What made you get into aquariums?

What made you all get into the hobby of keeping tropical fish/goldfish/ponds etc? What do you do to keep it interesting? What is the biggest change you have noticed (about yourself, your tank, or the hobby) from when you began to today?

Good questions...
I was a really sick kid for several years, and missed a lot of school. I was fascinated by caterpillars, mantises and grasshoppers, and when I saw a fish tank with marble mollies, that was it. Short finned guppies followed, and then I hit the fishbooks. What gets an 8 year old hooked on a hobby? Whatever it was, the hook went deep. I turned 56 today, and I still have a load of tanks.
What keeps it fresh for me was stepping beyond keeping one tank and starting breeding my fish. It's not always easy, and it's usually interesting.
Plus I'm still the same basic nature nerd I was when I was a kid, so I still enjoy learning about new species, and the absolutely amazing adaptations they have to habitats I can sometimes barely imagine. It's a wonderfully complex world that we live in, and fishkeeping gives me a little window into its marvels.
For me, the big change is I have learned more and have (just a few...) more tanks. I want to keep learning about this, so I'll keep fishkeeping. Technology has changed a lot, and more species could be in the hobby now, but really, the motivation is the same. It's all curiosity.

My parents had fish when I was a kid, and that transferred onto me. I always seemed to have a tank, but the MTS started when a friend of the family's guppy had babies. This was followed by my closest LFS having a breeding pair of convicts! Watching the parents care for the fry was the most amazing thing, I would go over there after school just to watch them. I now take great joy in having large beautiful display tanks where fish can truly demonstrate all of their neat behaviours, while also having a separate fishroom to breed all the species I bring in.

I take great interest in such a variety of things, from plants, fish, aquascaping, and many of dyi projects that come along, I think this hobby will keep me busy for a lifetime.

This is one time I can blame my Daughter as She gave me and my wife a couple of Beta Splendons. Well I caught MTS and well here I am.

I don't think we've ever had fish when I was a kid but I remember asking my parents to stop by any pet store I walked by. I starred at the tanks and wished I would be able to one day have these beautiful fish in my home.

When I was a teenager, my father got a few fish, but he was living far away from me and didn't really care about his, they looked dull and his tank was filthy. It gave me a bad image of fishkeeping.

My girlfriend and I love to go thrift store shopping and one day, we found an empty 20 gallon tank for sale. I believe we purchased it for 15$. She is the one who insisted on getting this. I didn't feel like maintaining an aquarium. Eventually, I was the one to do all the maintenance. Don't worry, the goldfish was rehomed after a while, but I'm sure he suffered from ammonia poisoning while the tank cycled. When I moved him out of there, my tests were reading 120ppm Nitrates :O (Sorry!!!) This is when I decided to read more about fishes and plants and started to look at aquascapes. This opened up a whole new world to my eyes.

What really hooked me on was how vast and wonderful this hobby was and the hobbyists themselves. I have never been so well received in a hobby, being used to elitists... I was fascinated to see that even tho my experience is quite limited, people receive my criticism and advices quite well. I am finally surrounded by people who are just like me VERY VERY curious. It seems that everyday there is something new to learn, there will always be another challenge to tackle, another fish to get, another plant to grow.

I have grown a lot from there, I would say it changed me and how I look at things a lot.
The biggest change I can see is that I have learned to keep a steady schedule and from all of my mistakes I have learned about the true value of hard work and perseverance; the results are always worth the effort put into whatever you do.

For us, this was an unplanned adventure. We did things backward, admittedly. It was Valentines day, and although hubby and I generally do nothing special on this day - too much hype, too busy, etc., I was missing our skinny pigs, who we had cared for and loved for over about 8 years. So, I stopped into the pet shop, just to browse. Ended up leaving with a 10g aquarium...and had no clue about fish! About a week or so later, we picked up four black skirt tetras...followed by a 55g, and then more skirts, after learning that 10 was not going to do it, nor was a group of only four. From there on, our interest and love grew!

