damo83 Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Hey folks... just thought it would be interesting to see what everyone had in their first tank. Mine wasn't exactly an ideal setup for the occupants... but i didn't know any better back then. I had a 2'x1'x1' with a venustus, johanii, convict and an oscar they were all juvies about 5cm but yeah it was a bit of a disaster. I think i went through 2 oscars before i gave up on keeping an oscar in there... What about everyone else?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem0n Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 my first tank was a 2'x1'x18" & I had a ~30cm oscar & a ~10cm jewel. :frog: it was given to me by a friend who parents wanted him to get rid of it. i had that setup for about a year during which the jewel jumped out & died. my dad then wanted a tank for himself so he bought a 2-tier setup with a 6'x15"x15" on top & a 4'x15"x15" below... he got the 6' for random tropical fish & i had the 4' for my oscar. The original 2' tank i used to breed convicts for trade & livefood. this was in 1974 :petrified: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
japes Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 3x15x18 with a Breeding pair of Blue Acara and a Firemouth. Quickly traded in the breeding pair because I wasn't too keen on starting off with breeders, and ended up with the larger Severum I still keep today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motorman Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Mum always had a tank going fr ages and I liked the idea of it So I went looking for something and ended up with a 2 tier set up with a 6x2x2 on top and 2 3x2x2 on the bottoms Set it up and next day put in 100 neons and 20 Tiger Barbs Gee the Tiger Barbs grew quick lol Great advice from the lfs it was From there it went to P Similis which decided to eat the Barbs Then I decided I better try and learn something b4 I buy more lol Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largeheaded1 Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 haha brad i started off with a 4x18x18 had few natives in there - perch, barra, bream and cats and loved it ever since Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floppingflamingos Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 My poor fish! My first tank would have been 36long 18high and 18 wide. housing 1 red devil over 30 cm 3 bolivian rams and some rainbowfish. and half the tank was full of plants....... :calm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxican Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 2 x 5cm Aussie bass in a 2 footer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilly Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 My first tank was a 3 footer that used to be my dads ,it had chrome edges on a rickety wrought iron stand and I am pretty sure it had putty waterproofing it came out of the backyard where it had stood for a couple of years with green water and some sort of cattie which had gone blind ,I took it all inside cleaned it all out put fresh water in and the cattie died next day.I kept crayfish and baby koi carp which we pinched from a breeders dam in Galston where I grew up I also kept a weather loach (misgurnus anguillicaudatus) I think anyone that kept fish back then had one, he would jump out on a weekly basis I would find him stuck to the carpet and throw him back in cheers Hilly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo25 Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 My first tank was a 380lt, full of angels,phantoms, and neon/cardinal tetra's. One of those tanks with built in light in the hood and got ripped buying it from a petstore which didn't specialise in fish. Soon learnt my lesson seeing the same tank somewhere else for 100 dollars cheaper, lol. I also had bowls of fighter fishes thru the house too, which i got from various markets. Then got bored with that and got interested in africans. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtr73 Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 I had a 2' x 1' x 1' with a crack in it, given to me by the neighbour, for a silver/grey coloured goldfish that I "won" at the local fete. This was 1982, I was 10 yrs old and I haven't looked back since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 Do not try this at home. My first tank was a two footer. planted tank. Had 4 tiger barbs , 2 festivum, 2 blue acara, 2 kribensis. I think 4 gold severum. The kribensis bred and raised about a dozen fry to 1 cm long. My next tank was better - 3 footer with 4 oscars. I guess that was at least 25 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GS Posted July 4, 2008 Report Share Posted July 4, 2008 My first tank was a 2 footer with an air operated plastic corner filter with wool and charcoal I burnt in the backyard incinerator. Fish were rainbows and guppies I caught in the local West Chermside creek. Gravel from a mate. Water was only changed when you couldn't see the fish and there was a bad smell. What the hell was cycling? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad-n-angry Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 i had 1 of them mighty big rounded 12 in tanks had 3 goldfish in it, i was awakened by my mother 1 morning she was screaming the cats got 1 of ya fish i ran to the kitchen and saw the tail poking out of its mouth so needless to say i kicked the crap outta the cat as i opened the back door to let it out i broke a toe and was about 8 or 9 and after that lost intrest till about 2 yrs ago when i moved to australia we got a big w all in 1 tank that held 21 ltrs had a red finned shark with 2 angels and some neons we still have the mongrel shark hes now in a 4ft tank aprox 12 cm long with africans and hes not the king of the food chain any more. the mrs saw a "cool blue fish" in a shop at kallangur and we paid 45 for a 12 cm elec blue male got a 2ft tank and then moved to a 4ft and i smashed the 2ft on the lounge floor about 12 mnths ago now i have a 6ft 4ft and a new custom built 2ft pretty much all africans and albino catties at 1 stage i had 26 4-6 cm africans in a 2ft tank i didn't know any better the things we do and learn from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 Started at abou 10 with a 3 foot tank which i filled to the brim with swordtails and fantail guppies that i caught in the local creek. Lost interest until 5 years ago and now hace an 8x2x2 Discus/community built into the wall of my newly built house a 4x18x18 display for malawis and 3 of 4x2x18 tiered setup that i'm slowly filling now. The bug is entrenched in my system now! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brengun Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 My first tank was a 3ft with undergravel filter. It had no light, or heater from memory but the house was always a fairly constant temp anyway. I had two angelfish in the tank and every so often they would spawn and have a bunch of fry. When the fry got to saleable size I used to sell them off to the pet shop and the angel pair would get busy spawning another family. They seldom had a water change but I used to gravel vac and instead of the water going into a bucket, it passed through a stocking which collected the gunk and returned the water to the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtr73 Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 Fish were rainbows and guppies I caught in the local West Chermside creek. Hey! I used to catch rainbows and guppies in the local creeks too! Except they were Rainbow swordfins, in the creeks around Aspley and Geebung. I used traps made from a plastic 2L Coke bottle with the top third cut off then inverted like a funnel into the bottom part. Tie a bit of string to it and some bread inside, throw it in the water for about 2 minutes, pull it out and it'd be full of fish. The guppys were pretty much those "Endler" guppies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alkaline Posted July 5, 2008 Report Share Posted July 5, 2008 mine was a 3/18/18 with a 30cm jag 30 cm salmontail didnt last long, needed a bigger tank in a few weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Posted July 6, 2008 Report Share Posted July 6, 2008 My first tank, was a 4x15x18 tank full of americans. Had a big gt, some convicts, 2 bullrouts and a bristlenose. No disasters funnily enough though for the first six months i washed my only internal filter under tap water, basically destroying most of the beneficial bacteria. Cheers, Rusty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rion Posted July 7, 2008 Report Share Posted July 7, 2008 i had a 2'x1'x1' full of guppies and a pleco 5cm and a couple of dwaft gourami Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
