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When I was 13 years old I got my first aquarium, it was a 29g with all the UGF equipment that I got at a garage sale. Knowing only that fish swam in water, I soon filled it and headed to my lfs. Once there I grew fond of sword tails and came home with 2. They grew & grew to the point that their tail was as long as their bodies. At that time I had little (none) knowledge of keeping and maintaining a healthy aquarium. I topped off the water, but never changed it, over feed most of the time and test equipment, what was that???
That was then, this is now........
Now I have a 2.5g, a 10g, an 18g, two 20g's and an 55g. I have chemical and electronic testing equipment, I have a calendar to tell me what tank to feed, how often and what food. I've got canisters and hob's. I have a log of every tank that I write down twice a week the conditions of the water and all of its inhabitance.
What I am saying is I am so anal about my fish now that I would love to go back in time with all of my test equipment, test the waters of my first aquarium and pass along some much needed knowledge.
Knowing what I know I would like to know how my sword tails lived as long as they did.

Anyway please share some of your first fish keeping experiences with me, please don't tell me im alone on this

You are not alone. I imagine most (if not all people) will have started off with the same sort of situation that you did. Knowledge and guidance are great and no matter what your LFS tells you when you first start out, experience is the thing that provides true success. That can only come with time.

My first experience of keeping fish was about 1983 (I was 4 years old). It was a bowl (literally) from the fairground with 4 goldfish! As you can imagine, it was a case of water + fish + food = happy pets. We'd often wake up in the morning to find one of them on the floor as it had jumped out sometime during the night. It would be picked up and put back in and 99% of the time, it was 'fine'. Needless to say the fish grew quite large considering the conditions we subjected them to.

Now, I have also become fish-mad. Infact, its become an obsession really. At home I have two 5ftx2ftx2ft marines, three 4ftx2ftx2ft freshwater (African cichlid, SA cichlid, community), one 4ftx2ftx2ft coldwater, one 2ftx15x18 fresh and a nursery tank. The filtration systems have developed from the 'empty the contents and re-fill' method in 1983, to wet&drys, externals, internals etc..... and the outcome is 100% an improvement.

At the age of 10, i got my first aquariums; two ten gallons. Well, not knowing too much about fish, I soon took it up to the fish store to tell me what to do, ultimatly killing my fish in the long run, THANKS A LOT FISH STORE!!!

Now I have all the filters in my signature and am working for an aquarium store too. I have learned a lot in that time and now having a great time learning even more.

I remember when I was 10 or so I came to fishprofiles for some unknown reason. I don't think I joined the forums or anything, but did remember those zebra danios(those red eyes..) at the top of the page!!! I came back to fishprofiles now, 12, and joined the forums, for my class was killing fish with their new uncycled fishy aquarium deathtrap.
Since then, my fish are lots happier

this post was shortened since I lost what I originally had

edit: I had fish for most of my life, of course it wasn't really me taking care of them, but my sister/parents


[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-07-23 04:08][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by Lindy 2004-07-23 07:43][/span]

I had a 20 gal when I was a young teen, kept goldfish (feeders and fancy). I learned with them not to have castles they could get into. One got in and got wedged/trapped. My mom had to bust the castle apart with pliers and we actually were able to save the fish. After that though, no more castles, I stuck with plants.

Now, some 15 years later...I suddenly find a 75 gallon tank in my living room, nothing like jumping back in with full force. My biggest mistake so far was believing the pet store about it being safe to run powerheads (for circulation/aeration) without any attachments (quick filter, undergravel filter). One of my tiger barbs got sucked up into it and I was devastated after we figured out what happened. I now have a quick filter attached underneath the powerhead, which keeps my little fish safe and also does a fantastic job of cleaning small particles out of the water.

Most people around 30 years of age or older weren't blessed with a computer in the house and the internet when their family got their first tank. Even at my highschool years later, the only person at school with it was the computer teacher ( apple IIe's is what we were taught on), with his MAC and the only thing we saw was the ability to send emails. Why don't you just call them on the phone, I remember thinking.

Fast forward to a time where most households have at least one computer, looking up a fish you're thinking about buying and getting 14934 hits on how to care for it, how to set up the tank... forums upon forums dedicated to aquarium and fishkeeping..no longer relying on the pet store ( or department store) for information. Also, access to much better equipment than you could find locally in many cases, at a much cheaper price. All that digital stuff, if someone had it, was crazy priced because there wasn't 800+ stores or more that carried it and competed online for your business. I could drive for 3 hours in any direction from my house and not find a ph controller, still to this day. That stuff was for marine biologists or something. Heck, if we wanted a pair of shoes that couldn't be bought locally we'd order it from

These days, fishkeeping / aquarium hobbyists is more of science, due to the ease at which one can get information, testing equipment, digital devices, etc. The internet made it possible for the novice hobbyists to become part-time water scientists, lol.

