THROWBACK THURSDAY! What got you into the hobby?

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

For this week's #TBT tell us about what got you into the hobby.

My story is that we went on vacation to Florida and I caught 5 Florida fighting conchs and 2 Queen conchs... I put them in a bucket with sand from the beach and water (and, yes, I do know better now...didn't at that time). My wife and I had been talking about setting up an aquarium, and I thought "I'll just do saltwater instead of fresh...how hard can it be??" ;Facepalm;Facepalm;Facepalm and the rest is history...

I took those little critters home and kept them in a large tupperware container with no pumps or heaters for a week or so while I started researching... how they survived I'll never know, but they did. I actually had all of them for a couple of years. I only lost one of the conchs to death after over a year and rehomed the others when we moved from Virginia to Ohio.

Anyway, I started my first tank with a 30g tank and coralife skimmer I found on craigslist. A few months later upgraded to a 75g...a couple months after that added a 55g predator tank...then upgraded to a 180 and a 120 when I moved to Ohio...then downsized to 1 tank when we moved to Cali...and well...the story continues... LOL

 

[Crabs McJones]

I've always been a reptile guy. I had a bearded dragon for many years. Unfortunately he passed away from old age. After that I THOUGHT I was done with animals. But one day i went to my uncles house to pick something up, and saw his two reef tanks and I instantly fell in love with it. A year later after much planning and purchasing I had my first fowlr. And the rest is history

 

[vetteguy53081]

Have had a tank practically all my life and Saltwater began with pet store displays. I had my own full line Pet store for over 11 years and the passion then struck

 

[msquacksterduck]

My nephew loves pufferfish and octopus. I wanted to be the favorite aunt, so I bought a 30 gallon tank to use for a brackish water puffer. But then I realized I could keep clownfish, and it was all downhill from there. Still haven’t gotten a puffer yet.

 

[408Dartfish]

When I was a teenager I wanted to become a marine biologist and loved watching discovery channel. Have always loved saltwater, the bug really hit me on a visit to a old army friend of mine in Oklahoma few months after we both got out, who had a reef setup. I was pretty fresh off multiple Iraq deployments, so anything to help take the edge off is a dream to me. Im super anti-meds so I’m not into mind altering drugs to help with my issues. He had a 29g bio cube with few fish corals and a RBTA. After staring at that for a week I was hooked. About 6 months later he called and asked if I wanted the bio cube, I said heck yeah and he sent it in the mail about 10 years ago. I’m on my third tank now and more into reef keeping than ever. I enjoy the peacefulness of the tank clears my mind. Dustin

 

[Ksmmike]

When I was a kid I had a fresh water tank. A year and a half ago, I had heart surgery. I spent weeks walking the beach and decided it was time to start a salt water tank. I bought a biocube
and within a few months, I started a 120 gallon as well. Now I have a QT tank, so I went from one to three in less than a year. My wife who wanted nothing to do with me starting a tank, now travels with me to Reef A Palooza and is already talking about going to MACNA in 2019. It seems I'm not the only one who caught the bug. She stares at the tanks every morning and evening.

It's been a huge learning experience, but now that my 120 gallon tank is mature enough to grow acros, once I can afford it, I'm going to get better lighting on my biocube and start to grow acros in there too, instead of just zoas, mushrooms, hammers and a torch. It's been fun.

 

[T Carey]

I was 10 or 11 when I got 10 g show tank with neons, a dwarf gourami and a few live bearers. I can still remember the excitement of seeing those fish. I have had a tank of some sort most of the time since then. Now have 7 tanks split between salt and fresh. Just getting into trying to keep a 29 tanks with corals. Easing into it. Been a fish keeper most of the last 55 years.

 

[Waters]

My dad used to breed cichlids....I have heard stories of my mom putting up with 20-30 tanks lining their living room lol. I have had tanks since I was 12

 

[Oliver d]

Been around aquariums from age 4,saw my first saltwater tank age 7/8 in a petshop in 1978 in South Africa got hooked but had to wait to get one.Kept all kinds of freshwater fish from local South African fishes to Arowanas,Discus to high tec planted tanks.Mt first foray into marines was in 93 fish only[predators] with a few tube worms and a ton of cyno.Gave up and left South Africa returned to fish keeping after my wife bought me a20 gallon tank and equipment kept ciclids until 2015 change my set up to marine.

 

[ca1ore]

I don't remember .... too long ago.

 

[albano]

When I was 5 yrs old I was hit by a car that didn't stop for my school bus. Since I was bed ridden for a few weeks, my mom bought me my first fish tank to watch (no TVs in every room like today), in those days we brought home fish from the pet store in little cardboard boxes, like were used in Chinese take out!
When I was in college my GF had a part time job in an Atlanta pet shop and I saw SW fish and was hooked! In June of '73 I set up my first SW tank and by March '74 I had 5 or 6 tanks in my apt.
In 1986 when 'wet-dry' filters were publicized I became a reefer and convinced 2 LFS to allow me to set up reef tanks for display. I also set up reef tanks in the showrooms of my businesses. I'm sure that I helped bring many people into the hobby.

 

[squampton]

Grew up with aquariums in the house and just continued it into adulthood.

 

[Ly78]

My 1st trip to Bali snorkeling... and i thought i wanted that in my house heh.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I moved to Florida in 2000 from Ohio. I started snorkeling in the Florida Keys with my girlfriend. We were walking through our neighborhood and stopped at a garage sales and I bought a 30g tank and stand. Eight years later I had 4 tanks (180g, 75g, 65g & 25g) and 2 sumps (180g & 120g)!

Having an aquarium is the next best thing to being in the water snorkeling. And it's as close as I will ever get to seeing live animals that are so alien from us! ;Droid

 

[ScooterV]

I inherited and continued my Dad's hobby I had various tanks in my bedroom since before I was even old enough to care for them myself. LOL, I think my dad simply ran out of spaces my mom would allow more, so it turned into "Let's get the kid some fish!". I recall the beginning of saltwater becoming available and dad of course jumped right on board. First tank was a slate bottom 29g with damsels.