New or Old

Ok a strange question for yous fish keepers. im 23 and in the hobby about a year was just curious to get other peoples age and how long they have been in the hobby if you dont wanna post your age feel free not to. Was just thinking would i be one of the youngest on the Forum

I'M 26 got my first goldfish at 6 never could keep them alive cleaned the tank to well, tropical fish since 13 i.e cichlids angelfish and the usual balla's and other sharks when neon tetras where tougher and just moved onto marine the last 3 months

I'm 30.. it's been nearly ten years of a break in fishkeeping.. and I have the tank now for couple of months.. I had aquariums since I was in school..
I don't hink you are youngest..

I am nearly 30 now and have had a fresh water community set up a little over 2 years now. Before this I had 2 gold fish when I was around 10 or 11. The poor things came to an unfortunate end when I accidently kinda Boiled them.... let me explain;

I had no knowledge at this time about water changes or water conditioners or anything to do with looking after fish, all i knew was fish need water to swim and food to eat! Basically, when the tank water got dirty or smelly I would fill the sink in the bathroom with water and transfer the fish to it while i emptied and cleaned the tank of all water and refilled with fresh cold tap water.

The hardy little goldfish somehow survived all this for about a year. But one day my uncle told me that I shouldn't such cold water as it would shock the fish and to add a little hot water to remove the chill. So wanting to do the best for my little fish friends and worrying about them being too cold, I proceeded to fill the tank with water from the electric shower!!!

I tested the temp before returning the fish to their home and concluded that it must be fine as it didn't burn my hand and i would usually turn the temp of the shower up a bit when I used it. Anyways I dropped the fish in and they darted-ed about the tank for a few seconds before floating to the surface with the odd twitch. I was devastated! My uncle felt so bad about it that he bought me 2 terrapins for my now empty tank which I owned for may years.

Sorry for long story but when I started my fresh water tank 2 years ago, it all came flooding back!

fishhead88....23 years old is not young, it's the age of 'mature entry' to college.

As I'm not yet prepared to receive loads of charity gifts of bids, tartan slippers, and zimmer-frames, and comments of 'old codger' all I'll say is that I was born after the first electric guitar was built but before Hendrix died.

I'm no longer as young as I used to be, and many people seem to have the same problem. There you go.

I started fish keeping about 40 years ago.
Moving country and house so many times has seen some breaks for a few months now and then during them years.

The early days of my fish keeping are a great memory for me.
Sometimes I do miss the innocence of when I first started......ie really keen to just 'get a fish' and put it in a tank, buying fish that few people knew much about, and finding out it was a terror (aka nice looking cichlids).

If I didn't have such an innocence in the early days, even though I got many of the few books available then, then I would probably not have had the experience of keeping such great fish as firemouths, convicts and the likes......it was buying those fish in innocence that made my fish tank collection start to get bigger and bigger. !!

If I had known everything about such fish before buying then I'd probably have not bought them, and may have been happy with a single 2 foot tank holding some gourami (especially as I originally thought fish to be pretty boring anyway).

I may also never have become a curator of a public aquarium or a scientist.....and I'd not have met and married the person I did (and not then met my present partner), and I'd not now be looking at seeing my first grandchild born.

Funny how fate and accidents leads you down an unknown future.

....the memories of an old codger....

So in reply to the thread question.....'OLD'.

ian

im 20 started at about 17

21 started when i was 18

sean

Three months in now.

Throughly enjoying it.

54lt community tank.

Next up is a nano shrimp tank, and after that a cichlid tank.

Long term, next year or so, i plan to build a marine tank.

I just want a nemo, so everytime i walk into the room i see him and go awwwwwwww.....