What got you into this hobby?

Hi everyone

Looking @ the amount of active people on this forum, I always wonder what is the actual story that got you into keeping fish?

So I thought it will be great to hear your story.

I will start with mine.....

I was about 18.6 months old, and moved from Durban to Empangeni for a career in retail management. After 3 years i decided to resign, as I hated it, off course I resighned without having another job, so my dad was pretty upset, but I had it all worked out with my unenployment fund, had enough to cover my car for 9 months a full tank of petrol, a bottle of brandy and a 2 liter coke.

But that wasnt enough, so my girlfriends folks said I was more then welcome to go and stay @ their place for a while, they stayed in Umkomaas down the south coast of Durban. SP all sorted, went fishing every morning after dropping my girlfriend of @ her work.

But soon I got bored, and surprise he had 2 fish tanks, but he kind of lost interrest in them, so I started reading up on tanks and how to maintain them. And soon I was getting into this fish thing, he had 2 more tsnks in his garage, 1 was a whopper 780liter tank, I was all in asked him if I can set it up, and soon the big guy was up.

I fell in love with siamese fighters, and decided tat I wanted to spawn them, I used the extra 2 foot tank, got a male and female, and first try, boom fry!

From there it was just downhill, and I started spawning everything and anything I could be able to sex.

So thats my story in a nutshell.

Looking forward to read some more storries.

Hennie

 

Ohhhh....how I miss those days when petrol and a bottle of brandy was all we needed!

I think retail management laid the foundations for my insanity!

My story - I had to drive to Safari and the lfs a couple of times a week for my 4 year old to stare at the fish. My previous experience 10 years ago with fish tanks and goldfish did not go down well. Damn things kept dying on me and I had to sneak off to the lfs to replace the fish before the twins noticed each time one expired. I ended up getting them koi and they managed to survive.

Decided Koi was the way to go again but got bullied into buying him a "proper" tank - that being a 30 liter! That turned out just short of disastrous and I was just about to get him a spider to fill the tank (out of desperation, I'm have arachnophobia) when I found the forum and learned to keep the fish alive! Yeah!

Had the tank for about a week when I caught him with the fishing rod attempting to catch himself some fish! He also attempted to "pet" one of his bettas one day - I don't even have to note the consequences!

Now mommy's hooked and he's happy poking his fingers in the tank for the platy to nibble on. His highlight being when one of them gives birth and the other fish gobble them up - "Awesome!"

 

So … as @HennieRoux said.

My brother was the start of my “Syndrome” … I have had many different treatments but none has worked. He started with a nice Malawi setup. Then moved on to Back Arawana and Discus tank and that was where I got “The Bug”.

I got my first tank… 1 ½ ft with Swords and Kribs when I was 10. From there it grew into Bigger fish (Oscar’s, Green Terror’s, Fire mouth’s, Clown Knifefish, ext.), made a turn at tetra’s, discus, angels some more kribs and my own Black arawana and a 3m monster tank. Myself and a few other friends started the first aquarium club in PTA (Jakaranda Aquarium Club). That was when I really started to getting a case of MTS. I ended up converting an outside room into a Fish room where I breeding some nice West African Dwarfs. Was running about 42 tanks in my Happy place until the day that I walked into my passion and found almost everything dead. I suspect it was a bad water change of the previous day.
This was 5 years ago. Since then got married, had kids, bought a house but never really got cured of this passion. I am now rebuilding the setup again and have great plans for the future.

So there is my “Fish Addiction Syndrome” in a very short nutshell.

 

Nice thread @HennieRoux

Okay mine started when I was still in high school I remembered having a 3 foot tank with a couple of small oscars:embarrest: we went on school holidays left the tank in someone elses hands and when we came back from leave all the fishes where dead think the heater boiled the water, well then I obviously stopped with it for a couple of years.

Then just when I started working I got back into it again, had a 3foot tank with some fishes in it. Always remember the pleco I had it always loved it's baby marrows. I had another few tanks and then I got given a nice 5 foot tank. I kept all the big monster fish in their, some silver dollars, bala sharks, tinfoil barbs, also had all sorts of rainbow fish and I remember buying a small catfish think it was a pictus catfish was about 5cm when I got him, after a couple of months it was around 12-15cm every night in that tank it sounded like hectic fighting going on and every morning a couple of rainbows went to fishy heaven. I luckily kept all my fish alive but was not very into it like I am now. Eventually took this fish out of my tank had a spare little 1 foot tank and took it back to the petshop.

