# What was your very first fish ever?



## leeac (Nov 24, 2003)

Just curious to see how you all started and wound up Frontosa Nuts...

I started by adopting a single Tiger Barb that was going to be fed to a friend's piranha... I housed it in a drinking glass until somebody told me that it needed a certain temperature and filtration... so began my venture into 125g tanks and weekly water changes... I don't regret it at all...

What's your story?...


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## Gandalfslair (Jun 22, 2004)

I think we have all dabbled with various attempts at fish keeping. For me it started with:

10y.o., 10gal community...~20y.o., 40 gal knifes, reedfish....27 y.o., 40gal hex in my company's lab, oscar, pacu (what a mistake!)...34y.o. Salt water, angels, clowns, tangs, lionfish (fav of all time!)....now, a 20gal hospital, 55gal Malawi, and 125gal Frontosa and friends...

I guess what inspired me toward Fronts is this board...I was looking (internet) for what kind of fish I was going to tackle this time and found this site...kept reading and saw how majestic the Frontosas were...started with Kipilis, then Burundis, small stab at Mpimbwes, and now Mobas...all within a year and a half...I am envious of those of you with multiple Front tanks but there's only so much room in my house...real estate in SoCal is too expensive to think about moving to a bigger house...darn!...what, what about Vegas...Yes, Fronnies, gambling, beers, showgirls...now there's a thought!


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## frank1rizzo (Mar 14, 2005)

Im with you Gandalf!!! But I still have room for tanks in my garage, so I may be able to grow a little more 

If I told everyone the specifics of my first tank I would get yelled at... so I'll just say I was 8 years old and it was 10 gal.


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## VP6 (Mar 13, 2005)

ill probably get yelled at too but i was 7 years old and i had a 10 gal. i didnt know any thing about fish keeping i had two rainbow sharks and 20 neon tetras(yeah tell me about it)... a week later i had 9 neons left and one rainbow shark(the rainbow shark was a jumper). now i have another 10 gal with a pair of bolivian rams. this august i will be getting 4 F0 Kapampa's and a 135 gallon tank... and i cant wait.


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## Ron R. (Oct 21, 2003)

it all started with winning my 5 year old daughter a goldfish at the spring bazaar. The goldfish bowl grew to a 10 g tank. A few oscars later it grew to a 75 g and to a 180 g.

My 5 y/o daughter is now 23 y/o.


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## RiftnReef (Dec 17, 2003)

We've had a tank in the house since before I was born. Mom always had one running somewhere in the house. I remember when I was a kid, taking all the fish out, putting them in a bucket with the airstone, and dumping the tank, scrubbing and cleaning everything about twice a year....boy, those poor fish. My first personal tank Dad made for me when I was about 10 or so. It was about 30g, and I stocked it with angles. Funny, only a child, and still saw the beauty in a species only tank. Two weeks after my wife and I married and got our own place, I bought a 10g tank, beefed up the lights, and made a nice little planted tank out of it.....that was almost 10 years ago, and now after being up to well over 1000g of tanks, I'm back down to just 4-5 tanks.....I can't imagine a house without an aquarium.

"J"


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## leeac (Nov 24, 2003)

no house is complete without a nice tank...


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## sldabclmnop (Jul 7, 2004)

Started with a 10g and a single, red betta when I was 11, then found a used 20g that next weekend that my mom was kind enough to buy for me. From there I aquired a 20long about a year after. I bred guppies for a long time.. then boiled them all in the 20long due to setting a new heater then leaving for the weekend :x That got me out of the hobby for a good year - I was probably about 15 then. A year later my mom bought me a 29g and I got back into fish, then back out after they slowly died off. Mind you, this was before I discovered the importance of water changes. Fast forward to about a year ago, I'm 20 and discover a friend's used 55 gallon while helping him move. Wave $40 at him, get what at the time I thought was a huge tank, and decide that after I move I'm going to make a tang tank. Now I live in a bigger city with 4 pet stores - 5 if you count Walmart (I don't).

I found a used 90 gallon a few months ago and bought it.. filled it with a couple of fronts and some other africans. Then just today I saw an ad for a 125 w/ stand and lights being sold an hour away for an absolute steal ($225). I was actually shopping for a 180 gallon, but I couldn't find one for less than $600. Not being one to pass up a good deal, I bought it sight unseen a few hours ago. Hard to believe that over the course of 10 years I'll finally be crossing the double-digit gallon aquarium threshold - and it all started with a single 10 gallon tank.

