What got you into this hobby? JW

[DoubleM 10]

Hey guys and women i was just wondering what made you get into this hobby? For me it was wehn i saw all the colors in the tank. Another reason is a saw a lionfish at the LFS get fed in front of the school of kids! from that monent on i was sold! How about everyone else on here?

[Paul_TheOctopus]

For me, it's mostly for my kids. I know this can be an expensive hobby but the smiles on their faces are priceless.

[stevejrnc]

My kids wanted a fish tank= my most happy addiction

[frozenreefer]

i was living in hawaii for a few years then moved back to the frozen north and missed all the colors of the ocean great hobby!

[RcToners]

My backyard made me want to get in the hobby. I dive the reefs here in the keys several times a week and I love it. I figured I would try to recreate a little bit of it in my own house.

[Reef obcession]

always loved the bright colors of salt water fish & coral

[dockery07]

My sister said "you cannot keep saltwater it is too hard"

Oh the money I would have saved.

[rayn]

Originally Posted by dockery07

My sister said "you cannot keep saltwater it is too hard"

Oh the money I would have saved.

Ditto, but it was my wife.
Also always wanted one.

[reelfishy]

Lil baby catfish from lake + 5 gallon bucket lead to my first freshwater tank which led to the reeftanks.

[Artes]

Setting up a saltwater tank has always been on my list of things to do, but I had never set aside the time and commit to doing the research. That changed in July when we snorkeled around Maui and Molokini. It was fantastic watching the various life forms and colors.

[B-Willz]

Had hip surgery when I was 22, laid up for 6 weeks and limited movement for 5 months, I was depressed from being stuck at home. My girlfriend at the time, now wife, said go get a fish. So I hobbled to the lfs and had them come set up the tank. She was on a business trip for a month when I did it. She came over, and says, I was talking about a gold fish, while looking at the 55 reef. 10 years later and she still hates that she ever said those words.

[GKill]

I've had fish since I was about 10 years old. That's 38yrs of water changes.... I guess it's what I do - collect fish and old beer cans. My 13yr old son enjoys the fish as well - it's a good father/son activity.

[jeff@zina.com]

The goldfish from Woolworth's...

Jeff

[crodger]

A friend of mine father had a 250 gallon SW tank 25 years ago, the first time I saw it I was hooked

[ka2zesmi786]

i worked my way up to it. i had bettas when i was in my mid teens. then to tetras and barbs. then from american cichlids to african ciclids. then when i pretty much mastered keeping all of those i got rid of everything and started saltwater tanks. i love the challenge. lol

[Lynnmw1208]

I've always had a fascination with fish when I was a little girl. I was always playing in our creek catching minnows and frogs and bringing them home. then I won some fancy goldfish at the fair. ever since then my mom had a 55gallon and then when I went to college I got a 10 gallon kit with some guppies in it. Then I got a 30 gallon. At some point I had a 10 gallon guppy breeding tank, a 2 gallon fry tank, a 20 gallon planted tank and my 30 gallon tank (all FW). my roomie decided that she wanted a 20 gallon SW and i saw all her mishaps and thought I could do this better lol. worked at petco for a year and now I finally have the time to setup a nice reef tank! still in the process of doing so right now.

For some reason I just love watching fish. I could sit and watch them all day! and SW fish are so much more intelligent compared to guppies I would say the yellowhead jawfish is what really made me want SW

[fatdaddy]

I was browsing craigslist and some guy had a large aquarium. I figured, why not?

It's been good. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn, and I ended up learning to scuba dive which opened up all sorts of new worlds.

[Fretfreak13]

I saw a Mandarin Dragonet in the store. Sold. XP

[auburngrad]

had freshwater for over 30 yrs. when the wife said she liked the colors of a salt aquarium i decided to move on up

[dmarkham]

Mine was Kids + Finding Nemo. It was not till they got older that they understood that it was not Nemo and his dad in the tank. LOL

[trb]

We made a bargain with one of my twin sons that if he was good in kindergarten, we would get him a fish tank come summer. So he decided to ask Santa for a fish tank, and got it early! We went from a 10 gal, to 20 gal, to 55 gal FW tanks over the next 3 yrs as the fish grew. Last year, he wanted an eel and the FW eels kept dying. So we dove into a SW tank just to get a snowflake eel. And it has progressed from there!

[AquaDiddy]

my stepson. Loving every bit of it.

[ccsuzy]

Husband and I have had many FW tanks in the past and always wanted a SW. Got out of having tanks after my oldest (just about 7 or 8 at the time) dumped half a can of tetraflakes in the 35 gallon tank full of baby convicts while we were in the Bahamas. Son is grown now and started his SW tank, a 29 biocube, about 8 months ago. When he recently upgraded, he gave us the 29. We're hooked.

[jasonrp104]

The owners of an lfs I worked for about 20 years ago had a fowlr and I always wanted to try it. About 4 years ago I got an overstocked 45 and started doing my research. After an outage wiped out the tank, I left it empty (but still running) for about 4 months and did nothing but read this site, and ask every question I had. Every aspect of it is interesting to me. The chemistry, the biology, the art...it's a perfect hobby for obsessive types.

[kv2wr1]

When I was between 2-3 years old (1979). My parents took me on vacation with them to California. We went to the ocean and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen with the waves moving and such. I saw the bigger kids jumping in the waves so I decided that I was a big kid too and give it a try. I started to walk out and got knocked down by a wave. I was laughing as I was under water and another wave passed over me. I had a mouthful of saltwater. My dad came and picked me up and I went out and did it again.

I remembered that but I didn't remember Disneyland at all. It's the earliest thing I can remember. That and my uncle had a saltwater tank in the early 80's which I thought was cool.