I then got married and moved once or twice with my 5 footer and then the place we moved to next was a bit small for the 5 footer.

Only tank I kept was my 100 liter hexagon corner tank. I started it up again a few years later with a few fish, moved again and decided to not start it up again.

Last year June I decided to start the hex up again and then the gogga bit me hectically hard this time. I started digging Tiger barbs and just before we went on leave last year September I heard of a guy selling his 5.5foot 580 liter tank. And this is when I seriously started going with my new tank. Started my planted adventure in mid January and now both my tanks are planted and looking awesomely.

 

Mine started when my wife and I were still dating. Her family was moving house and her father had a 100L tank that he was planning on leaving behind. I took the tank which contained 1 pleco and went the tetra way. That was about 10 years ago. I have since moved from Tetras to rainbowfish and corys. Sadly the 100L is no more (it sprung a leak one night and flooded my lounge) but I have upgraded to a 250L tank with a 100L sump. I also have a 25L fry tank. Planning on going bigger and better in years to come once I obtain more space.

 

I can't remember the exact details, regarding me and Aquariums, i think i got my first one as a birthday present from my folks. How ever with that said I've always been a pet of all sorts kind of guy (except birds....they always want to bite me for no reason) and have kept a great variety of species over the last 20 odd years. I have always wanted to do the planted tank scaping hing but only recently gotten into it. for the most part i kept Fire oscars, and anyone who has kept them will now they are like dogs. other species include various betta, platy, mollies, guppies, discus and Koi. I even bred some angels for a year or two.

vluit vluit my storie is uit.

 

My dad had a three foot(not 90cm, mind you) tank when I was about 8 years old (1973). Those days it had an angle-iron frame, glass was sealed with normal window putty. He kept and bred Angels. Undergravel filters, plastic plants, water had to be boiled!!!. Grew up, got married and started my own tank in 80's. Lost interest when on holiday my brother-in -law overfed and all my kribs died. But I'm back into fish keeping again.

 

I started in January 2012 with a goldfish bowl and 2 Ranchu (beautiful goldfish). A common pleco got added and then the wife decided that they all looked sad. Down to builders for a Marltons 25l with all the bits and bobs. The goldfish died so I took over the tank and changed to tropicals. I added 4 guppies and 6 neons.

We moved house and I got a 100l (added Colisa Lalia, Harlequin Rasbora, Cardinals, SAE, Ottocinclus and Corydoras) which became planted. That lasted 2 months and then it was too small. I got my custom 300l 1.2(l)x0.5(w)x0.5(h) - 10mm glass and got bitten hectically by the plant bug (collectoritus sufferer of note). I currently have the 300l, 60l, 25l, 12l and a freebie (still got to collect it from my brother but I think it's another 60l).

I have recently ordered a custom 135l 600(l)x500(w)x450(h) 10mm braceless which will probably be an attempted aquascaped tank rather than the jungles I currently have in my other tanks.

Marc

 

When I was around 5 or 6 years old. My aunty got me a goldfish bowl. Well the rest is history!

 

Awesome thread idea @HennieRoux !! Had goldfish when I was in primary school. My boet had a 60 litre with some nice fish that I took over when he went to the army. Started hanging around at the pet shop so much they offered me a job, R7 a Friday afternoon and R8 a Saturday till lunch!!! Man was I RIIIICCCHHH!!!! Cleaaned the tanks, salesman, snake handler, bird catcher, fish tank builder, baby sitter to my boss' collection of monkeys and parrots whilst they went on leave, collector of fish from the EL airport at all weird hours of the day. Spent all the money I made the very same weekend most of the time!!! Bred convicts and the like for a while and then off to varsity, jobs, marriage and kids. Had a 90 liter for a while whilst married but didn't really have the space. Drove past Dorry a few months ago and thought "yes it's time again..." Nice thing is that at last there are no interruptions, cant believe it's been ten years but I am back with a bang. I have a love of all things natural and fishkeeping is s great way to express this I think?