I'm still going to get a 180, but I think the 125 will tide me over for awhile 

P.S. - Sorry for the novel!


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## tirzo13 (May 26, 2004)

i found a empty 20 gallon on the side of the road when i was a kid.
that night the fair came to town, and i won about 5 red swordtails chucking dimes.
must a spent $5, which was alot for a kid 30 years ago.
they bred like crazy and i released a bunch in a pond, they made it the whole summer, but i'm sure died that winter.
i moved so could not check back with them.
kept that tank for about 10 years.
went to angel fish, then a lone red devil, then more tanks!
been into frontosa for about 10 years, but wanted one the first day i saw one.


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## FrontMan2 (Mar 11, 2005)

My very first fish ever were a pair of convict I got from a friend. I needed something after a girl who liked me gave me a 30 gallon complete set up when I was in college. 8) I've been hooked ever since.

Now that 30 gallon houses ngara peacocks and a goldhead comp.

Over the years I've flushed 100's of convicts. I've been thinking about getting more so my Fronts could get some live snacks.


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## ObsessedWithFish (Feb 6, 2004)

When I was about 10 my father bought me an old 10 gallon tank from the flea market and some goldfish. But what really got me into fish that I really put time and effort into were Oscars.


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## bluetip (Jan 28, 2004)

When I was about 9 my cousin got me a 20 gal tank with goldfish and swordtails for my birthday. 2 years later, I had a 15, a 20 and a 50. Was keeping almost any cichlid I could get my hands on. The convicts started breeding like crazy! I had jack dempseys, blue acaras, rams, then africans. Then, I owned my first frontosa. A burundi. I was in awe with that fish. I just had one back then bec I didn't know any better and I couldn't afford getting more of them.

When I was 12, my folks got a new house, I had a 4000gallon pond, and a cement aquarium about 400 gallons and 2 300 gallon square ponds. Got into knives, arowanas, oscars, bettas, black ghosts. I kept the 4000 gallon pond filled with africans. Venustuses, comprecisseps, nyassaes, auratuses, kenais, haplochromis. everything!...man that was a crazy time...I've been having fry every other week of just about any cichlid in that pond...but never had the opportunity to keep any fronts.

I had more arowanas and discusses in my cement tanks.

Then got out of the hobby when I was 15. Five years later, we moved places. Went back into the hobby with a 270gallon tank which used to be a saltwater tank. 2 years ago, I crashed that tank, and just made a fronnie tank !

bluetip


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## Aquaboogei (Jan 17, 2003)

I was in the 5th grade and a pet store opened just down the street from where I grew up. I remember going in there almost every single day looking at the piranha. Finally my parents bought me a 20 gallon tank and I got two piranha. They grew so fast. Then one day my dad cleaned the water and put the fish into a bucket with fresh water right out of the faucett. It killed them. I was so ticked. Then I asked him if I could get a monkey because I saw them offered in the back of a comic book. He said no.


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## mrclearview (Mar 13, 2005)

Black mollies & fancy guppies!!!!! My how things have changed. Lovin' every single minute of it!!! I don't regret a thing!!! I am very addicted to fish keeping!!


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## rconnor673 (May 16, 2005)

sadly my first fish was a goldfish in a little little little 1 gallon tank


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## Scarlet33 (Feb 9, 2004)

Very first fish was a betta of course. 
Every fish I had when I was a kid died pretty quick. 
Started up an old 10g over a year ago with tiger barbs, then it grew from there when I discovered mbuna. 
29g mbuna tank quickly grew to a 40g found at a garage sale.....now I have 9 tanks with various cichlids (african, SA, soon to be CA). 
Now I am just an overall cichlid fanatic. 

I need a bigger house now. :lol:


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## McMuffin (Dec 9, 2003)

hey guys. 
well i first started with a fish tank when i was about 5 with my brothers and we all had 2 fish each.... my brother had neons and scizzor tails and when i was allowed to buy one i bought the tiniest baby jewel... anyway we ended up getting 2 and the jewels were the sole survivors and bred and then we realised they were cichlids.....

now im 19 my brother is older and have done a fair bit of research.... have 8 tanks up and running including my new 6ft in my room to set off my 4 ft.... soon my fronts will be shifted over into their new home... looks nice and should have a few pics up in about 2 weeks when i put them in


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

As a kid,  I kept guppies outta a local pond along with turtles, newts, frogs etc....

