What First Pulled You Into Reefing?

[Pretzel's Reef]

Daughter wanted a hermit crab off the beach, I said yes (prior to doing research). Got home (10hrs from beach) realized it's a marine hermit crab, she said "well he needs friends" so now we have Pretzel and his 40 gallon with friends. I became addicted...

 

[painter1982]

I use to deliver newspapers when I was a kid, a fish store was on my route. I would deliver their newspaper and then spend way too much time in there looking. I got to know them pretty well and they’d invite me to help when new shipments came or if maintenance time came around. I was free labor for them. Often times I’d be rewarded with some livestock or something. This was early 1980’s.

 

[kevgib67]

Well, there was this guy in a van behind the gas station who offered me free corals. You know, the soft stuff, gsp, zoas and mushrooms for free. Then I kept going back. When I showed up with dark circles Under my eyes and the shakes he started charging me for the hard stuff, you know, lps and Sps. I lost my job, my home and my wife and kids. I’m in a program now but still living under an overpass with my tank and grocery cart which contains all my worldly possessions and a cardboard sign that says I will work for fish food. I wish I never met the man in the van, he ruined my life.

 

[Eddielg]

When my daughter was 10 she wanted a green spotted puffer. We had it for a year then started to convert it from fresh to salt water. That was 16 years ago and I continued with a marine tank

 

[Renfield42]

I’d kept simple FW long ago but when I saw a nice reef tank I was hooked. The complexity and breadth of knowledge required to do well also appealed to me. When things are doing well and growing it’s a great feeling.

 

[-XENOMORPH-]

Kids drove by a lfs and went in. Then came back with “stories of wonder”…. And 7 years later here I am. Lol

 

[paraletho]

I started SCUBA when I was 15 and did my first dive on a coral reef in Belize at 17. So I guess I can say it was my dad. We then bought a 50 foot converted shrimper and started a dive charter business in of all places Port Arthur TX. A lot of people don’t realize that the northern most coral reef in this hemisphere is 100 miles south of that point sitting right along the continental shelf on a salt dome uprising. From there it was a small step to catching my own fish and inverts and placing them in a glass box. All of this happened between 1968-1976. I am now 74 years old and still addicted