How did it all begin?

uniquecorals · Jun 30, 2015

Ok, I admit it..I'm a hobby "lifer." Been keeping fishes literally since I could walk...Freshwater, saltwater, brackish, herps...the works. Much like many of you, I've had spectacular successes, heartbreaking failures, life, death, spawning, system failures, self-doubts, triumphs..the full gamut of "aquatic emotions!"

I was practically born into this game.

Well, not this dramatic, but I started my aquatic infatuation at a young age...and you?

My aquatic journey started literally at age 3, when my dad, an amateur guppy breeder, would give me some baby guppies (I later learned that they were his culls, lol) to keep in a bowl. My first tank was just before Kindergarten- a metal-framed 5 gallon, complete with rainbow gravel, the bubbling diver, and metaframe plastic box filter...State of the art, man!

The type of tank that started it all for me...

I graduated to a 10 gallon tank when I was about 8, then had a 20 gallon tank after I "graduated" from elementary school...Of course, I kept every tank/container that held water up until that time, and had quite a collection. I remember the shameless moment in 6th grade, when I really wanted more tanks, and played the "science project" card on my mom and dad, claiming that my (awful) "Betta Aggression" science fair experiment justified the purchase of 2 additional 2.5 gallon tanks. Of course, it worked...And I found out, years later, that not only did my dad know my "experiment" was a joke, but he would have bought me several more tanks if I wanted them! Talk about love...and my first lesson in honesty about the hobby! My parents knew I was bitten. Turned out, my dad pulled the same kind of thing with his parents when he was a kid..and that worked, too. Runs in my family!

A lame excuse to get another tank? Well, it worked in spades for me!

Of course, around age 12, the saltwater bug bit, and I had to convert my 10 gallon into an anemone and Clownfish tank. I had that pair until late into high school...in a tank with a then state-of-the art under gravel filter! In 1986, enthralled with George Smit's series in FAMA on the "Minireef Aquarium", I cobbled together all the money I could and ordered a wet-dry filter and some waterproof endcaps for my fluorescent actinic 03 bulbs..again- state of the art! My first soft corals and "live rock" were an endless source of fascination. Not knowing any better, I did a lot of water changes (having been indoctrinated by my dad in the freshwater world), and the tank thrived for years.

Of course, it went on from there…the usual type of story that most of you can relate to.

So this begs the question….

How did you get your start in the hobby, and has your commitment to it met or exceeded your expectations?

Something to chew on today…

Scott Fellman

Unique Corals

FX CharityCorals · Jun 30, 2015

I'll have do this one tonight too much to type on my phone

Daniel@R2R · Jun 30, 2015

Mine is kind of funny and actually not that long ago relatively...I'll try to keep this brief...

Our family went to the beach for vacation in Florida, and I happened to catch some really cool "snails" (later found out that they were Florida fighting conchs and a couple of queen conchs). My wife and I had been talking about starting an aquarium (also found out later that she was really joking about that), so I thought maybe I could do saltwater instead of freshwater. I thought, "how much harder can it be?" ...remember I'd never kept ANY aquariums!!

I kept the conchs in a large tupperware container for the better part of 2 weeks while I researched a little on saltwater aquariums (I had no heater and no water movement...I still have no clue how they survived...). I ended up buying a 30 gallon tank on craigslist. Then I picked up a powerhead and one pound of live rock from my LFS.

I bought my first fish (a damsel of course), and then started trying to decide how I could get more live rock since I couldn't bring myself to spend $8/lb on the stuff at the LFS. I placed an ad on craigslist and got a call from a guy who was buying another guy's 90 gallon system, but didn't want any of the rock, sand, coral, or fish. ...so...I went with him and paid $50 for all of the sand, rock, coral, and fish in the 90 gallon (a kole tang, flame angel, pair of clowns, nem, and several corals) I then crammed all of the live rock and livestock into this 30 gallon tank... *facepalm*

Believe it or not, everything actually survived my colossal newbie blunders, and I soon upgraded to a 75 gallon tank (with a sump and skimmer) which I kept running for about 1 1/2 years until we moved to Ohio. It was about the time that I started the 75 that I found a local reef club and got involved and really started learning about the hobby and what to do to successfully keep livestock thriving. I found R2R about the time I was moving to Ohio, so my knowledge grew a lot from reading and asking questions here.

