# Your 1st Fish tank



## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

I don't know if this topic has been put up in this forum or not but thought it might be a fun one for all of us to share in. So here is my story:

I was in high school, 16 years old, when I decided to get a fish tank. Don't recall what made me want to do it but I went out and bought a 20G tank. I started with guppies and after about 6 months of those decided to move on to a mixed tropical tank.

Being 16 years old I just chose fish at random that looked pretty and that I thought I'd like to have. When everyone was little things went swimmingly so to speak but as my fish grew there started to be a few problems. One of the fish I had for the tank was a beautiful marble angelfish. Another I had was a very lovely Tigerbarb. The angelfish soon outgrew my tank and I took him to the local fish store and traded him in on some other fish. I don't recall what exactly they were but within a week, my Tigerbarb had killed all of them.

In a fit, I called my LFS and asked if they would take yet another fish from me, to which they said of course. Looking around I found a large jar to place the barb in for transport. Now here is the kicker...you have to remember...I was 16 years old. I put the jar on the passenger floor in the front seat and proceeded to back out of the driveway  . When I put the car in drive and looked over at the jar....  the jar had tipped over and the fish was flapping away on the floormat. Taking my eyes off the road I leaned down to right the jar and put the fish back in the jar.

Bad decision...feeling a bump I looked up and realized I had driven into the neighbors yard. Thinking quickly I turned the wheels to avoid hitting the house and drove straight over their mailbox. Now I'm sitting in the middle of road, fish on the floorboard, very little water left in my jar. I looked around and put the fish in the jar and drove to the LFS.

Returning home I was uncertain how I should handle this scenerio. Fearing my parents would take away my driving privileges I decided to watch to see what would happen. When the neighbors came home from work I could see them (from my 2nd floor bedroom window) walking around their yard pointing to the tire marks and the broken mailbox. Shamed with what I'd done, I went to their house and confessed. Also told my parents who revoked my car privileges for a month.

I kept this tank for a few more months and then finally gave it to friend. I will never forget this 1st tank of mine and the story of the "spilled fish" that goes with it.

Moral of the story...When you are 16 years old...a fish out of water is just another lesson in life.. :dancing:


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

I was given my first tank at the age of eight. It was a gumball machine with marbles for substrate. I filled with guppies in to time flat and completely dissembled it once a month and washed everything in hot water. Somehow the never ending cycle didn't kill them and they breed until they filled up my a second tank, a 20 long.


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## BrendanMc (May 30, 2012)

My first year of college I had a 10 gallon tank and ended up getting 3 cichlids only because I thought they looked cool - no research at all. I had an Auratus, Red Zebra, and a mystery cichlid. I think I had one rock and a small plant in there. Needless to say, the Auratus came out on top of that battle royale I called a tank.


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## theswede (Oct 5, 2009)

Got my first tank (8G) at the age 5. 1979 I got a 66 gallon for my birthday and my malawi journey started. I still got this tank up and running and it has always been full of rift cichlids. Mostly mbuna.


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

Here is a true story about a Piranha I had once.

I had a 7" piranha named Perry the Piranha back in the 80s seems so long ago. Anyway he was in a 60 gallon tank, my buddies and I would get baked and watch him devour mice, literally he would shred them to psc. Well I had a kegger one night and somebody thought it would be funny and poured beer in the tank (I think) I found him dead the next day, pretty bummed.

I decided to freeze him and take him to the Jr high school that had a taxidermy class, the teacher said they would try and stuff him. About a month or two later I went to check in on him turned out he did get stuffed but he also got stolen by some kid, no big deal wasn't to worried. 
I went into the US Navy that following year. About two years later I was back on leave and staying at my best friend house for the month. When I got there he said he had something to show me. Well he brings out Perry the Piranha stuffed and mounted to a board in perfect condition. Guess he (Jeff) dated some chick who's brother was the one that stole the fish. When Jeff saw it he knew it was my fish and took it from him, not to many stuffed Piranhas hanging out in Aberdeen.

