Its amazing to see how many of us got started with the goldfish! I am no exception to that...
My first fish was a 1/2 inch comet goldfish won at a local county fair by tossing ping pong balls into fish bowls. I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. That summer I also began volunteering at a local pet store that was pretty nasty when it came to care for the animals. My parents knew the owners, so we went there often as a family to "visit". While there it made me sick to see so many animals in filthy cages, fish in dirty water, so I asked if I could clean cages, help do water changes, etc. Of course, back in the late 70's, free help was hard to come by, so they told me to go nuts. I did. After school and all of my summer vacations were spent volunteering in that little store for a few yrs. As my parents befriended other pet store owners and employees, my selection of pet stores to volunteer in expanded. While in those stores I was also allowed to read the books on their shelves, which helped me to take care of the goldfish and other pets I had at home as well as the animals in the stores.
While my goldfish lived in a bowl, he did get water changes every other day, so he was not as neglected or mistreated as some of the fish I saw at the stores. When he got too big for his bowl a yr after bringing him home, mom found a friend with a 120 gallon goldfish tank and asked if they would also take mine. Mom disliked fish and convinced me to get a guinea pig instead, that was the only way I would agree to get rid of the goldfish I had named Herby.
When I was 19 and single mother living in an apartment I desperately wanted a pet for my kids. The landlord said no to everything except fish, so once again I set out on a fish tank adventure and my first tank, 20 gallons with swordtails and black mollys. As the swordtails began breeding I set up more tanks to house the fry. The mollys soon followed. One day the landlord came to visit and informed me that I was allowed "a fish tank" not 20 of them, so I was forced to break down all but 1 tank. I kept a 37 gallon tank full of community fish until I could afford to move, and all of my homes since then have always had at least 1 fish tank.
When I reached my early 20's I took a job at a pet store. That began a career I had never imagined. He paid me to get educated, offered me a place for the experience and research. As I studied my way through every species available to the retail market the boss would order as many of those species as possible, providing me with live research materials/specimens. It took the first year working there to read my way through the entire library of fish books, and then I moved on to live plants, and from there to saltwater. Seminars, formal schooling, etc. were all mandatory for this job. My bosses were all well educated (formally), all of them having degrees in things like aquatic biology, ecology, botany, etc. I borrowed college text books from them, met and worked alongside a number of aquatic vets and vet techs, and submersed myself into everything aquatic. Each study project meant another new tank at home. So for the past 20 yrs my world has focused primarily on fish, both as pets and as a career. What can I say... the animals have always inspired me. :-)
--- In tropicalfishclub@yahoogroups.com, "J. C." <hillbillynursery@...> wrote:
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> Since the list has been a bit quiet, why not tell what got you started in this wonderful hobby. My mother got into fish for the kids way before my time. It started with goldfish from a fair as I was told. As a young child we had a goldfish tank and a tropical community tank. Yes the poor goldies never made it to full size yet they lived long lives. One goldy was made it to 15 years old. They were housed in a 30 gallon tank. The tropical tank was neon tetras, cory cats, and all the common livebearers. Dad retired in '81 and moved back to his hometown. With a 500 mile move all fish were sold/given away. After we got settled the love of fish keeping made its way back into my life. I had the tanks we had up north. In fall of '84 I set up a tank in the cold unfinished basement of our home. Within a year I had 6 ten gallon tanks along the wall that were set on 2x6s(lumber) laid across concrete blocks that was not very level as our basement was just gravel
> for a floor. And yes livebearers were what got me started. By '85 I was selling a thousand livebearers a year. Then came my BIG idea. It was a big idea as I never heard of anyone doing this before. My uncle used my dad's farm as a dumping grounds for used bath tubs(old cast iron). Many of them where cracked, ect... My idea was to place them above ground so they would get warmer early in the year and move many of my fish outdoors. The sun gives the fish more color and the large "tanks" with few fish made them reach their full potential. Then one of the pet store owners I sold to introduced me to show guppies and later sailfin mollies that reach 4 inches with large sails.
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> From there I went to keeping a few fish every fall to restart during winter for the next season. I was breeding fish as well as these mass producing. I had a line of guppies that came out of a community tank of mine with black tails with a cresent moon of yellow and orange. I know they had some endler blood. I got them to throw several of these each spawn but never got them line bred. College came, marriage and kids came and all I had was a small(20 gallon tank) for many years. I got back into breeding quality guppies but was not happy with it. I was just mass producing quality guppies. Making a new line is so much hard work(time wise). Then we got the internet in '96. My life changed in many ways. I got a better job which left me with more time and money for my hobby. I found the AKA(american killifish) web page. I saw a picture of killies in an out aquarium book my mother had printed in the 60s. Killies were easy since I started with gardneri
> locations. I raised rosy barbs, angels(in pure rain water since our tap water is like a rock), and bettas in my high school years. Each of those types of fish had there reasons they were only spawned a few times. Rosy barbs was a problem getting rid of that many fry. Angels was it was a pain trying to get enough soft water. It was no problem getting them to spawn and taking their eggs away from them to raise. They always ate the eggs. Bettas was all the water changes for all those quart jars for the males. I only raised one spawn of bettas for that reason. After working with killies for a long time I added african cichlids.
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> Killies and wild type livebearers are my focus as of right now as I am starting back. I hope I can get it going well so I can make good this summer. I have 4 16 cubic ft outdoor ponds and 4 old bath tubs ready for fish. I learned I had to cover the tubs about half way to keep them cool enough mid summer. Fish go outdoors first of May here.
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> Later, John
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