The first fish that I was interested were eels, of which I kept & hand fed swamp eels until the largest specimen would not fit in my 75 gallon tank anymore. I kept & bred Cecilian Worms & I moved on to Oscars, (_which made a publication here at North Carolina State University_).

Then I saw my first Buffalohead Cichlid & Frontosa in Philadelphia, On vacation & fell completely in love.

Outta the first Fronts that I bought approx. 15 years ago from the Pres. of the Cichlid Association, that lives here in Raleigh, I still have two of th eorginal specimen.

I'm hooked.


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## slickvic277 (Aug 20, 2006)

I started when I was like 7-8 years old.10 gallon my mom set up,then I was chasing my little brother around the house and BAM! right into the tank that was the end of that 10 gallon tank.
Then I was hooked on reptiles and amphibians for years.Kept and bred all type of kingsnakes,lots of turtles and lizards.I had an eastern box turtle for 18 years when she failed to come out of hibernation I was crushed.I just gave away 7 years worth of REPTILES magazine every issue in order in mint condition.
Then some time passed and I got back into fish and bought a 75 gallon set up and now Im considering a huge tank with fronts.Although Im a south american guy at hart.Completely hooked on the aquarium hobby!


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

An oscar in a 4 foot tank. I had watched my father keep oscars in a 150 gallon tank in our basement when i was growing up. The first time i could afford it i went and bought a tank and oscar, that was 22 yrs ago and I have kept cichlids ever since .


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## josemaria (Jun 10, 2008)

mine is oscar...followed by arowana then green terror.


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## chago (Mar 4, 2008)

Funny..... I started with a turtle in a 40gal... it seemed to be alone... so I introduced some female bettas and some angels...

All except the turtle died.... of course.. she grew a lot with that kind of food...! :?

Then went through convicts, then mbuna, then fronts & firends... then only fronts!!!

Also need a bigger house


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## eddie52 (Jun 6, 2004)

my first tank was with 2 newts, 2 soft shelled turtles, and 2 crabs. They all died so I got 2 oscars. That was 40 yrs ago. Ha ha, doesnt seem that long ago.


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## veeneck (May 21, 2006)

Hi all,

Like most people I started out with a ten gallon tank. I had fancy guppies and corydoras. I got bored with the guppies and bought a used 55 g and stocked it with African cichlids. I didn't know what the heck I was doing, I mixed a lot of fish that should not have been living together. Fortunately it somehow all worked out. Seven years later, I still have most of the same fish. I was up to four tanks at one point about a year ago, now down to two, one 80g and that same old ten. In the ten I have a group of female bettas and a nice school of cherry barbs. The 80g still has an incorrect mix of cichlids that are not supposed to get along. Interestingly enough they get along fine, I think it's because I keep only males and I keep them just a tiny bit overcrowded so the aggression is spread out.

Part of my mix is three frontosas, two over seven years old now. They tolerate the boisterousness of the other fish, but they go through periods of hiding a lot. Just when I start to worry about them, they come out and hang out in a prominent spot in the tank. Now that I know better, I am planning on adding about three more and giving them a tank of their own. It is going to cost me a ton of money, since my frontosa are all over 10 inches! I assume that I can't add any new ones that could potentially be seen as a meal.


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## NYjets51 (Feb 10, 2008)

In a 10 gallon tank I had 2 iridescent sharks, one clown loach, one gourami, 2 neon tetras, and some others that I dont remember. They all died, and I had 4 white skirt tetrs and 2 african clawed frogs in the 10 gallon. The frogs ate 2 of the fish, and then I lost the frogs one day. Must have hopped out. I then got a 55 gallon tank... In it I put one gourami, and one clown loach. Then i tried 2 angels and they both died. I eventually added another clown loach, and one bala shark. They all eventually died because the pH got too high, and I put two convict cichlids in there. Then I put some mbuna in to see what would happen. I currently have 8 mbuna, 2 convicts, and one synodontis eupterus in a 55, and all is fine. I am now about to set up a SA 55 gallon tank, and eventually someday I want to try frontosa


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## karatejo (Apr 10, 2003)

Me too. My first ever fish was a goldfish. I think thats how most people start to be honest?
It was the summer of 1985 my 9th Birthday and my Granny bought me 3 Goldfish, lets add some houmour here. One day I was cleaning out my little tank (about a foot long pastic, got scratched to b*ggery in the end) in the bath room, I used to fill up the bathroom sink with boiling hot water out of the tap and stick all the rocks and weed in and wash them about. 
The fsh I think i used to put them in a plastic kitchen bowl or something. Anyway my sister came in a knocked off of the bath a whole tub of ajax (bathroom cleaning agent) into the fish bowl i was keeping them in  You can imagine I went nuts! My Gran then grabbed the fish out with her hands and thru them guess where! Into the sink with all the boiling hot water in :lol: Talk about out of the frying pan>
So there I was screaming histerically, and my Gran saying there there dear we can always buy you some more. We manged to get them out we stuck them back into some fresh coldwater.
They all just lay there floating about. Two of them died and no supprises, but the one I called "Perky" survived.
It was quite funny cas all his fins became singed, his tail became like a hook, and his dorsal fin seperated in two. It never healed, he looked like a punk rocker golfish :lol: Then one day the nextdoor neighbour gave me a 3' by 1' tank, she used to keep tropicals in it. anyway i had "Perky" another 2 years in that tank. I always remember the night before he died, he was swimmimg about the tank like an old man, he couldnt keep upwith the rest of the Goldfish i had.
I came home the next day to my brother telling me "Perky" had died. Ill never forget that fish.
I think i buried him in the garden with the cats :lol:

After that I started breeding Goldfish from the tanks at the age of 12. I kept Goldfish until I was around 18. Dont know why but even now im very fond of them but dont have any tho. I had a four year break from keeping fish. Think Girls had something to do with it  Then started keeping tropicals for the first time back in 1998. Think getting married had something to do with it  Here I am today with 150gal and 10 Fronts :thumb:


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## karatejo (Apr 10, 2003)

Me too. My first ever fish was a goldfish. I think thats how most people start to be honest? 
It was the summer of 1985 my 9th Birthday and my Granny bought me 3 Goldfish, lets add some houmour here. One day I was cleaning out my little tank (about a foot long pastic, got scratched to b*ggery in the end) in the bath room, I used to fill up the bathroom sink with boiling hot water out of the tap and stick all the rocks and weed in and wash them about. 
The fsh I think i used to put them in a plastic kitchen bowl or something. Anyway my sister came in a knocked off of the bath a whole tub of ajax (bathroom cleaning agent) into the fish bowl i was keeping them in You can imagine I went nuts! My Gran then grabbed the fish out with her hands and thru them guess where! Into the sink with all the boiling hot water in Talk about out of the frying pan> 
So there I was screaming histerically, and my Gran saying there there dear we can always buy you some more. We manged to get them out we stuck them back into some fresh coldwater. 
They all just lay there floating about. Two of them died and no supprises, but the one I called "Perky" survived. 
It was quite funny cas all his fins became singed, his tail became like a hook, and his dorsal fin seperated in two. It never healed, he looked like a punk rocker golfish Then one day the nextdoor neighbour gave me a 3' by 1' tank, she used to keep tropicals in it. anyway i had "Perky" another 2 years in that tank. I always remember the night before he died, he was swimmimg about the tank like an old man, he couldnt keep upwith the rest of the Goldfish i had. 
I came home the next day to my brother telling me "Perky" had died. Ill never forget that fish. 
I think i buried him in the garden with the cats

After that I started breeding Goldfish from the tanks at the age of 12. I kept Goldfish until I was around 18. Dont know why but even now im very fond of them but dont have any tho. I had a four year break from keeping fish. Think Girls had something to do with it Then started keeping tropicals for the first time back in 1998. Think getting married had something to do with it Here I am today with 150gal and 10 Fronts


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

Just like almost everybody else i started with a ten gallon. All i had was 3 black mollies (Kng, Speedy, and Junior) when i was 9 ish. All my fish died so i stopped until now, 28gallon community (soon to be planted/angel), 6 gallon community, and recently a 75 gallon tank thats just starting up


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## AngieR (Aug 11, 2008)

It was a paridice fish I kept in a tiny 5 gallon tank with one cory cat. :fish: 
Boy have I learned a lot since then.


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## rwolff (Mar 13, 2007)

I guess i was 6 y/o or so, i stayed at my uncle's for a week during a vacation. My cousin had this 10G tank with guppies and some other fish. When the day came to leave, i couldnt, but my cousin gave me a small tank he made himself, i think its 2G with 5 guppies 2 males 3 females, they bred like crazy...after that we (me and my dad) tought we need another bigger one for the many guppies we had in kitchen bowls etc. At about 8y/o we got a broken 10G my dad fixed and we had space for the guppies. (and i still have not entered a pet store..yet!) after that we'd go buy more fish eventually, to goldfish, to swordtail, platys all the small ones... at 12 i got a 55G. Now at 26 i got a 20H and a 16.9G and i still have the 55G and the original 2G, i just cant throw away my very first tank.


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## css virginia (Jan 29, 2007)

I was into the heavy duty fish keeping.. :roll: ..just a Goldfish in a bowl... :lol: .... :fish:


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## ksfishguy (Dec 17, 2006)

My first tank was a 55 with an angel fish, blue gourami, paradise fish, silver dollar, and a pleco. It was around 1981 and I was around 12 years old. It had a undergravel filter and one hob filter that you hand packed with carbon and filter floss. I kept that setup for a number of years and they actually did quite well considering the lack of water changes.

I also had a ten gallon that I tried to keep neons and corys in. Thirty years later I still have no luck with neons!


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## Orca33 (Jul 20, 2008)

I use to sweep my neighbors lawn every saturday after they did yard work, and they paid me with my first fish tank when I was 8 years old. Just a basic 20 gallon with an underground filter gravel and a few plastic plants. The first cichlids I had were a pair of Blue Acaras my dad and I picked up from Petco, those guys stayed with me for 7 plus years and many, many batches of successful fry.

Charlie


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## Orca33 (Jul 20, 2008)

By the way im 24 now and Blue Acaras are probley one of my favorite cichlids of all time, even though I do not own any.


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## MetalHead06351 (Oct 3, 2007)

My first tank was a 5 1/2 gallon with 2 shortlived mollies, followed by very many shortlived fish. That is until I eventually worked my way up to a 55g years later and have been much more successful.


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## Joels fish (Nov 17, 2007)

I started with a little 10g with a few mollies and a sword tail. Then my girlfriends mom bought me an oscar (neither one of us knew anything about cichlids or that an oscar was a cichlid) and I learned very quickly that 1 oscars grow very fast .2 They think mollies and swordtails are delicious. 3 10g of tank is way too small for an oscar. That was 18 years ago , and I've been obsessed with this hobby ever since.

Stupid Oscar.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

My parents had Cichlid tanks since before I was bornâ€¦

I â€œhelpedâ€


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Won a goldfish at a church fair by tossing a ping pong ball into it's bowl.

Then added chlorinated water and could not understand why it died.


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## ajanin (Jul 24, 2008)

My first tank was a 20 long with 2 gouramis and 4 zebra danios. My dad had been keeping cichlids way before i was born so it was successfull. Then he got me a 55 gallon. It had fish already in it so we put a hybrid mbuna in it. It was the brutality of that hybrid that got me hooked to cichlids(everything in it was bit in half). I still have the 20 with the gouramis and it's also my first planted tank.


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## lab911 (Jan 8, 2008)

A ten gallon tank with a half a dozen guppies and a plecostomus when I was seven. Had that tank for years until my sister busted it. Went off to college and was only allowed a goldfish bowl, that is when I purchased Sunshine (Red Ryukin). Now I am happily married and have a Peacock Cichlid tank.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

My first fish:









My first tank:









I was lucky I guess, my first fish was indeed a Cichlid - the _Pelvicachromis subocellatus_ Matadi, got me hooked and that was that. None of my family here in the UK keep fish so I had nothing to build on, I started searching and ended up here at C-F (luckily!). All sorts of craziness has gone on since.


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

20 Gallon tall, first fish were a pair of dwarf gouramis.


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