My fishkeeping history:
My dad liked fish as much as I did. When I was about four he bought me a 2g hex filter by a spongebox and an airpump, in which I kept two tiny feeder goldfish.
They later got bigger so for my fifth birtday my dad bought me a 10g, incandescent lighting, multicolored gravel, some kind of powerfilter. I also tried to keep a blue crayfish in there, but it soon died
My Dad had a 480 gallon aquarium in our house, he divorced my mum and moved across the country and I pretty much never heard from him again. He left me a huge tank with huge fish, that I was too young to take care of. My mum sold the fish and we cleaned the tank out, and my uncles put it in the basement.
I kept going with my ten, and for my 7th birthday I think my mum got me a 33g and three red-eared slider turtles. I named them after the ninja turtles
I made a palludarium setup, but whenever I tried to keep fish they would get eaten. I still had my ten, but the gold fish where getting large. I got a bigger tank later that year for them. My ten became my first tropical tank, I got a heater
In that tank over a few years I kept a variety of small tropical fish. Both my gold fish died later after about 4 years of me having them, and my red eared sliders became too large for there tanks. I couldn't find anyone to take the turtles, so i released them into a nice lake. I now had a 33g and a twenty gallon and I was around 10. Both tanks went tropical, the 33 gallon was my first and only cichlid tank. I was too young and inexperienced to really understand what ciclids require, and they died soon after. My 20 turned into an overstocked 20, so I thinned each tank out and added to them. Everything went well... and I drifted out of the hobby for about three years, maintaining those tanks, some of the fish died, but i did ok.
For christmas when I was 13, my mum got me a 55g, a heater, salt, a powerfilter, sand and a couple books. I had started into marine, as I had always dreamed of. I was pretty successful with my marine tank setup like that, and had it for over two years.
When I was 15 I got my first real job, at a pharmacy, and I was making about $75 a week, with no expenses. I took the 480 out of my basement and set it up. I wanted to do it marine, I wanted a nurse shark. I was told that to have a nurse shark, I would need a much, much bigger tank. And the marine equipment was still unaffordable to me. I set it up as a large fresh water catfish tank. I had two sailfin plecos, a royal pleco, three id sharks, a channel cat and two tiger shovelnose catfish. I did pretty well.
When I was 16 I started my first reef tank, only a 10g, but I set it up well, with a metal halide light and a protein skimmer. I also began taking used tank and equipment from people. I got upto 11 tanks.
When I turned 17, I got a better paying job with the government. I bought a 55 gallon and set it up in my room, it had clown loaches, a sailfin plec, a school of tiger barbs, two gouramies and a couple other fish.
For christmas last year I had saved up a lot of money and persued my fish dream on a smaller scale, I bought a 180 gallon, skimmer, sump, 90 lbs of live rock, early january I was excited, and they had what I wanted, so I bought it, a bamboo shark, and I put him into an uncycled tank. He did for awhile, he ate, and he swam, but I damaged him and his tank mate, a volitan lionfish, by not cycling. Both fish later died.
I thought I was doing so well, so when I deal came up at the local fish store, a 150g tall and a stand for under $600 with tax, I bought it. I also bought 115 lbs of cheap live rock, which turned out to be a mistake. I spent the rest of my saved money on equipment, and let the tank cycle. I went out and bought a regal angelfish, an emperor angelfish, and a mandarin dragonette. The mandarin wasn't doing well and died. The angelfish were incompatable and the emperor killed the regal. I sold the emperor back to the fish store.
During this time, I was already busy, with school and work, and I met the only girl I will ever love, the one who I will be with for the rest of my life. I didn't have much time for fish and maintenence, and i really had trouble affording them. I had already sold the contents of my 480, with the intention of making it a saltwater shark tank. The 180 died, I took it down. The 150 died, I took it down.
I got fed up with the hobby a little bit, I spent less time at this board, and I took down all my tanks except for a 55 freshwater and a 55 saltwater. I had also lost my job just after that, but I just got a working interview, a shot to show them I know my fish at my local fish store.
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