it away the day before he fetched it and told him that "she'd forgotten all about it"!!!! Yeah, right

So, Wayne asks if he can have a fish tank. Only a 4 or 5 footer!!!!! Me, who's never been into keeping fish, says he can have one, but it HAS to be a corner type, if they made them ~ how naive was I???? LMAO

Anyhoo, he had to have Discus, and I being a newbee wanted the obligatory tetra's and anything colourful.

We started to get some algae, so I asked around on AC forum, and was advised about BN's!! That was it, I was hooked. I totally fell in love immediately and was gonna have a male no matter what.

Funny thing is though, the first fish I ever bred was Discus!!

And now, going on 4 years later we have a fish room stacked with tanks, and a delta 300 litre and a double hexagon with double connections between the two!!

So, there is the convoluted way of how I became a fish nut

First off - post pix of tanks plz

I did a degree in Aquatic Biology which I then changed to Botany when I learnt I had to cut things up. I love animals of all shapes and sizes and couldn't get on with cutting them up when I could look at a textbook to learn the same thing. I'm still a passionate diver - seeing fish in their natural environment is incredible. I spent a few years coming down to Cornwall for dives and then started learning to be a dive instructor. I'm almost there - but then my best friend died of a cancer she shouldn't have had. The week after she died a diving mate took me up to the lakes to dive in a small tarn. As it was shallow with no currents I could womble about without my dive buddy being too close. I almost instantly forgot about my grief because their were millions of fish - small trout, baby roach etc. in the weeds. Life changing moment. I wanted that experience in my living room every day.

Anyway - I decide to move to Cornwall as life is too short afterf a few years of thinking. Thanks to that trip to the lakes I had a six foot Amazon biotope tank in 'Nam. Angels, Cories, Hatches. I wish I'd taken some pictures. My Angels would spawn as would the cories - I used to supply my LFS with young angels and cories to pay for my upkeep. Then I decided to sod it all and move down here. Heartbreaking - I had to sell the tank but all my fish went to local fishkeepers. And that was it - after two years of my six footer then loosing it I couldn't face trying all over again.

Then I met, fell in love with a Cornish girl and she bought me a second hand 3 footer after hearing me waffle on about 2 years ago. We had a tetra tank for a while - managing even rummy noses schooling. After a power cut reduced our tank's population to one rummy and three bleeding hearts I mentioned to my lovely wife that I've always been fascinated by Cichlids and also by Catfish. Read up on all them - South American Dwarf's (my apistos !) love a planted tank - as do I. And the best catfish in terms of spectacular looks and behaviour are the BN.

So anyway that's where I am now. I have a lifelong obsession with fish - and having them in our living room and lives is brilliant. And BN's are incredible fish. Just when you think fish can't get any better along they come.

Wow. Mine was much simpler. My wife bought a 10 gallon because she had always had fish when she was a young'un. She set it up, stocked it, and I just put a chair in front of it and stared at it. T.V., movies, and video games fell by the wayside because I would just watch the fish. It was incredibly relaxing. One day I was thinking of the 10 gallon like I would a t.v. Bigger would be better. I did a lot of reading and run across this site. What the hell is a bristlenose pleco? Why..they are the most awesome of bottom dwellers I have ever seen. I just had to have one. Ya know how you get the nagging voice (not the wife) in your head that just won't leave you alone? I had one with the pleco. So I got the tank up and running. My wife crawled around and looked under shelves for the perfect piece of driftwood and she found it. My tank is all about the BN. The rest of the fish are....were "filler" fish. I bought what I thought was pretty and added more. Now when I lay down to go to sleep I watch the tank and listen to the bubbles. I've come to notice that each fish has its own distinct "personality" if you will and have become quite attached to them. My favorites are still the BNs. And for a beginner I don't think I've done to bad. Only thing is I want more tanks...with more fish. They are like potato chips or tattoos..you can't just have one. And I want bigger..not a 55 bigger..more like a 250 gallon or the like. I see it in my future....not to soon..but when I think I'm ready for it.

Some great stories guys

I got in to keeping fish when i was offered a 3ft tank from a friend and it started with the usual guppies, neons and Corys and anything colorful as you do lol, then a friend at work said he had some BN fry if i wanted a few and because they where free i though why not lol so the next day after work i went back to his house to collect my new additions and he kindly gave me a few fry at about 1" and showed me his collection i instantly fell in love with BN and any other plecs, i think if it hadn't been for him i would never of got into BN.

Ha Ha -your posts are getting funnier and funnier Bwompus- feeling a bit more relaxed now are we?

This is how I got the bug:
A good mate of mine(Sean- the hardcore fisho) used to keep OZ natives - Barramundi ,Perch, Murray cod, Sleepycod, Gudgeons and whatever was about.
He used to drag me around to the local shops to have a look for fish, then a small shop opened very locally ( that was the start ) so I thought I'd give the little guy a bit of support.
The natives that Sean kept didn't need heated water, so I thought I'd try fresh water tropicals- to which Sean replied :
"You can't get fresh water tropicals -only marine"--- I replied " wanna bet".
So $60 exchanged hands and I walked out the shop with a complete 2ft setup (heaters, filters,everything) ,2 inch long bristlies(now my breeding females) 3 dwarf blue gourami and soon the L001 came along after some persitant pestering
of the shop owner.
The L001 soon started getting to big and the black 3ftr was purchased, then we bought my brother a 4ftr and financial issues arose so I claimed that one too and just recently got my 5ft display tank.
I think I can confidently say I'm now addicted.
J

My ex bought me my Juwel rekord 96. (best thing to come out of the relationship) I then progressed to running 10 tanks after we split but sort of lost interest and new other half managed to get me down to 1. Just about to put 4 tanks in porch cupboard. Insulated and stand in just waiting on tanks being delivered

My turn!
My little sister wanted a snake for a pet, but mum manged to wangle her down to a pet fish (though I'm currently mulling over the idea of one, or a leopard gecko ;D). So she did some research and we ended up with a yellow veiltail betta called Stripes. He was in a little 1gal tank, and I was fascinated by him. Then, we got him a female friend, a red female named Rose, and they ended up having babies. None survived (Omnomnom went Stripes), but it was amazing. Then my godfather offered mujm his small 15ltr with a few pregnant guppies and plati. The bettas were moved into a 10ltr bowl each downstairs, which freed up the small 5ltr which was in my bedroom. I asked if I could keep a few guppy fry in there when they happened, and before I knew it I had 3 tiddly guppies in a tank. My fish. I was hooked from there. Just watching them grow from these little specks into these fully grown fish, changing colour, growing tails, I loved it! Now, a while back my mum had gotten some pitbull plecs, recommended to clean her tank, so logic went to me, I need a plec too. I searched on the web and found bristlenose plecs. They seemed perfect (lol I was naive about sizes), and promtly dragged my boyfriend down to the aquatics shop to find myself one. Luck would have it, they had some in (they ALWAYS do lol) and thats when I got Lars, back in may 09. It was as they started to grow that the 'Hmm... I need a bigger tank' bug bit, and soon I had a 20ltr. Then, I went a bit OTT on stocking. And pretty soon after that, it was 'Hmm... I need a bigger tank. Again.' So then I ended up with a 64ltr, which is my main tank, plus a 10ltr shrimp and betta tank

And thats me!

I have only had fish about 6 months but I love them. I had never thought of owning fish before. I have alot of other animals but my wife trys to keep me at a minimum lol. There 2 dogs, Parrot, 7 chickens, totorise etc. Anyway I was with my cusin one weekend and he asked me if id give him a lift up to the fish store as he had had a been bought a goldfish bowl and goldfish but it had died an wanted to replace it. Well I got there and I was hooked without even buying anything I went home with a 30ltr tank and setup to the dismay of my wife. only a month after over stocking this tank i bought a juwel 120ltr to put them in. I got that settled very fast with a second hand ext fillter pre cycled then along came a juwel 60ltr claiming to my wife i needed it for my baby mollys. then a local lady was selling up and she bread bristlnose and i bought another juwel 96ltr tank full of baby bristlenose. i moved the baby bristlenose to my baby molly tank and have bought some baby cichlids to fill the 96ltr. NOW MY WIFE HATES ME LOL
all i hear is "i wish you would spend as much time with me as them F%£$?*G fish" dose any one else have this problem .

thanks for reading

ltaylor88 wrote:

all i hear is "i wish you would spend as much time with me as them F%£$?*G fish" dose any one else have this problem .