As a kid we had a pond with hornpout (bullhead catfish) and I was always catching them and keeping them in buckets of water.  I didn't know about fish tanks and that it was a "real" hobby!!!
Fast forward to college and the HUGE goldfish the people I was living with owned... as I remember it, he was actually in a 30 gallon tank and was pretty well cared for.  Sadly, after years and years of living on top of the refrigerator it got really hot one Summer and he didn't survive.
But, I decided I had to have some Angel fish... got them and for whatever reason, they survived in my ten gallon tank and even bred in there.  They turned out to be natural parents and for several years I made spending money by selling them to a lfs.  
Last Fall I brought my goldfish into a tank in our kennel as usual and suddenly realized how relaxing (and quiet!) I find watching fish swimming in a tank to be.  I moved them into my house from the kennel, then I decided to just get ONE little tank with some little fish for my house and the rest is history!!!  
Fortunately, even with more than a dozen tanks in my house I still find watching them one of the most calming and relaxing things at the end of a day of barking dogs.  Works for me!

Laundry got me into this hobby...

That's right laundry,

First when we got married, we never had a washer and dryer. So a regular ritual was to go to my parents house and take advantage of there facilities, not to mention raid there food supplies.

Anyway one day i was standing there waiting for the dryer to finish and I noticed an aquarium sitting there that my father had fish in from years ago. Anyway I quickly decided to take it home and set it up with a couple of goldfish and as they say the rest is history, that was about 27 years ago.

Not a lot has changed really since then other then the cost of the fish I keep. I guess it's like anything people collect, you start off simple and before to long you end up trying to get the best of whatever it is that you collect.

If only I could turn back the clock and never have noticed that tank, I could be independently wealthy about now.

Steve

I spent my first 7 years in Jamaica and we always seemed to have fish. 1 aquarium inside the house and barrels of guppies outside. When we moved to Canada, my older brother kept an assortment of tropical fish and I've continued in his foot steps. There has only been a year or two when I didn't have an aquarium of 5 going. Currently have a tank of albino red guppies, 2 tanks of freshwater shrimp, 2 tanks of tiger endlers ( 1 male/ 1 female ). Currently holding on some OEBT shrimp to arrive on Friday. And my latest search, tiger teddys. My tanks are my TV. I can sit in front of them for hours.

For me its a window into a different world. Wonderful, gorgeous and sooo relaxing.
About 20 years ago my boyfriend back then started with a 55g tank. Then he fell in love with discus fish and the tanks got larger. I learned a few basics in that time which prevented me now from making the big beginner mistake to get a tank, fill it with tab water and put fish in.
For now I sit in front of my decorated and since one day now cycling, little 10 gal. aquarium, enjoying the look of the underwater landscape I created and watch air bubbles swirling through the water as there are no fish yet.
Hubby thinks I lost my mind, sitting there and starring when there are no fish in it and he is certain that i completely lost it since he discovered yesterday that I put ammonia in the water.
I hope I will do everything right and not cycle for ever as I have a hubby and an eleven year old son watching me and my every move, waiting to proof me wrong

My growing hobby started with a found 5 gallon tank and 5 feeder goldfish. Turns out that fish is my autistic 6 year-olds thing. That turned into a 35 and 45 gallon tank with gouramis in one and goldfish in another . I then saw some Bala sharks and bought them without really understanding tank requirements... lesson 1 learned haha. I spent a few months checking craigslist for a 100 gallon tank to house them. Finally purchased a 143 gallon tank just in time for Christmas... then lost the sharks to new tank syndrome...lesson 2 learned. It's been a sharp learning curve that's for sure but it is all worth it for the wonderful smile when she sits watching her fish

alisia1701 wrote:My growing hobby started with a found 5 gallon tank and 5 feeder goldfish. Turns out that fish is my autistic 6 year-olds thing. That turned into a 35 and 45 gallon tank with gouramis in one and goldfish in another . I then saw some Bala sharks and bought them without really understanding tank requirements... lesson 1 learned haha. I spent a few months checking craigslist for a 100 gallon tank to house them. Finally purchased a 143 gallon tank just in time for Christmas... then lost the sharks to new tank syndrome...lesson 2 learned.   It's been a sharp learning curve that's for sure but it is all worth it for the wonderful smile when she sits watching her fish

Many hobbyists learn through similar kind of situations. It's great to hear things are improving, and you see those setbacks as what they really are, lessons. I think in most cases the new tank syndrome you mention is really just an incomplete cycle. It can certainly be disheartening to lose fish, but joining a place such as this really shows you care about your fish and tank, and we willing to learn.

Absolutely lovely to hear about your daughter's story!

Consider stopping by our tank journal area (and perhaps starting one!). It's a great way to track the progress of your tank, and see it's evolution. It's also a great place to share photos. https://www.canadaquaria.ca/f12-tank-journal. Wishing you luck with the tank.