Returned to fishkeeping after nearly twenty years....

Well, I've been lurking on the forum for months, and signed up for awhile as well, but I never did properly introduce myself. I still need to finish the second part to my little fishkeeping history, but here is....

PART I

Like quite a few people I'd suspect, I started when I was a wee lad with a couple of carnival goldfish. Of course, these were always very long lived.... sometimes making it a whole week... then again I was six....

When I was about eleven I decided I wanted to do some 'serious' fish keeping. However, since my allowance was something like $3 a week (in 1984; today my wife gives me like three or four times this, so I'm set now), this amounted to me getting three decent goldfish, a bowl, and some supplies. Unfortunately, two of the three died within a week. The remaining fish, however, rallied and survived in my pathetic little bowl for almost two years! His name was 'My Little Shark.' When he passed away I buried him in my back yard in an empty fish food container. It seemed very elegant back then.

After My Little Shark died I decided to move into the 'big' leagues. I got myself a ten gallon aquarium around 1986 and stocked it with goldfish and catfish sans heater. I did okay given my general ignorance, but then one December my parents and I went away on vacation. We asked a family friend to watch our house and he decided that he would 'help us' and 'save us a few dollars' by turning off our heat while we were gone for the week. Well, the temperatures got down around 15 degrees outside and perhaps 35 inside, so when I returned I had one live corydoras catfish and alot of other frozen fishes floating around. Still makes me mad even today.

I decided after that that I would never have a tank without a heater again, regardless of whether I was keeping goldfish or warmer water fishes, and from there I started to move toward keeping tropical fish. I tried Angel fish, snails, Danios of various types, Neon/Card. Tetras, etc. Then I got an odd bit of luck.....

A friend of my mom knew someone who had just been convicted of child molestation... (I said it was odd...) and the judge had given him a couple weeks to sort put his house in order before heading to the big house. Well, this dude had a 55 gallon aquarium, a 30 gallon aquarium, a wonderful stand, and all the accoutrements, as well as some fish. So he gave me all this stuff and I was in fish heaven. (I have absolutely no clue whatever happened to this guy... frankly, couldn't care either, but I appreciated the tanks.) For awhile I'd have three aquariums: a 55g, a 30g, and a 10g!

part 2 to follow.....