Just all the time mate. LOL

Thought it was just me

Stannyblade wrote:

ltaylor88 wrote:

all i hear is "i wish you would spend as much time with me as them F%£$?*G fish" dose any one else have this problem .

Just all the time mate. LOL

Thought it was just me

I get that also.

Kurosaki J wrote:

Ha Ha -your posts are getting funnier and funnier Bwompus- feeling a bit more relaxed now are we?

J

Yeah!

I remember sitting in my living room when I was little surrounded by salt water, brightly colored fish, and other odd creatures from the sea. Didn't know my dad was a dive master but knew that he worked part time at a fish store (both my parents are elementary school teachers). It wasn't long before I had a 10 gallon freshwater aquarium in my room that I used to build lego-scapes in.

After I was out of elementary school we moved to the Marshall Islands. Ours was the biggest. Three miles long, half mile wide, and halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Our toilets ran with salt water straight from the ocean so all you had to do was hook up a hose to fill your tanks. If I could catch it, I brought it home (except for the flying fish and sea turtles). Our largest tank was 200 gallons. We had everything from flame angels and puffer fish to sea cucumbers and octopus. This is when the ocean and fish keeping really got into me.

When I returned to the states, I stuck with salt water for a while. All the effort and crazy prices for salt water fish switched me to fresh water eventually. I kept poison arrow frogs and various cichlids and one day came across a little albino pleco in a lfs. I had never seen a yellow pleco before and was even more surprised when he started growing bristles and never got bigger than 6 inches. It was this little fish that began my love for the ancistrus. Now they are almost all I keep.

My girlfriend calls my fish room pleco meadows cause she says they look like condos.

I started in high school when I traded a parrot for a fish tank cause the parrot always bit me!! It was a home made 90 gallon tank and I though it would be cool to get high and watch the fish LOL Well the tank blew out in about 6 months and my parents were not to happy ruined about $5000 worth of hardwood floorin That was the end of fish keeping for a bit but the african cichlid bug had biten me!
A short while later I started seting tanks up in their basement(on plain concrete) and began raising africans. I had some successes but being a teenager, girls, partying and all that fun stuffg took over and I moved out on my own, I continued to keep a tank or 2 around in the small appartments I inhabited.
Then bought a house and set up a fish room! riasing africans again and had exellent success! Lived their for a couple years and bought another house out in the country. I liquidated much of my tanks and fish but kept a few around. Ended up having water well problems here and had to again get rid of some beatifull africans due to not enough water for water changes, 1 colony of fish I nearly cried having to sell a mature breeding colony of WC ziare blue frontosas I got a new well put in last year and started collecting fish again and have a fish room set up again! I have about 10 tanks running in the fish room and a few fry and spit tanks set up, and a 100 gallon show
tank In the living room with a young colony of F1 fronts ocupying it. I am passionate about aquaria and just been getting into the BN plecos as a challenge, so far I am failing to get them to successfully breed but will keep trying!!!

My turn! Well my uncle has been keeping fish for many years long befor me and i used to have a small fish bowl. so one day all the goldfishs died and now my uncle had a 100gallon running empty so i put 4 big bream in there and had them for 2 years. and one day we had a black out for a day and it shut down the pump and everything so the fish suffercated and drowned Then i found my old 10 gallon hermit crab tank and got a small filter and heater along with 2 small bala sharks and 1 pictus cat. soon after 2 months it was over stocked with gouramis mollys etc.. so my uncle gave me a old 50gallon and soon i got all the esentuels and put all my fish in there "not knowing i had to cycle the tank first!" amazingly only 1 fish died (my clown loach) then i got 2 baby bristlenoses 1 slightly bigger than the other.. sadly the smaller one got eaten by my pictus cat .so i started searching around for more bristlenoses (fascinated by there behavyer) and found a breeding pair of alibinos.. So i started serching around the web and found this forum and plecomadness witch i soon joined and finally have a sucsesfull batch if fry.

Now my room is FULL of tanks.. My 50gallon is my showtank, my 10 gallon is my bristlenose breeding tank, my 5 gallon is my n.brichardi breeding tank (i had to take them out of my showtank becouse they where killing my fish), and i have tones of betta tanks full of female and male bettas there fry and bristlenose fry.

so thats how i got into fish keeping lol.. sorry if i may of mispelt some words and stuff but im half asleep