Where did it all begin?

[Maxx]

Originally posted by Witfull
he who laughs last,,,,thinks the slowest...LOL

Yeah, well uhh,.... you're the one who uh...thinks slow.
Thhpppptttt!

Michelle,
yeah the mandarin was the one that got me....still havent attempted to keep one yet.
Nick

[Cougra]

LOL Nick, I did have a purple baslet within 6 months of starting up my tank, but lost him to Marine Velvet 1.5 years later. Haven't got another one yet as I found so many other wonderful fish I would like to have first! Eventually I'll get around to keeping another purple baslet! I admire your ability to resist temptation and not get the Mandarin!

[Craig Manoukian]

Originally posted by Maxx
the mandarin was the one that got me....still havent attempted to keep one yet.
Nick

Big mature tank with tons of pods! Give you any ideas Nick?

[maffu]

I grew up hearing tales of my folks old Freshie tank... and the sad tale of how the tank had been boiled when a heater had stuck 'on' when they were out all day and night.... returned to find lots of well cooked fish the next day.

I read all their books and when I was about 10 set up my first freshie tank, that then spread to two tanks, which went well for about 5 or 6 years with no major incidents at all.

Sport, beer and girls made me loose interest for a few years, and the tanks wound down as things slowly died of old age. A few specimens I sold on, and the hardware went too.

Then a few years back I just got the bug... out of the blue.. I dont remember what started it... but living in a 4th floor appartment in london, with stairs not a lift... it was out of the question.... So I bought The Blue Planet on DVD and settled for that for a while!!

Moved out of london, bought a house with my now fiancee... was given an ultimatum.... marry me and you can have a Reef.... but you arent having one until you make an honest woman of me...

She now has a diamond ring and we are getting married in September next year.... I now have a Reef!!

Incidentally... her side of the bargain was far more expensive than mine.... does this mean I am not trying hard enuff??!!! lol

Matt

[ReefLady]

Incidentally... her side of the bargain was far more expensive than mine.... does this mean I am not trying hard enuff??!!! lol

Nah, it just means you need a bigger tank.


Me? I honestly think I was a fish in a previous life. I grew up around saltwater, my parents owed a cabin boat, and I spent all my early summers playing in sand dunes, collecting clams & flounder for dinner, and playing in tide pools. Our vacations consisted of tossing the anchor onto the beach and staying there for a couple weeks. It must have been those saltwater baths that did me in.

To this day, it's still hard for me to fathom a vacation that doesn't have the beach/ocean as it's focal point.

I remember when I first met Don, and we vacationed in the Keys and went diving. We made friends with one of the dive boat owners, and he invited us to his house. Showed us this new stuff he called "live rock" he had been collecting (along with a zillion other things). The guy had about 50 SW tanks in his basement. That was '89.

We had many fish only tanks, aggressive tanks, wet dry's, skilters, trickle filters, undergravel filters, bare bottom tanks, etc. etc. Then, LPS tanks jam-packed with NO lighting. Worked pretty well. When VHO's gained popularity, and the Berlin method started to 'catch on, things got easier.

I still like to play in tidepools, and I've never kept one FW fish in my life. ;-)

[Curtswearing]

There was a saltwater store next door to the gym I worked out at. I had to go look at the tanks before or after each workout. That put the bug in me.

Many years later, Rachel saw me constantly looking at saltwater tanks on the internet and she got me a nano for valentines day. Then things progressed from there.

[cheeks69]

My wife actually got me into the hobby, little did she know

My brother had tried keeping SW tank with poor results so he gave up and left his tank and stand at my parents house so when we visited my wife would always bug me about taking the tank home she thought it would be good for our daughter since we didn't have any pets. It started as a FW but when I visited the LFS and saw all the SW fish and corals, I fell in love.

