How long?

[rolloffhill]

How long have you been in the fish keeping hobby?

[ElijahTurtle]

I'm assuming it's accumulative & not counting sebaticles from the hobby.

[rolloffhill]

Yeah, pretty much.....

I just realized mine were actually consecutive...:eek:

[jabbott]

It has been less than a year for me - I started last November when my mother-in-law was going on a trip and dropped off her goldfish for us to babysit.

[tsunderl]

Oops... Didn't see the cumulative part. Tack on a few more years.

[guppyfreak2]

about 9 years

guppyfreak2 added 1 Minutes and 15 Seconds later...

sorry did not see the pollup there

[OOwl]

Not counting fish tank I had as a kid, 15 years (with a three-year "cooling off" period :)).

[doughboy]

I've kept fish for about 6 years.

I haven't been able to keep a whole bunch while in college because I'm always shuttling back and forth between school and home.

[masroberts9]

about 16 years here. but the first 11 consisted of replacing dead fish. :spend:

[kewlkatdady]

since i was 13...I'm 31 now.

Had about 5 years off, but I helped my buddy with his tank all the time.

[AndrewH]

I'm going on 18 years the best that I can remember. We had a "family" tank (29 gallon) which my mom and I took care of when I was about 10. Just turned 28 :D.

[rolloffhill]

since i was 13...I'm 31 now.

Had about 5 years off, but I helped my buddy with his tank all the time.


Same here, I think I was 14 though. I honestly can't remember not having a tank...

[radioaktiv]

started my senior year of HS (2000)

with a wal-mart 10g starter kit :o

[Haiven]

It's been about four years for me. I started with a betta, then a BiOrb, now...over 20 tanks!

and I've just developed a strong interest in deadman's victorians. :eek:

[AndrewH]

Not counting fish tank I had as a kid, 15 years (with a three-year "cooling off" period :)).

OOwl's friend was telling me about how back in the early 50's he was importing and raising all kinds of killies and livebearers, etc.

We chatted about it for a little while, but I got the impression the fella had been around the hobby for well over 50 years and he was not just some noob along for the ride to look at a fish tank. Always exciting to talk to someone with so much experience. Heck I bet he's forgotten more useful information regarding fish than I'll ever be exposed to. :D

[kewlkatdady]

I actually started doing water changes at a LFS when I was 11 or 12...

I bought my first tank though on my 13th bday.

Same here, I think I was 14 though. I honestly can't remember not having a tank...

[ElijahTurtle]

OK well I guess I miss understood the concept of the thread. I'm only counting what I would consider knowledgeable fishkeeping experience.
I murdered fish most of my life in various tanks starting at about 10 years of age.

[mrsadler]

i started about 6 1/2 years ago when i first met my wife the monther in law got me hooked so far i have only kept fw :hehe::hehe:

[biggin]

I took a little break in the middle but from the time growing up we always had a tank/ multiple tanks.

Same here, I think I was 14 though. I honestly can't remember not having a tank...

[flamenco-t]

12-18 - I kept live bearers, breeding guppies, mollies, platies, bettas and etc.
18-21 - College, girls, alcohol and cars- no tanks
21-23 - Tried again, got lil more exotic fish this time...($ 5 and up lol)
24-26 - More girls, more alcohol, cars, more girls, - no tanks
26-27 - Racing, never home...always on the road all over the country - no tanks
27-31 - Started with a 20 gallon, within a year ended up with 6 tanks and now reduce to 4 tanks. Sine I am more attached to my fish this time, I think this one is for good..

stan

[masroberts9]

10-12 lots of goldfish
12-22. i found a turtle, always had fish with her, but they didnt last long! BIte size. a couiple of the cory cats lasted a few years they died on a move from texas to colorado at age 15. just the turtle came back to texas at 21. when she died i trashed everything.
27-30 started up again. i started with the frog my daughter brought home. that day we went to get it a tank came back with 2 tanks and 3 turtles and 10 feeders. 2 turtles died within a week. 2 feeders survived and out grew the 20 gal.in like 6 months, so I moved them to a pond and started my first cichlid tank. they turtle out grew the 20 so we got the 55 and made the 20 a community some time later picked up a couple more tanks for various reasons. and here i am.:D

[kSpieler]

heh, I'll admit I'm one of the "OMG, I'm too old to remember..." folks.

I murdered goldfish by the hundreds when I was 2-3 till I was 6ish and my parents decided to quit buying new goldfish!
Then I had a 20g with a rotating (ok, replacing) stock of livebearers till we moved to LR, Arkansas (don't remember year) where we had a really cool custom "Waterfall/wall-to-stream-to-tank-to-stream-to-tank-to-stream-to-waterfall/wall-to-pond" that was built into the inside of the house.
Was tankless a couple of years when we first moved to San Antonio.
Dusted off the 20g, got some convicts (d'oh!), then the MTS hit.
Parents converted a bedroom into a fishroom, think we had like 30 tanks.
Somewhere in my early teens my Mom tried her hand at breeding Oscars, and my uncle gave me a horse
Around 14.5-15... fish? bah! Horses rule! Let Mom deal with all that fish sh*t!
From 15-30 ... I bought-trained-showed-sold horses and taught riding lessons.
At 30, I moved to Dallas, got another 20L ... then a 20H ... then a 30L & a turtle ... then another turtle ... for several (?) years ... then got bored and put everything in storage.
2.5 years ago I got into a conversation @ work about fish ... was told I could have a fish @ my desk ... so I got "Arson" ... then built my first small (2g-ish) tank and set it up @ work, too!
Someone pitched a fit 'cause they wanted a fish, too ... so my tank had to go home.
Once again, out came the 20L ... then MTS hit again and I built the 12g I have @ work now - the whiner had quit, so I was able to bring my fish back - yaaaaay!
I eventually negotiated (with the hub) for a trade-up from the 20L to a 55 at home ... "snuck" in the 29g & the 10g ... and have managed to get away with getting them ALL up and running! - :hehe: I was supposed to get rid of everything other than the 55! And I still have the 20H on the patio that's not set up :D yet!

