What got you started?

[Taiyaki.Visuals]

My bro got me started 20 years ago, when he had a truvu 10g with a halide. Then I just followed along and ended up here.

 

[Jekyl]

When I was young my uncle had a tank. Probably 30 years ago now. I remember him telling the story of getting a carpet anemone. Talked about being stung while putting it in the tank. Then a day later how the carpet had eaten his prized fish. After that I had to have a tank of my own one day.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive had tanks since age 5 , many tanks over 3+ decades and owned a full line pet store for 12+ years

 

[Dytrix]

i was just about to create a similar thread then found this,

my dream pet is a German shepherd, I don't know what draws me to that dog breed but they are my favorite, i live in a 2 bedroom unit that I'm buying and only has a small backyard so a dog is out (i believe if i cant have the dog i truly want don't get one as it will only be second best and a dog deserves better!)

I'm not into cats.. (crazy cat man.. i don't think so)

please read all of this before you jump to conclusions lol

i looked at getting fish for e.g. neon tetras and catfish as the tetras are pretty and the catfish are cool to watch plus they eat the algae.. what put me off at first was a)price of the tank b) fish are boring and can generally live without you for lengthy periods of time (not talking about marine)

then i saw the marine tank in my local pet store and spotted clownfish, anemones etc and ive looked into doing it in the past but i was renting and moving about i felt was not fair on the fish so decided against it. now im in my own unit i felt like salt water fish is something unique, not everyone wants to do it and it requires your involvement in making sure the system is running to standard and fish are fed.

so the huge thing that makes me starting to enjoy this is i have something unique swimming in my living room that not everyone has. its amazing!

 

[ying yang]

Started off with freshwater about 9 years ago and didnt know much about saltwater tanks.as time progressed i wanted planted tanks so did that and the dirty planted tanks,and wanted more unusual and more colourful fish so then started getting interest in saltwater fish as just more colourful but got little hesitant as reading it so much harder so got colouful cichlids all the time seeing all the glorious/magical colours and types of saltwater fish and oh boy some of the corals blew my head off so 5 years ago bit the bullet and bought tank and alot the other parts needed ( refractometer/ ato etc) then had few holidays booked like 3 in 6 month period so didn't want set up as live second floor flat so didnt think being in another country straight after filling tank up be good idea so held off a little.then had big set back and just couldnt physically set tank up.so 5 years the tank sat still wrapped in film for 5 years until finally last august had some more surgery so now was able to sort it so 2 months ago plumbed/ filled and started the cycle.so just at begginning of my saltwater experience ^_^ .
Have 3 freshwater tanks and 1 tank with only 3 fish left as all rest slowly dying of old age so thinking turn that into a saltwater tank ( sumpless ) ha ha but we shall see.

 

[JCM]

The Dallas World Aquarium.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

I was thinking about this and wanted to create a thread for this but saw there was already one so I’ll resurrect it. I always wanted to have saltwater but I knew it was very difficult (we need to stop this societal belief). I ended up watching all of @Danny's Aquariums videos on his IM 10 nano tank and realized it was both something I could afford and not as difficult as I had been told. Kinda owe it all to his videos tbh. Still watch them along with tons of other videos but those are still my favorite to just watch after a long day.

 

[reefinatl]

I was thinking about this and wanted to create a thread for this but saw there was already one so I’ll resurrect it. I always wanted to have saltwater but I knew it was very difficult (we need to stop this societal belief). I ended up watching all of @Danny's Aquariums videos on his IM 10 nano tank and realized it was both something I could afford and not as difficult as I had been told. Kinda owe it all to his videos tbh. Still watch them along with tons of other videos but those are still my favorite to just watch after a long day.

This hobby, like many others, can be as hard or as expensive as you wish it to be.

 

[Oldeng56]

4 decades engineer + tinker + retired = reef tank

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Early 90's my first roommate had a FOWLER full of angel fish. A few years down the road my fondness for watching that tank came back and I tried my hand at it. Since dyi was all we had back then it was also a huge appeal for me as I liked to build and design so the progression into a reef tank at some point was only inevitable.

 

[phillybean]

A Cat. My wife and I were newly weds and had gotten a cat about 6 months earlier. We were moving and looked at two places, one would allow pets, one didn't. She really liked the one that wouldn't allow pets, but when I objected, because I'd always wanted to have a cat or dog, she told me I could get fish.

We ended up giving the cat to her parents, which was probably a better home than we had anyway, a couple other cats and small dogs to play with...and I went onto researching fish. Never considered a reef tank before, but once I started reading and looking at pictures, I knew that's what I wanted and since she made me give up my cat...

That led to a 75 gallon, which led to a 125, which led to a break for 5 years, then back to a 90 gallon and now a 220.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

A Cat. My wife and I were newly weds and had gotten a cat about 6 months earlier. We were moving and looked at two places, one would allow pets, one didn't. She really liked the one that wouldn't allow pets, but when I objected, because I'd always wanted to have a cat or dog, she told me I could get fish.

We ended up giving the cat to her parents, which was probably a better home than we had anyway, a couple other cats and small dogs to play with...and I went onto researching fish. Never considered a reef tank before, but once I started reading and looking at pictures, I knew that's what I wanted and since she made me give up my cat...

That led to a 75 gallon, which led to a 125, which led to a break for 5 years, then back to a 90 gallon and now a 220.

Cool story. Ironically my getting a reef tank again is what prompted my gf into getting cats lol. I guess she wanted a pet to spend time with cuz she was jealous of all the time I was spending with mine!