[cazoo]

One night I had the most realistic dream about a big fish tank. The next morning, I told my wife and she said I could get one for my upcoming birthday. I started with a 55 g freshwater setup that I tried to turn into a planted tank. I still think a really good planted FW tank is beautiful and just about as involved as a reef. We had that for a year and then has to move from NC to CA. After we got settled we decided to set the tank back up as a reef system and have been hooked ever since.

[Ladipyg]

When I was about 10 we had a huge swimming pool in the back yard...20 feet around and 4 feet deep. My dad got mad at us for one reason or another (we probably deserved it!) and said no pool. Well without maintainence, the pool didn't have a filter, hey it was the 60's, the thing turned green in about 10 days. So I go fishing to the local watering hole everyday with my little bamboo pole and my little red wagon and bring home everything I catch in a bucket and begin throwing it into the pool. And I mean everything, carp, catfish, bullheads, blue gills, bass, crayfish etc, etc. Now this went on from June until September when he decides to drain the pool and when it gets down to a foot or so and he can see to the bottom. Well, lets just say I learned all kinds of NEW and EXCITING words that day. Spent the next 3 hours schleping fish back to the pond, crying about the loss of "my pets". Dad bought me a 20 gal, to stop the water works - an old metal framed one. Kept adding tanks and my guppy and angel breeding for LFS got me the stake in a 55 gallon SW and I've been hooked ever since, and I'm pushing 50. How anything survived those first attempts, much less prospered, I'll never know but I kept anglerfish, a mandarin, flame scallops, anenomes and clowns in my first tank. Heck, I even bought a hatchling sea turtle for $15.00 from the LFS and kept him in a plastic horse trough in the basement with filters and fed him squid and stuff, when it got to 20 lbs it was time to return him to the sea.
Now it helps keep my BP down. Nice to read how everyone else got started.

[Curtswearing]

LOL....I'm picturing your dad now when he got down to that last foot of water. What a riot!!!

[livingreef2004]

i got into the hobby when i was about 11 my dad bred cory cats for several pet stores and he had the best african river tank set up in a 125 . he let me setup a 20 gallon with australian rainbows and i was hooked since

[RalphP]

Hi
I first saw an article in FAMA written by George Smitt in 85 or 86 about dutch minreefs I was hooked started a 29 a few months later.Live rock I got was covered with ricordia they where hitchikers,go figure how things change.
RalphP

[EagleEyes]

Alright, So my family went to Disney Land. We drove up through San Diego (I think) LA and San Francisco. I remember Disney Land vaguely but the only things that i truly remember were going to the beach and crawling through the tide pools, running my hand through the tentacles of Anemones and visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. What happened when i got back?? I got ultra interested in Marine Bio and am trying to study algae. (Coral Research is taking its toll in my heart, although i havent found a pathway THERE..) I still have two tanks, a fresh and a SW. Its going really slowly.. undergrad scientists salary does not compliment this hobby. It didnt help visiting the LFS every so often either. This site is my sanctuary because i can learn things and help others that are able to get the experience that i have yet to get.

I started with a ten. LR, HOB, a mandarin goby because they were awesome, and a Crab that was too big for its own good. I learned fast. I got Rob Fenners book and eventually found this ReefCentral and this site. I love it here!! Im looking to upgrade to a 29 or 55. Schools starting though. GAH!!

[lcstorc]

Well believe it or not, my journey started with the kids finding a bunch of hermits on vacation and wanted to take them home. That quickly turned into a 20g tank for them to live in and then hubby found a nice used 125. Then he started killing fish out of ignorance. Then I found RS and the fish are living longer and longer lives. I now have 3 salt tanks and will probablu have my 4th by months end. Guess I am hooked.
BTW the original hermits all either died or were returned to where we found them.

[AQTCJAK]

This addiction for me started when I went to a friends house 20+ years ago & his parents had a at the time what I considered a large tank. It had a Imporer angel & I new that was what I wanted. Until I caught a small leopard shark the my fasination got the best of me & I have had sharks ever since.