I upgraded my reef to a 180 and started a 120 both of which I have kept going for almost 3 years now. I've broken ALL the rules and I have learned a TON since then. (like why a tang shouldn't be put into a 30 gallon tank, etc...) Btw, I'm proud to say that I still have some of the same corals that I originally got from the guy with the 90g and crammed into the 30g! LOL!!

Diesel · Jun 30, 2015

OMG........... Scott.
Well, in 1969 I had my first tank................................................................................................................................................. now I'm trying to finish up my ranch and when that's done I do my last two tanks fresh planted and reef.

kacrocorals581 · Jun 30, 2015

I still have that metal tank lol, and the non grounded light that ran threw sharp edge metal tabs in the metal hood safety first ;D

buzzword · Jun 30, 2015

Age 12 (late 70's lets just say) saw a 20g long with yes the metal framing and wrought iron stand at a garage sale. Went home and conned my dad into giving me the $20. Had that tank through High school then started breeding Betta's. Worked at a couple of pet stores and saw how challenging saltwater fish were to keep and the mortality rate of fish and decided to wait.
Fast forward to 1999 when MH lighting was taking off, skimmers and Berlin systems. Thats when I jumped in full force. Went from 55g, 120g and now custom 200g. Love it and can't get enough of it. Now if my bank account would cooperate...

sureal00 · Jun 30, 2015

Growing up in the Caribbean my family would always camp out at the beach on the weekends.All the kids would get fishes in there buckets from the parents catching them when they went fishing and we would have them in the buckets for like 2-3 days at the beach.In a way that was our fish tanks and also what made me interested in fish.

My first official tank was at around 11.My cousin had a fish tank growing up so I ended up getting jealous and my mom bought me my first tank.I upgraded from a 10 gallon to a 38 gallon freshwater then moved to saltwater about 4 years ago.Right now I am just so open to learning as much as I can and want to at least get acropora's striving in my tank

FX CharityCorals · Jun 30, 2015

My first tank would have been a globe goldfish tank. My parents then got a 29 gallon freshwater tank which I would sit in front of eating my snacks. I still remember when we killed the tank off by putting some seashells we got from Florida in there. I used to love walking into the humid musty aquarium stores when i was a kid and just amazed at schools of neons and angelfish. I moved onto having a 29 gallon, a 10 gal and 15 gallon in my room when I was in grade school.

I got into the saltwater world by buying a 90 gallon aquarium at a garage sale when I was in 7th grade. I was on the fence of discus or saltwater fish. My parents pushed me to do salt since that was the intention when I bought it. I just was worried about the cost and how many lawns I would have to mow each week. That tank ignited a passion. I did the fish only for a while then moved to the reef tanks and never looked back except once to do a fish only for 6months.

Since that saltwater start I have through the years
-worked at a LFS for 13yrs
- started my own maintenance company which I still do
- Co Created Coral Frenzy (I am no longer a part of)
- started Charity Corals

So pretty much have been a salty since I was 13 now going on 33

metrokat · Jun 30, 2015

My first tank was a mickey mouse tank with gold fish. I wasn't a kid by any means, I was an adult /facepalm, it just happened to be all I could find for a couple of hundred bucks at some obscure little mom and pop pet shop out in the boonies.

gooch · Jul 1, 2015

My fascination started with catching turtles, frogs, salamanders and minnows by hand in the waters around my house. I seriously spent hours upon hours upon hours of my childhood walking the edge of the lakes of strangers houses. Sometimes they would yell but the next day I would be back there catching turtles(I had my spots man). Eventually no one stopped me, they just let me do it. To this day I can not go to a lake or stream without just stopping and looking at the water for flashes of life. I would fill my little kiddie pool with all kinds of animals. I have as long as I can remember had a fish tank or some kind of tank set up. I was talking to my dad on the way home from RAP and I just asked him if he could of ever imagined that little kid that brought home thousands of animals as a kid would ever spend his adult life still chasing those animals.

My five year old grandson has the same fascinations as I do. Frogs, snails, you name it. He is always at the water edge. I took him to the creek to look for crayfish and I caught a small goby by hand. Well he made me walk that thing two blocks to my house to get it into a fish tank for him. Now all he wants to do is get back to that creek. Makes me a seriously proud papa.