I'm 46, if anyone feels the need to do the math!

[ElijahTurtle]

I guess I'll put mine in narrated form too.
We had tanks when I was little from about age 3-7 then we moved to Texas from Cali & the fish went to live with the neighbors.
When I was 9-16 I had endless supply of red ear sliders, tadpoles, crappie, bluegill, bass, & catfish fry in all our ponds on the farm. Other than that all the "exotic" fish that I had, I got from walmart...Like bettas.
Between 4th & 6th grade, I had a "side bussiness" selling the turtles to my buddies at school for $5 each. Anyhow all of those lived in various tanks in my room till I was about 16. We lived over an hour from any pet stores that sold fish when, Walmart quit selling fish somewhere in that time frame so I just kept fish out of the pond mostly.
At 16 I got my '62 chevy & mom got PO'd cause now the tanks were not being taken care of since I was more into my truck(interpretation: I quit replacing the dead fish with new ones....:confuzeld:)
At 17, my brother caught a tarantula & gave it to me, it lived in one of the empty tanks. Being that it was fall & all the grasshoppers nearly gone, I had to find a food solution. Hmmm...the pond has bebe minnows in it.
Yup it worked he ate them, so up goes another tank to keep pond minnows in it so I could feed the spider.
I kept it till spring & gave it to the science lab as a pet, but the minnows stayed. They were ugly so being post spwan, I caught more crappie & bass fry to put in there. Around the same time my brother & I caught a baby softshell turtle which then lived with the fish I had. I had those for about a year then the turtle disappeared....:confused: So being tired of the fish since my cool turtle went awol, they got a new bigger home in the pond out back.
After that my life was in limbo between college, jobs, work, etc. so durring this point, I gave up on fish till 2002 when I was at college & had access to the internet. :D I looked for any pet store that sold fish. Luckily there was one just down the street from the college. I also worked a graveyard security job at the school, which is when I found Fishgeeks which led me to planted tanks & the old box via pm from the owner of that site & to my permanent home here. :cool:
That's my story & I'm sticking to it! Yeah I know long pointless crap filled story, in case you wondering I'm at work & have nothing else to do....:confuzeld:

BTW - I did find the Softshell turtle when I moved to college for the first time. It took me a minute to figure out what the heck it was since it was so shriveled up....:eek:

[rolloffhill]

my permanent home here. :cool:

This is my favorite part of that story...:D

[ElijahTurtle]

This is my favorite part of that story...:D
Yeah, It was kind of a ramble fest. But like I said I was bored at work. And yes that is the best part of the story. I was extremely active on national & international forums, then I found you turds & now I'm stuck! I don't care how informative a forum is, a local one with decent folks trumps that any day.

[cichlidfan]

Since 1971...you'll have to do your own math (big numbers were scarin' me)

[AndrewH]

Since 1971...you'll have to do your own math (big numbers were scarin' me)

Only 36-37 years, longer than I've been alive :eek: :rofl:

Congrats :clap:

[masroberts9]

roflmaoroflmao

[fredtex]

less than a yr. this time it has only been 9 months I have had them on and off since I was a kid.

[fishyjoe24]

off and on for 10 to 15 years. started with a 10 gallon as a kid.

[AndrewH]

Total, as of Oct 10th 2008 with 40 total voters, is... (drum roll please)

465 years of experience on this board. :eek: WOW!!!

Took each year range and averaged it (1-5 = 3, 6-10 = 8, 11-15 =13, etc.) then multiplied by the number of votes for that year range, then added 'em all up. I couldn't believe the total that I got. Just WOW!

[masroberts9]

as long as you go by the rule thumb, bad experiences equals good experience

[kSpieler]

How many did you add for us old farts that were too feeble to do the math?

[AndrewH]

as long as you go by the rule thumb, bad experiences equals good experience

Even the "Babe" held the strike out record for a while ;)

I say, learn from your mistakes and you'll really grow to love this hobby. I know I sure have :D.

How many did you add for us old farts that were too feeble to do the math?

25 each :p: just to be on the safe side :rofl:

[EAST_TX_RN]

Not counting the fish I had when I was a kid, I've been keeping cichlids for about 6-7 years now. I slowly learned a few things by the experience and reading my cichlid book, but nothing compared to what I have learned since I found you guys! :D Y'all have been such a big help and so supportive during my two kill-offs!