When I grew up may father had a 40 gallon tank with some angels this was lomg enough ago I barley remember it. It spent what at the time was hours watching the fish. In hind sight it was more likely minutes at that age. I grew older with no intention of having fish or pets of any type, I was too busy parttying and chasing women. Well I settled down grew older and started to collect fish and largeer tanks. As fate would have it my settled life became unsettled and my girlfiend of 5 years moved out. So it' back to parttying and chasing women. I still keep fish in my down time though

Nah, everyone could probably drag out bad first experiences with fish.

My mom kept fish for about ten years, finally getting rid of everything about a decade ago. She knew nothing of the cycle and we relied on LFS info. Despite that, I can't remember THAT many fish deaths. I still remember the ever-living cories, who probably lasted for the entire fishkeeping experience. (And she gave away the tanks, dangit! Not that anyone knew my sister and I would eventually start fishkeeping...)

I'm not sure if we overstocked (I think we had a 15 and a 10 gallon), but we DID wind up with a pleco for each tank... a common, of course. Okay, so, yes, just those fish probably caused overstocking.

"Oh, they'll only get 3-4 inches long, you'll be fiiiine." They wouldn't believe us when we told them both were about a foot long. At 11" and 13", we finally found a new home for them in a friend's much larger tank. Stupid LFS people!

Last year, I decided to get my sister a betta. She had a winter semester at school and she was one of the few people attending. So, one cold January day, I brought her a new friend for company. Sapphire is still going strong. The pleco (yes, another poor common ), didn't last very long... not in a one gallon tank. *boggles and kicks LFS people* Poor little pleco.

I got MY first betta just over a year ago. Before getting him, I did a bit more research. He's still with us and going strong, despite a nasty bit of fin rot that just will NOT go away.

Between May of last year and today, I've progressed from one betta boy to the "betta apartments" (which houses the four one gallon tanks for my betta boys at home), a ten gallon, a twenty gallon long, and a five gallon minibow. I also have a betta here at work and have given one to a coworker. My sister also has a fifteen gallon in her collection now. I'm plotting enlarging each boy's "apartment" and am always plotting new tanks, not that I have room for them!

My dad put his foot down and said "no more tanks"... he doesn't know the five gallon exists yet. :%) He never goes into my room, so... Hehe...

I can't wait until I move out, so I can get a nice big tank. *plotting* And so I can try my hand at breeding my bettas. *cackles with glee* My girls are so lovely and happy and gorgeous.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

When I was little (about 6 or 7) I kept bettas. They would last about a month and I would never know why they died. I changed the water, but the temp was never right (though I didn't know it at the time). Once one jumped out of its bowl onto the floor and I flipped out. After that betta, I didn't have any other fish for years.

When I started again, I started with a 10 gallon with three swords and three balloon mollies. They all survived the cycle (which I knew nothing about). I upgraded them into a 20 gallon. Then, I added rocks (that raised pH). I did a big waterchange one day, my tank went through a pH crash, and killed ALL my fish. I was sooo sad. I learned to be ultra careful with EVERYTHING I put in my tank. Poor swordtails and mollies.

[span class="edited"][Edited by solublefish 2004-07-23 16:11][/span]

Thank you for your replys, it is good that we are all learning from our experiences....

My first fish keeping experience wasnt exactly with fish...it was with tadpoles. So I had them in a five gallon, and then when that project was over the tank was just laying around, and then I went to a fair and rescued a fish, but was stupid and put the feeder in that little tank, and then bought it about 5 more friends. Shame on me...it was like 3 years ago when I knew nothing about fish. But the story continues, the feeders keep dieing off, and I keep wondering why, (i didnt know about cycling at the time, or the fact that goldies need BIG tanks) so then a friend asks me to rescue a full grown opaline gourami, and a common pleco, so I say sure, of course...and then buy him tankmates, platies, glass fish (not dyed luckily, i wasnt that stupid) and mollies, who all died quickly, mainly because they werent too compatible, had wrong water conditions, and were all added at the same time. It wasnt my fault though, it was the stupid LPS that told me it would work out! ]:| By that point I knew I needed to do something different, so I upgraded the tank to a 15 and found this site. Now, as I look back on how stupid I was, I feel so bad for the little fishes I killed by accident, but I'm glad everythings running smoothly now. I've learned so much from my past mistakes though...like mollies/glass cats tend to like brackish water, most pet stores cannot be trusted, and fish dont always live in the conditions you give 'em. The only fish that is still alive from all these experiences is the common plec, who is still a baby and is in a friends 55 gallon for now. When he get large, I'm sure he'll go back to the pet store. The gourami caught some sort of fungus and didn't make it, otherwise I think he'd still be around too. (in the same 55 gallon)

EDIT: I swear I can spell, really

[span class="edited"][Edited by ferretfanatic 2004-07-23 22:07][/span]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish