[leeac]

Just curious to see how you all started and wound up Frontosa Nuts...

I started by adopting a single Tiger Barb that was going to be fed to a friend's piranha... I housed it in a drinking glass until somebody told me that it needed a certain temperature and filtration... so began my venture into 125g tanks and weekly water changes... I don't regret it at all...

What's your story?...

 

[Gandalfslair]

I think we have all dabbled with various attempts at fish keeping. For me it started with:

10y.o., 10gal community...~20y.o., 40 gal knifes, reedfish....27 y.o., 40gal hex in my company's lab, oscar, pacu (what a mistake!)...34y.o. Salt water, angels, clowns, tangs, lionfish (fav of all time!)....now, a 20gal hospital, 55gal Malawi, and 125gal Frontosa and friends...

I guess what inspired me toward Fronts is this board...I was looking (internet) for what kind of fish I was going to tackle this time and found this site...kept reading and saw how majestic the Frontosas were...started with Kipilis, then Burundis, small stab at Mpimbwes, and now Mobas...all within a year and a half...I am envious of those of you with multiple Front tanks but there's only so much room in my house...real estate in SoCal is too expensive to think about moving to a bigger house...darn!...what, what about Vegas...Yes, Fronnies, gambling, beers, showgirls...now there's a thought!

 

[frank1rizzo]

Im with you Gandalf!!! But I still have room for tanks in my garage, so I may be able to grow a little more

If I told everyone the specifics of my first tank I would get yelled at... so I'll just say I was 8 years old and it was 10 gal.

 

[VP6]

ill probably get yelled at too but i was 7 years old and i had a 10 gal. i didnt know any thing about fish keeping i had two rainbow sharks and 20 neon tetras(yeah tell me about it)... a week later i had 9 neons left and one rainbow shark(the rainbow shark was a jumper). now i have another 10 gal with a pair of bolivian rams. this august i will be getting 4 F0 Kapampa's and a 135 gallon tank... and i cant wait.

 

[Ron R.]

it all started with winning my 5 year old daughter a goldfish at the spring bazaar. The goldfish bowl grew to a 10 g tank. A few oscars later it grew to a 75 g and to a 180 g.

My 5 y/o daughter is now 23 y/o.

 

[RiftnReef]

We've had a tank in the house since before I was born. Mom always had one running somewhere in the house. I remember when I was a kid, taking all the fish out, putting them in a bucket with the airstone, and dumping the tank, scrubbing and cleaning everything about twice a year....boy, those poor fish. My first personal tank Dad made for me when I was about 10 or so. It was about 30g, and I stocked it with angles. Funny, only a child, and still saw the beauty in a species only tank. Two weeks after my wife and I married and got our own place, I bought a 10g tank, beefed up the lights, and made a nice little planted tank out of it.....that was almost 10 years ago, and now after being up to well over 1000g of tanks, I'm back down to just 4-5 tanks.....I can't imagine a house without an aquarium.

"J"

 

[leeac]

no house is complete without a nice tank...

 

[sldabclmnop]

Started with a 10g and a single, red betta when I was 11, then found a used 20g that next weekend that my mom was kind enough to buy for me. From there I aquired a 20long about a year after. I bred guppies for a long time.. then boiled them all in the 20long due to setting a new heater then leaving for the weekend :x That got me out of the hobby for a good year - I was probably about 15 then. A year later my mom bought me a 29g and I got back into fish, then back out after they slowly died off. Mind you, this was before I discovered the importance of water changes. Fast forward to about a year ago, I'm 20 and discover a friend's used 55 gallon while helping him move. Wave $40 at him, get what at the time I thought was a huge tank, and decide that after I move I'm going to make a tang tank. Now I live in a bigger city with 4 pet stores - 5 if you count Walmart (I don't).

I found a used 90 gallon a few months ago and bought it.. filled it with a couple of fronts and some other africans. Then just today I saw an ad for a 125 w/ stand and lights being sold an hour away for an absolute steal ($225). I was actually shopping for a 180 gallon, but I couldn't find one for less than $600. Not being one to pass up a good deal, I bought it sight unseen a few hours ago. Hard to believe that over the course of 10 years I'll finally be crossing the double-digit gallon aquarium threshold - and it all started with a single 10 gallon tank.

I'm still going to get a 180, but I think the 125 will tide me over for awhile

P.S. - Sorry for the novel!

 

[tirzo13]

i found a empty 20 gallon on the side of the road when i was a kid.
that night the fair came to town, and i won about 5 red swordtails chucking dimes.
must a spent $5, which was alot for a kid 30 years ago.
they bred like crazy and i released a bunch in a pond, they made it the whole summer, but i'm sure died that winter.
i moved so could not check back with them.
kept that tank for about 10 years.
went to angel fish, then a lone red devil, then more tanks!
been into frontosa for about 10 years, but wanted one the first day i saw one.