I kept Perry stuffed on a board for the next 18 plus years or so, I ended up running a shipping dock in Dutch Hbr Alaska, while there we rescued a 200Lb English Mastiff from a crappy owner. Well some how Perry the Piranha stuffed on the board got set on the floor, I think the wife was cleaning out a back room according to her. Well Chester the Molester the Mastiff chewed up and ate most of Perry the Piranha, all that was left of poor Perry was a bit of fin and his glass eye which I still have somewhere. 

Anyway that was the perils of Perry the Piranha. I also have a tale of a giant King Crab I had mounted on a board that Chester ate also, but that's another story.

I Think I should write a children's books :lol:


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

these are great...keep em coming~~~~


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## Storiwyr (Apr 24, 2012)

My first 'fish tank' was the typical goldfish bowl I had as a kid. I had numerous feeder goldfish as pets over the years, but the one I remember best I must have gotten when I was 10. I let my baby brother who had just learned how to talk choose the name, so I had a pet goldfish named "Uh-oh". Unlike his predecessors, Uh-oh lived a long life of 6 or so years. He went belly up twice, and my dad would declare it was time to flush him, but I would be unconvinced. I resuscitated him on at least two occasions with clean water and a drinking straw. Good ole Uh-oh.


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## NeptunesNeighborhood (Apr 19, 2012)

My first tank was my family's 10g tank when I was a young child. It always had a red tailed shark and neons or platys in it. I remember once all the fish died and the shark would kill anything we put in there, so we let it go like 6 months without water change, feeding, anything. It was disgusting. When we went to fix it up and make it clean again, there he was just waiting for us. He continued to chase and kill everything we put in there until he eventually died and we got rid of the tank.


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## Gervahlt (Jun 25, 2009)

My first tank was the family's 10g when I was about five. I had guppies and goldfish together. The goldfish would pretty much have a short stay as they were the food for my brother's garter snake. Probably good as they didn't get large and eat the guppies that way. Anyway, somehow I got a favorite goldfish that my brother never managed to catch. He grew to about 4.5" or so. I wasn't happy to find him halfway into his snake's mouth later on.

My next tank waited for about 5 years. Then I ended up with six goldfish from the fair. In a different 10g tank they went. Three managed to live through everything I did to them. Every week or two I'd net them out, stuff them into a drink pitcher, tear down the undergravel filter and scrub everything. They got a few extra goldfish that died of (looking back at it now) ich...twice. Feeding consisted of throwing way too much flake into the tank at random intervals. Those three goldfish lived in that 10g tank for over three years before I finally gave them to someone that had a pond. The largest was over 13" long and his tail would stick out of the top of the pitcher when I'd clean the tank. Amazing that they lived through all of that.


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## Ohio Cichlid Lover (Feb 27, 2012)

I got my first aquarium when I was 40...lol I guess I'm still considered a "newbie". My first fish was an Oscar of course. Didn't realize how big they got..lol After breaking off an engagement with my ex girlfriend, my tank sat in storage for about 4 years. It's been up and running since the end of January. I have to admit I really missed the hobby!


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## boxbox (Jul 26, 2012)

My first fish tank was actually a bowl. A betta bowl that is. I went to a wedding and the couple had chosen bettas in these tiny 1.8gallon betta bowls as their centerpiece. When the reception was over, and everyone was leaving, I noticed the bettas being removed from the table, I went over to ask the person who was removing them, what would happen to the fish, and he told me that they would probably end up as food to some bigger fish. Feeling really horrible for the fish at my table, I took him home with me. After a few days of research I upgraded his bowl to a 3 gallon plastic tank, and as I did more research I finally went out and purchased a 38 gallon tank, for him which I planned to turn into a community tank, when it became clear that my little betta was not going to play nice with his tankmates, I went out, yet again and bought him a 10 gallon, all to himself, which he has been happily living in now for 2 years.


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