What got you into this hobby and when did you start?

[mlivvy]

In 1998 I was a teen driving around in Rhode Island and stopped at a taco bell. I noticed a store in the back called "Sea Creature Aquarium" that caught my attention so I walked in. I saw my first ever reef tank and the shimmer from the halides hypnotized me like a bug light. Been hooked ever since.

 

[rogergolf66]

My mom gave me a 75 gal tank for free she picked up that someone was throwing away. It was about 2004. I had no idea how to even make salt water. Let alone keep fish alive so I just started reading. I fell in love with the challenge and learning.

Roger

 

[TheAquatect]

My first fish tank was a 10 gallon special from Petland Discounts (https://youtu.be/D2GvpyPUgJo) in NY where I grew up. I started with guppies then I discovered frogs and crayfish at the local pond. I would catch bullfrog tadpoles and crawfish, grow out the tadpoles, and sell them to the local fish stores. At one point I actually upgraded to a kiddie pool in the backyard till the raccoons found it.:headwally:

I got back in 10 years ago with FW and still have 1 of my original angelfish in a planted 75 gallon, he is huge! I got into SW about 5 years ago, tried a 10g tank for about a year and then jumped to a 150g. Now I made the jump to a 300g "dream tank" which I just started building after a long, long, long time planning.

 

[Worleyxxx]

2012 for me, my neighbor had just given me a 16gal bow front that he had for cichlids. I started with cichlids and in under a month went to 75gal. Then I realized my myself and my neighbor were about equal with setup and fish and I had to out do him somehow. He went big oscars and I went reef. Never looked back, to this day he scoffs at the prices but always asks how to get color like that in his cichlids tank.

 

[robthorn]

1996 or so. A couple friend's and I were driving by some pet store with a going out of Business sign. He had freshwater so we stopped. Well I bought a 29g hex and the next day a 55g. Hang on the back , undergravel filter and all.
I saw a bag of salt there and had no idea. The one guy always thinks he is smarter than everyone else and said that I couldn't do saltwater because he had failed several attempts. I bent down and grabbed all the salt they had. A couple bags. I killed everything I put in that tank for a long time. All we had were books from the library so I read a lot and then moved to Florida in 1999.
Late in 2000 or early 2001 I bought a 58 from a buddy and started spending most weekends hanging out and learning at FAOIS. <----- shortly after this started I got my first acro and it lived until I broke the next 3 or 4 tanks down and took a break. 10 or 15 tanks later I have a 250dd full of acros and lps.
I still have my green slimmer from that original year I started buying acros. It went to Chris M of Fins in Tampa and then back to me as a frag in my old 265 and then when I took another break it went to Emmett and now I have it back as about a 5 inch colony. Its as old as dirt, just like me. I finally got my dream skimmer from way back. A BK Sm250.

 

[robthorn]

Right on Bobby for starting this thread. Kind of like the old days when I first joined RC.

 

[bigzman]

Wow pet land. I remeber the 10 dollar sale. I had 5. Also great place for live black worms. I use to go to the one on 181st and the one on 33rd and 5th.

My first fish tank was a 10 gallon special from Petland Discounts (https://youtu.be/D2GvpyPUgJo) in NY where I grew up. I started with guppies then I discovered frogs and crayfish at the local pond. I would catch bullfrog tadpoles and crawfish, grow out the tadpoles, and sell them to the local fish stores. At one point I actually upgraded to a kiddie pool in the backyard till the raccoons found it.:headwally:

I got back in 10 years ago with FW and still have 1 of my original angelfish in a planted 75 gallon, he is huge! I got into SW about 5 years ago, tried a 10g tank for about a year and then jumped to a 150g. Now I made the jump to a 300g "dream tank" which I just started building after a long, long, long time planning.

 

[Mrs Postal]

Lee bought Dylan a 10 gallon tank for his 4th birthday and live rock and such from Tampa Bay Live Rock and the rest is history.

 

[Postal]

For me it started in about 1977 when I was just a kid. During the summer I would stay with my great-aunt during the days my parents worked. We would go visit my great-grandmother every week and she had a 10g community tank. Once in a while we would stop at Fin City (THE LFS of choice in Tampa at the time) and I would get to pick out a fish for my great-grandmother's tank. Within a year or two I had my own 10g and was a guppy-raising fool. Kept small community tanks until high school brought on other expensive hobbies (like dating). By my early twenties I was back in deep with freshwater tanks set up everywhere they would fit. I kept everything over the next decade or so from live-bearers to zebra plecos (when $50 was a stupid amount of money to pay for a freshwater fish) to arrowanas to a 110g tall discus tank.
As Michelle stated above, our son was really into saltwater critters (from watching Shark Tale hundreds of times) so I looked into getting him a saltwater tank for his 4th birthday. After findig RC I realized it was easier to do now compared to the horror stories of the 70's and 80's. That 10g full of Tampa Bay Live Rock and associated hitchhikers captivated all of us. I immediately got my own 75g tank and kept going from there all the way up to breeding and raising clowns. Finally starting to downsize a lot on the saltwater side, but setting up a 125g freshwater planted tank because it is a something aquarium related that I haven't attempted yet.

 

[IrishTang]

Great thread! When I was 10 - 15 I was fortunate enough to have grandparents that would fly me down from Maine in the summer and do a lot of snorkeling all over the place. My mother moved us down here and when I was in High School I started a 20 gallon tank, I had NO IDEA what I was doing and cringe at some of the mistakes I made. 3 years ago I decided to give it another shot and do it right. Been going strong ever since, I love the beauty and the challenge of it.

 

[BobbyV]

Great stories. Love it!