Poll: Was there a single fish or coral that brought you into the hobby?

[Dragon52]

For me it was seeing an Emperor angel Juvenile in one tank & an adult in the tank next to it. I actually bought one back in the 70s for alot cheaper than you can get them for today but it died before it changed to adult color. This was also way before reef tanks were known to the general public.

 

[Triggreef]

Nothing particular got me into the hobby, but after taking a break I got back into for the sole purpose of setting up a Clown trigger tank and keeping some corals with it. That never happened still but hence the name Triggreef.

 

[Dragon52]

Wow. I have not thought about batfish in many years. Are they still available? Never really see them.

Yes but they are not easy to keep (Pinnatus variety) feed wise. I know that some have been able to keep them though.

 

[Orm Embar]

Royal gramma!

 

[mike werner]

Haha, I had two of them. They actually kinda worked.

no they didn't lol.mine was and still is the powder blue tang.the fish that got me into tanks 50 years ago were cherry barbs and cardinal tetras.

 

[jayala12]

Porcupine Puffer ... still never had one in my tanks though.. went into reefs right off the bat

 

[knowen87]

I kept freshwater tanks as a teenager (still do), and I went to the local pet store to look around, and I saw a beautiful Mandarin dragonet. I was like, I'm gonna have one of those someday. It's still my holy grail fish. Maybe when my tank is more stable.

If you go to algae barn they have had captive bred ones come in every few weeks. They are a little expensive but they are a lot more hardy.

 

[SMB]

When I made my first reef dive in 1972. Didn't know most of the fish but I was hooked.
(Didn't know any better about coral protection.)

 

[JT's Adventures]

Clown trigger, that color pattern just knocked me out. Unfortunately their temperament and size means I'll probably never own one.

 

[Sharvey103]

SPS corals for me.

 

[Browner20]

no they didn't lol.mine was and still is the powder blue tang.the fish that got me into tanks 50 years ago were cherry barbs and cardinal tetras.

I contend that the Skilter was far superior to all of the HOB options at the time. It was either cheap HOB or very expensive Venturi or down draft at the time - the protein skimmer game has stepped up significantly. I would actually rather have had a Skilter than what CoralLife and Red Sea had for sump skimmers at the time - talk about junk!

 

[drstardust]

The queen angel for me, hands down. Saw a picture of one on a calendar I used to have and that was it. 10 years later I still don’t have a tank big enough for one, but one day

 

[Killamanjaro]

For me it was the flame angel, seriously made me want to get into the saltwater game.

 

[mmatt]

Black tip reef shark.

But soon learned after researching,that that wasn't going to happen. So got looking into fish and then said dang! I CAN GET CORAL TOO? F'in sweet! Sold!

 

[lbacha]

It was 1988 my aunt had just set up a 10g saltwater tank and was cycling it with 2 blue damsels, I was 12 and as soon as I saw those blue fish in a pristine white background tank (remember back then you took your dead coral out and bleached it every week or so to keep it clean). 2 years later in 1990 I had my first saltwater tank with a couple condalactis anemones and a pair of clown fish and of course the blue damsels I used to cycle the tank

Fast forward 28 years and the first fish I put in my nano reef (after it was cycled, oh the times have changed) was a yellow tail damsel (the blues are a little aggressive for my tastes lol)