 

I haven't been here much, but I still love fish.

Was introduced to the hobby when I bought a 1ft tank at an auction for R60. The setup was a total failure as I had almost 30 fish in it. The heater broke and the tank leaked.

I soon after bought a 2ft kit and managed to learn more about proper fishkeeping.

I fell in love with corydoras and had various tanks.

I gave up fish last year just before moving to East London. Now I live in a place that has such a mozzie problem that only the Raid electrical units work. They are not aquarium safe, and I have very cramped living quarters.

So until I have more space and a fish safe way of fighting off these huge bush mozzies I can't keep fish

Sent from my GT-S5300 using Tapatalk 2

 

My first fish tank was a goldfish bolw my uncle was going to toss as so I scored it, had some guppies in there until one day the guppies "slept late" this was in primary school like standard one, then years later I met my now wife and she had a 2 foot tank that she had in storage so I went a little deeper and got some goldfish I had a gold googly eye and she had a blackmoor that had a bad glazing over the eyes, then I got a 2nd 2 foot and got some rosy barbs some zebra danios and a two dwarf gouramis, then we got two octagonal tanks on either side of our bed with a heater in for two bettas, so then I broke the one 2 foot tank being stupid busy cleaning (wow I knew little about fish keeping then) and the other sprung a leak, ok so then we were down to only the two betas a while later we had to move so we rehomed the betas and the fish story was over or so I thought (this hobby just when you quit it bites you the hardest lol) we sent my wife's son out to discard the rubbish (we live in a flat now) and in the dumpster courts he discovered a 3 foot tank! so I went down got this thing, it was in a poor state but it had all the potential I needed, I put Styrofoam on the base, resealed it, painted the back and the old lid black washed it out and started my research this time I would do things right not like the last time (this is when I started getting smarter) Guess who is back lol, now I'm starting a my first planted tank, playing with submersed plant growth (not sure if this will work but any way) and I have a biotope going.

 

It seems like we all pretty much got into this money pit the same way :embarrest:

When I was about 12 my dad bought a hexagonal tank for the corner of his office (he worked from home). After staring at his tank hours on end for many weeks in a row I told my dad that it was time I had my own tank. He agreed, but set out some ground rules before hand. He said that if I kept his tank clean for 3 months he would buy me my own tank.

Out of the blue about three months later, my grandfather found a 1.5ft tank in perfect shape on a dump somewhere and brought it over for me. My dad kept his end and bought me all of the equipment and my first fish, 2 x Bronze commet goldfish. After changing stock a few times I decided to build a new tank. It was a custom 3ft 270lt setup. I ran that for many years with great success.

My girlfriend`s father passed away and I was asked to move into the house with her and her mom because they felt unsafe. The 270lt came with :nuts:

About two years later we bought a flat. I was extremely busy with work at the time and the tank had suffered a bit and i had lost interest in it so I decided to shut it down when we moved. The flat was also on the 3rd floor so I just seemed like too much work.

One day out of the blue the same girlfriend (who is now my wife) asked me why I had not tried to set up a fish tank in the flat. My response was that we didnt really have a proper space for it. To my utter surprise she said "I bet you could build one to fit in here, you need a tank). And that is how my 450lt corner tank was born.

 

mom bought me a gold fish when i was 4, a year or so later my folks built a huge display tank and it all went wrong from there. After that display tank burst i ended up with a small tank of my own witch flourished into 20 tanks in the spare room threw my teens. Lost intressted kinda while i was a student and paying for my own electricity with one 350ltr cube and one large midas, mts bit me bad again and now got 1700ltr of tanks running in my flat, 1200ltr at workshop and another 2000ltr worth in the rebuilding phase

 

Hope everyone is loving the storries as much as I am, keep em coming.:rock:

 

@top dog - when exactly through all of this did insanity kick in?! :bigsmile: mts seems to be a BIT of an understatement!

@HennieRoux - loving the thread

 

lol last three years have been in the rebuilding phase, i basically gave up as i was sick and tired of not being able to get the fish i wanted and struggling to sell fish i bred, things have got alot easier these days hints my renewed mts