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How did you become involved in keeping fish?


fish_fingers

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Lived on Pupuke Road in the early 80s just down from the most awesome Pupuke Aquarium so spent a bit of time there as a kid checking out the fish.

First tank was actually a bowl with a paradise fish in it and then I had some mountain minnows and guppies as never liked the goldfish.

Then at my school fair I bought a 2ft tank for $5 and this became my first tropical setup when I was about 10 years old. 20 years on I am still in to keeping my fish but unfortunately havent had tanks setup for all of this time.

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I have fond memories of going to places with the folks, doctors, dentists, accountants and the like, and being plopped down in front of a tank to keep me occupied while the oldies talked about grown up stuff. I was fascinated, particularly by the schools of Neon Tetras. When I started working I got into the habit of buying myself something at the end of every year. One year it was an RC car, another year it was an acoustic guitar and on it went. 5 years ago I got myself a 100 litre tank and every year since then my end of year indulgence has been fish related :D

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The better half was looking on TM one day and stubled across a tank so decised to buy it. After we ste it up it looked too small for where it was sitting so we got a bigger tank and then another good deal was no TM and that was tank 2. After that when ever we see a good tank we buy it and then try to figure out where it could go.

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I remember when I was very young, we inherited 2 goldfish in a bowl (!!) from cousins who were moving away to Nelson and I guess they couldn't take the fish on the long trip up there so we took them. Pretty sure they didn't last long, replacements were bought. I think my mum eventually stopped buying new fish after a while. I think around my 13-14th birthday I decided I wanted a goldfish again. Ended up getting a small glass tank, but still had limited success in actually keeping them alive (I'm guessing the 100% weekly water changes didn't help a lot). Eventually gave up but then back in 2003 hubby gifted me a small tropical tank. Upgraded to current tank a few years later and having more success thanks to the knowledge I've acquired from this forum. :D

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When i was a little kid my Dad kept fish and was a member of the Masterton Aquarium Socirety, apologies if that is not the correct name. They had a meeting room and public display in what was previously and now is again the tearooms in Queen Elizabeth Park. I remember going there to help with tank maintenance when it was Dads turn.

Also went on a few tank crawls and visits to other members places. I was always fascinated with their fish tanks and pond set ups.

When my partner bought a tank and some goldfish from Imsweet on here about 3 years ago

my interest was re-sparked and the goldfish were soon moved on. Now many $$ later.....well you know how it goes

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My formative years were spent on a farm so we had lots of animals of various sorts. When I was a teen we had some goldfish in a tank inside then dad built a pond. When I got married we decided to buy a tank - or two. Eventually ended up with 18 tanks as the kids got into it too and wanted their own tanks with different species breeding and not able to be put in with others etc etc etc.

We then saw an advert late '88 asking if anyone was interested in starting a aquarium club in Blenheim - and here we are, still in the club and still keeping fish, although down to 2 tanks again. :roll:

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I bought a fish tank.

Same here. I decided I wanted goldfish after having them a few years ago, not really my fish. Won a tank from a $1 reserve auction for a but more than $1 :oops: . Saw tropicals and plants and went from there. Now about 2 years later, I have 7 tanks, 4 from the same guy who made my original tank.

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My father kept tropicals on and off when I was wee, and one of the few times I went back for a visit when I was 21 or so he had a large octagonal tank in the lounge which I found inspiring. Years later a good friend of mine was selling a large gold fish set up, which I purchased , made a stand for and converted into a tropical tank, unfortunately I only had it a year or so when I began moving around a bit so had to sell, I always intended to get back into it when my life became stable again.

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lol i use to smoke thats all im going to say :lol:

lol

Always had pets growing up in a small town. usual house pets, wild animals(possums,rabbits,dear,pigs), ponds, trout tanks, bullie tanks, magpies, hedgehogs, that many different ones i couldn't remember them all. parents eventually had enough of them all and we weren't allowed any more for a while.

When i had my own place i was at the LPS one day with the mrs getting some rabbit stuff i think, and quite liked a cichlid that i seen, brought a few of them and got the old tank out of the olds garage roof and set it up. fish died a month or so later, i was sooo gutted as i loved em so much. so i got thinking. done heaps of research, learnt a lot of info, no thanks to the LPS AT ALL! stumbled across this forum, many tanks and hundreds of fish later... all is good :)

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I always liked fish, turtles and the like. When I was 10 I got a fighter tank with 2 males on either side of the tank.

spiralled out of control after that! :D had tanks coming out my ears. then i finally cut down to a fw tank and a marine, and now just a main fw tank and some other extra tanks for holding fish, acclimatising them etc.

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When I was 14, I found $160 in the gutter, so I took it to the police station thinking it was the right thing to do but the cop told me to keep it. So I ended up stopping at the pet shop on the way home and got a heater and filter. Got home and set up an old fishtank I had for goldfish years before that. A few days later I came home with a turtle (which my dad was not happy about :lol: ). A few years later I sold my turtle and got a bigger tank and tried tropical freshwater and have loved the hobby ever since :D

My wife got hooked when I joined one of the local clubs (kmac) and started putting tanks every where

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i grew up in motueka my father was a commericial fisherman so i was always out on the boat or down the wharf both my parents were keen gardeners so we had a pond with goldfish really early on, then a few bath tubs axies in one and banded kokopu in the other

dad ended up getting a 4 ft tank made up which had goldfish in it for a while before it was changed to coldwater marine and housed 16 seahorses of varying colours and sizes my faverourites were a small red and white striped one and a monster 40cm long peach coloured one we also had a 10cm skate in there and various fish caught in an estuary and brought home

the only filtration was a small hang-on-back filter didnt know what a skimmer was lol tank had 50% water changes each week (from the estuary near talleys fisheries-hate to think what was in that water) also worth noting we had a piece of black coral looked like a tree branch (not much coral left in tasman bay now due to dregding) we kept seahorses for over two years and they bred often we never managed to keep any of the young alive though in the end their colours started to fade really badly and we returned them to the sea thinking they were sick.

then an aquarium shop opened in riwaka of all places in what used to be a dairy in the middle of no where so the 4ft became tropical freshwater for several years .

then 3 years ago after not having fish for years i found a 100l tank at work and got some goldfish now have 5 tanks and a tub outside

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I have always been mad about animals of all kinds. My mum kept fancy guppies when I was a kid and being into animals I gradually took them over and by the time I was 10 I had a complement of tanks in my room with all sorts of guppies. Have had fish ever since really but never went back to guppies.... :roll:

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