How I got in the hobby...

It was a warm Saturday night at the Cajun Crawfish Festival in the early 1990s. I had 3 tickets left and my Mom was dragging me out of the venue when I saw it... a sign that said 3 to tickets to play - All I had to do was knock over 10 pins stacked on top of each other with 3 balls... I could do this. I knew I could do this... Throw... Miss... Dang... Time to focus. "Can't go now Mom, I have 2 more balls." Ok.. focus. Throw... Nailed it!!! One left... Ok. Now I have to get this one. Throw....... AND YES!!!! I WON!! And comes the prize. I knew I deserved a mighty trophy for this great feat I had accomplished. The guy looks around and then out comes the plastic bag. "What did I win, what did I win?" My first goldfish. Well, my first fish of any kind. I was so excited he gave me two. We managed to keep those two fish alive in a 1 gallon water pitcher that was still stained with kool-aid for well over a year. My cat ended up fishing one out and the other died from neglect undoubtedly. After the two goldfish, I wanted more and got a 20 gallon tank for my 12th birthday.

The 20 gallon tank stayed around till college when I lost the attention span to worry with it. During my last year of college I got the itch again and set up a 30g tall freshwater tank. I found a blue lobster that I named Lil Gangsta Blue or just Blue for short. He moved with me and was set up at our Hyundai store where he received much acclaim as a murderer. That little crayfish ate a total 26 freshwater fish, his favorite being sucker fish - Gyrinocheilus. He also has his own facebook page @ - https://www.facebook...5890905?sk=info

In my first year home, I had a friend live with me for a little while who had a 70 gallon fish only tank. I remember thinking - if this goober can keep these fish alive when he doesn't even know what they are then I know I can... Well, as fate would have it. After 3 good years together, Blue passed on. And with that death it was time to go salty.... In order to recover I found my red reef lobster and that was my first saltwater creature. Within a month I was upgrading lighting, buying a HOB skimmer and picking up some xenia and a leather coral. Within another month I had the little 30g full of corals and was falling in love with the hobby like I never had before.

After the 30g, I knew I wanted to go big... real big. So I began the planning stages of my 210g that was destined to be an SPS tank. After the 30g, I armed myself with a lot of knowledge and started getting involved with online forums as well as resource books and pages. And so born was the coral nut known as Thatgrimguy.


How did you get in?

 

I was forward depolyed on the great USS Florida SSGN 728 (blue) in Diego Garcia, (its ablot 7degrees south of the equator, in the middle of the Indian ocean) and i went snorkling in the crystal clean waters, saw 1000s of beautiful fish, corals, cucumbers, crabs, everything, and we swam with the turtles, and it was life changing! i was dreaming about snorkling and was completely obsessed. When we got back to teh states, i got stationed in CT, and theres no reefs up here BUT around the time i got all settled in up here in CT, the show TANKED came out, watched that and the rest is history.

 

My father had fo when I was a child, mostly triggers. I always had an interest but when my mother passed away a few years ago, we found a hobby we could both get into and help take my mind off things. Went to Lfs, saw things, researched, followed Craigslist for awhile and I'm now here. It kinda sucks because my mom would have LOVED the tank. But my father and I are much closer because of the hobby.

 

I actually got into the hobby on a doctors advice. I had (some might still say have LOL) a high stress job and I suffered common systems of high blood pressure. The doctor mentioned "Because of your age I would not recommend anything drastic, change your diet, increase exercise, fluids - you would be surprised what something like a fish tank in your home or office could do to help."

Since I could not have any animals "technically" I purchased a used fish tank, than found out the tank was not big enough -- upgraded -- changed the fish --- upgrade ... again ... again. Sought more challenges -- discus -- salt water -- pico salt water - DIY etc.

 

Neat story grim! lol

I for one began my journey about 4 yrs ago was away at a college in Gainesville. ( i know... a noles fan that goes to college in gainesville, weird right? lol. i went to SFCC then tanfererd to UCF) While in gainesville I went to a party at my buddies appt who went to UF, and he had a salt water tank. I want to say a 46 Bow mixed reef. Nice tank for sure.

Up until 2 yrs ago, i finally dipped my toes into a 20 long tank. Its under my sig. I learned along the way, and was completely fascinated by the whole aspect of being a "reefer' you have to be pretty up-to-par in many aspects such as: marine biology, electrical, fluid dynamics, physics, hell carpentry all the way to chemistry play a role in making a nice, healthy salt water tank. But it could be taken a lot less severely than that, but i for one love to push myself in just about all those things, and in return i can apply that to my tank in some way shape or form.

Now im at a point where i understand what is going on in my tank, thanks to most of you folks on here, as well as courses in college like oceanography, and just general research, i feel pretty accomplished, but not satisfied. lol. never satisfied.

I also wanted some thing super duper cool to wow my friends and family when they stop by, which is all the time lol. Keeps them entertained after a few hours on the town, come back here and just watch it. in a drunken daze.Lol but i really enjoy the uniqueness it brings, because there is no other tank EXACTLY, like mine, or yours. Its just. cool. id say. lol.

Plus the colors corals produce is just mind blowing to me at times, i could look at them all day. everyday, lol.

 

It's always fun to reminisce about how we got started in anything. But especially something fun like a hobby.

Keep these great stories coming!