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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.

Aquariums: hobby or addiction?

Hobby
8
53%
Addiction
7
47%
 
Total votes : 15



Deuce15663241
 
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 9:55 pm

Stories

by Deuce15663241

I've been looking at a lot of the threads in this forum and it's almost all people asking for help. I'm hoping this thread will make the forum a little bit more personal. I was wondering how everyone got addicted to fishtanks. Its doesn't matter to me if you have a 250 gallon tank or a 1 gallon tank.


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

Re: Stories

by Poetic_Irony2267

i think this is a GREAT thread, I was first introduced to fish keeping by my parents as a very young child, 8 years old or so, they wanted to teach me responsibility as well as give me a bit of creative freedom and something productive to spend my allowance on. LOL i started out with a ten gallon tank on my dresser which i had a rainbow shark, a male beta, and several small tetra. This was the beginning of the addiction, as i got older into my teen years I started saving my money to buy a 55 gallon tank so that i could have something a bit bigger to work with, i bought the tank and set it up and had all tetras and plants in it until those "difficult" teen years started. it happens, i had taken the tank down and sold it so i could have extra money to put towards a car. it wasn't until about 9 years ago or so that i got back into fish keeping and have been keeping cichlids as well as community fish ever since, i now have a 125 gal, and a 55 gal tank. i am actually going to be setting up a tank in the upstairs apt for my neighbors and am thinking about giving them my cichlids at a fair price and switching my tank over to discus or salt water. just depends on the situation and what decision i finally come down too.

*Stands up* "My name is Brandon and I am an aquarium addict!"


kayleigh
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:45 pm

by kayleigh

i do agree with what your saying but it feels nice to be able to pass on a bit of knowledge on to someone else and to also receive advice from others. well my story is that i have always been interested in fish my parents had a tank when i was little and then got rid of it when they split how ever my interest towards them remained and so when i could afford to i brought my own tank and have been enjoying it since and learning from my own experience.
so what about yourself how to you become interest in fish?


cyndrine
 
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2007 12:11 am

by cyndrine

it is nice to be able to help advise someone who isn't sure of something. I would rather someone ask an inane sounding question if they do not know or are unsure to make sure they are doing the right thing for their fish. I grew up with a small 5 gall fish tank with goldfish my mom ran for me and my brothers. when i hit my teen years with my saved allowance and got myself a 10 gallon. went to the pet store for some fish and saw for the first time some angel's. and the rest is as they say history. my new 55gal is the first tank in many years that hasn't been an angel tank. I realized i wanted more than the angel's and my luck with angels i can not have anything in the tank with them. for a few years i could not even have a pleco survive because 1 angel was so aggressive to any other fish.


deuce1566
 
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:00 am

by deuce1566

Ever since I could remember my dad has always had a 55gal fish tank and some of my fondest memories are going to the local fish store and picking out new fish plants decorations etc. Then time passed and our infatuation with the tank subsided and slowly the tank started to get worse and worse. Mainly small things. It started with an algae problem and then one of the bulbs blew out and the fish started dying, not because of lack of care but just because of old age. Then after years passed there were only a few fish left and then one day my brother moved back to town and he made a comment about the tank and then it was like a bomb and my mine and my fathers interest in fish was back with a vengeance. It was about the time I got my first job and it seemed like all my paychecks were going to my fishtanks. The first paycheck I actually got went toward my own 55 gal tank. It gave us a great thing to bond over because it spread to my brother then my girlfriend and then her mother and my father even has a friend at work that he has chats about fish with. Now in out house we have 6 tanks going and two are breeder tanks. I know I defiantly put my vote toward addiction


Peterkarig3210
 
Posts: 1980
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:04 am

by Peterkarig3210

Great Question! I became interested in FW aquariums when I lived in upstate NY near a stream. My stepmother got her PhD in marine biology and did her thesis on shrimp behavior, and since we had moved far from the ocean she started doing research on crayfish behavior. Because she had 9 aquariums with crayfish, I wanted to have an aquarium as well. Actually I got 2. One 30 gallon in my room with crayfish, minnows, and darters from our stream, and one on the balcony with a blue gill pond fish. Blue gill's are so beautiful in a fishtank, like mother of pearl. They're the kind of fish people catch and throw back when they're trying to catch bass. This aquarium on the balcony was an old glass battery case from something, and both tanks had a plant I called elodea, though I think it was anacharis, that I got from ponds in the area. I used a filter in my room aquarium that used an old Silent Giant air pump and an in-the-tank filter using only an air stone to create flow. I had stream crayfish which dig burrows under flat rocks and I would place a flat rock on the sand/gravel in the front corner of the tank. I would put three smaller round stones under the rock so that when the crayfish dug under the rock it wouldn't fall down, and then I could see into the burrow. I liked to watch them push sand out of their burrows and watch them molt. When they got too big I put them back in the stream. I didn't have an aquarium until I had my son 9 years ago, and we bought a 10 gallon tank and got gravel from the beach (I washed it a lot). I had dogos, darter like fish, and a bunch of others and used a Tetra-tech hang off filter for this. As the years went by I got interested in gars, an ancient fish that looks like an alligator with fins, and I have them in a 100 gallon tank with 2 huge power heads running the UG filter, and two large canister filters. I also have a mating pair of tilapia in each of two other tanks and I love to watch them dig holes in the gravel and do their mating dance. So far I've only seen the babies get to the stage where the father (I think) holds the babies in his mouth. Unfortunately, they eat their young before they get a chance to swim on their own, but one day I'll do it right! I want to get a 500 gallon when my gars get bigger, full of plants and wood, and I hope to buy a house by then. I live in LA now and I hate most of the people here. I hope to move back east to be closer to my parents in the next couple of years.
Last edited by Peterkarig3210 on Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:03 am, edited 2 times in total.


dnimidej
 
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:59 am

by dnimidej

i have no idea how i got into this but here i am! and i love it! with two tanks one 55 gal communnity. and currently setting up a new 60 gal cichlid. funny thing is, my last name is FISH.!! so i guess its meant to be.yo peter im in Los Angeles as well,what part of town do you reside in? what LFS you go to?


Peterkarig3210
 
Posts: 1980
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:04 am

by Peterkarig3210

Dnimidej. I sent you a messege. Couldn't access your profile. If you can't find my messege send me a personal messege or a way to contact you if you want. Peter

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