 

[FrontMan2]

My very first fish ever were a pair of convict I got from a friend. I needed something after a girl who liked me gave me a 30 gallon complete set up when I was in college. 8) I've been hooked ever since.

Now that 30 gallon houses ngara peacocks and a goldhead comp.

Over the years I've flushed 100's of convicts. I've been thinking about getting more so my Fronts could get some live snacks.

 

[ObsessedWithFish]

When I was about 10 my father bought me an old 10 gallon tank from the flea market and some goldfish. But what really got me into fish that I really put time and effort into were Oscars.

 

[bluetip]

When I was about 9 my cousin got me a 20 gal tank with goldfish and swordtails for my birthday. 2 years later, I had a 15, a 20 and a 50. Was keeping almost any cichlid I could get my hands on. The convicts started breeding like crazy! I had jack dempseys, blue acaras, rams, then africans. Then, I owned my first frontosa. A burundi. I was in awe with that fish. I just had one back then bec I didn't know any better and I couldn't afford getting more of them.

When I was 12, my folks got a new house, I had a 4000gallon pond, and a cement aquarium about 400 gallons and 2 300 gallon square ponds. Got into knives, arowanas, oscars, bettas, black ghosts. I kept the 4000 gallon pond filled with africans. Venustuses, comprecisseps, nyassaes, auratuses, kenais, haplochromis. everything!...man that was a crazy time...I've been having fry every other week of just about any cichlid in that pond...but never had the opportunity to keep any fronts.

I had more arowanas and discusses in my cement tanks.

Then got out of the hobby when I was 15. Five years later, we moved places. Went back into the hobby with a 270gallon tank which used to be a saltwater tank. 2 years ago, I crashed that tank, and just made a fronnie tank !

bluetip

 

[Aquaboogei]

I was in the 5th grade and a pet store opened just down the street from where I grew up. I remember going in there almost every single day looking at the piranha. Finally my parents bought me a 20 gallon tank and I got two piranha. They grew so fast. Then one day my dad cleaned the water and put the fish into a bucket with fresh water right out of the faucett. It killed them. I was so ticked. Then I asked him if I could get a monkey because I saw them offered in the back of a comic book. He said no.

 

[mrclearview]

Black mollies & fancy guppies!!!!! My how things have changed. Lovin' every single minute of it!!! I don't regret a thing!!! I am very addicted to fish keeping!!

 

[rconnor673]

sadly my first fish was a goldfish in a little little little 1 gallon tank

 

[Scarlet33]

Very first fish was a betta of course.
Every fish I had when I was a kid died pretty quick.
Started up an old 10g over a year ago with tiger barbs, then it grew from there when I discovered mbuna.
29g mbuna tank quickly grew to a 40g found at a garage sale.....now I have 9 tanks with various cichlids (african, SA, soon to be CA).
Now I am just an overall cichlid fanatic.

I need a bigger house now. :lol:

 

[McMuffin]

hey guys.
well i first started with a fish tank when i was about 5 with my brothers and we all had 2 fish each.... my brother had neons and scizzor tails and when i was allowed to buy one i bought the tiniest baby jewel... anyway we ended up getting 2 and the jewels were the sole survivors and bred and then we realised they were cichlids.....

now im 19 my brother is older and have done a fair bit of research.... have 8 tanks up and running including my new 6ft in my room to set off my 4 ft.... soon my fronts will be shifted over into their new home... looks nice and should have a few pics up in about 2 weeks when i put them in

 

[GJx]

As a kid, I kept guppies outta a local pond along with turtles, newts, frogs etc....

The first fish that I was interested were eels, of which I kept & hand fed swamp eels until the largest specimen would not fit in my 75 gallon tank anymore. I kept & bred Cecilian Worms & I moved on to Oscars, (which made a publication here at North Carolina State University).

Then I saw my first Buffalohead Cichlid & Frontosa in Philadelphia, On vacation & fell completely in love.

Outta the first Fronts that I bought approx. 15 years ago from the Pres. of the Cichlid Association, that lives here in Raleigh, I still have two of th eorginal specimen.

I'm hooked.

 

[slickvic277]

I started when I was like 7-8 years old.10 gallon my mom set up,then I was chasing my little brother around the house and BAM! right into the tank that was the end of that 10 gallon tank.
Then I was hooked on reptiles and amphibians for years.Kept and bred all type of kingsnakes,lots of turtles and lizards.I had an eastern box turtle for 18 years when she failed to come out of hibernation I was crushed.I just gave away 7 years worth of REPTILES magazine every issue in order in mint condition.
Then some time passed and I got back into fish and bought a 75 gallon set up and now Im considering a huge tank with fronts.Although Im a south american guy at hart.Completely hooked on the aquarium hobby!

 

[cichlidgirl1]

An oscar in a 4 foot tank. I had watched my father keep oscars in a 150 gallon tank in our basement when i was growing up. The first time i could afford it i went and bought a tank and oscar, that was 22 yrs ago and I have kept cichlids ever since .