What inspired you to get into the saltwater hobby ?

[vetteguy53081]

As title indicates. . . what inspired you to get into the saltwater hobby?

This hobby has changed over the last 3-4 decades with new technology, discovery of fish, Locally bred fish and corals types and fragging. There are many who have owned freshwater tanks and took the Leap, while there are some who went right to it.
OFTEN IT IS IMPULSE THAT LEADS US INTO THIS HOBBY.

For me, it was going to a pet store and seeing a tank of Blue devil damsels and I got hypnotized by all that vivid blue and knew I had to have a tank with these guys.
Little did I know they and Domino Damsels would be the worse fish one could have.

 

[workhz]

Color. I had no interest in fresh water fish. Straight to salt water 25 years ago.

 

[XavierZ06]

My dad and I had freshwater tanks my whole life, then one day walking out of the house I see my nextdoor neighbor moving in a 450g tank. Over the next year, seeing schools of fish and giant coral colonies, the ethereal blue glow coming from his house, I was hooked. Started my first salt talk and learned as much from my neighbor as I could.

17 years, countless tanks and a few years off, I can't stay away.

 

[doubleshot00]

My dad had a tank when i was a kid and i live near the ocean. Love saltwater.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My dad had a tank when i was a kid and i live near the ocean. Love saltwater.

Instant invitation - Ocean will do it

 

[dstockwell]

After a few friends tanks it was the thing I wanted to do.

 

[Nman]

Used to keep discus in late 80s and then found marine. Just a totally different world than fresh water fish . I am as passionate today as I was in the early 90s . Just something about this hobby having a bit of reef in your living room

 

[EricR]

Sister in-law had an unused jellyfish tank with coupons for free jellyfish that she never used (for years) that somehow ended up in my garage.

My kids and I set it up and ran jellyfish for a couple of years.
After that, I just kinda stumbled forward into inverts --> fish --> soft corals.

Knowing what I know now (((just enough to be dangerous))), really wish I would've started with a tank designed/planned for "reefing" from day 1 but way too late for that now. Oooops...

 

[zoomonster]

Pretty much the same... never had any interest in freshwater fish and then 30+ years ago I walked into Martin's Aquarium in Philly. All those cool blue damsels, lyre tail anthia's, angels etc. and I walked out the door with a 55g AGA undergravel setup. I have always just been color obsessed. Of course, the AGA ended up being a piece of junk that almost burst and I couldn't wait for those original damsels (especially the domino) to bite the dust. Next was a 90g and then... impulse after impulse lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

Pretty much the same... never had any interest in freshwater fish and then 30+ years ago I walked into Martin's Aquarium in Philly. All those cool blue damsels, lyre tail anthia's, angels etc. and I walked out the door with a 55g AGA undergravel setup. I have always just been color obsessed. Of course, the AGA ended up being a piece of junk that almost burst and I couldn't wait for those original damsels (especially the domino) to bite the dust. Next was a 90g and then... impulse after impulse lol

Color is likely the number one reason for diving in.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

My dad had a tank when I was around 4 or so. Eventually, he had to tear it down due to cost and not having the time. Fast forward a bunch of years and I got the hunch to want to do it myself and now I enjoy doing it.

 

[Rmckoy]

When I was a teenager , my uncle had a 250 gal African cichlid tank built in a bar .
along with a few other tanks built in the wall of his basement and I remember going to the lfs ( pj’s pets ) at the time in Yorkdale mall Toronto
While he was taking about all his fish breeding I would wonder the isles of the salt section
It was only a short time later I started my first 30 gal cube which was a display tank from another lfs

I ran that system for a little while until the anemone and yellow tang died ( not knowing much about keeping sw I gave up for many years

after my daughter was born she was about 3-4 she started asking about fish .
I suggested nemo ( and I was bitten by the reefing bug .

 

[flashsmith]

My wife and I were into salt in the early 90s through the early 2000s until we had a kid. That put an end to that. Now kid is grown and we have money again....

 

[o2manyfish]

Was born with a fish tank in my nursery (Oscars and a Pleco). Was mesmerized with my 1st 5g tank with guppies making baby fish. Dad got a 40g Saltwater tank when I was 3 (around 72). We went to the fish store every week. While our 40g tank was nice with a couple of fish in it - It was seeing a tank with a 100 damsels fish in it, or 50 yellow tangs in it - The colors were just so brilliant and beautiful.

When I was 6 we moved to a new house on the water. Boat and dock in our back yard. Within a year of the move our 40g tank became the funeral home for an Achilles Tang in about 10hrs and the 40g got moved out of the house and onto the back patio.

It became my outdoor marine tank. 40g and we kept smooth hound sharks, leopard sharks, pipefish, damsel fish, starfish, crabs, smelt. All kinds of things we caught off our dock and surrounding docks.

My parents were fully supportive of my fish interest going from my 5g to 10g to 20g to 26g Show to 60g Tall tank in my bedroom as a child. But saltwater in the house was off limits. I started snorkeling before I was 10 and did my first scuba dive at 13. I had dove in a dozen exotic locations before I was certified when I was 20.

As soon as I turned 16 I got a car and I needed to pay for it. So I started working 3 afternoons a week and weekends and at the Largest tropical fish store in Southern California at the time.

When I started my college experience (at UCSB on the beach ) I had an apartment my freshman year. The first weekend after I moved to college I was back home at my old fish store and brought a 40g acrylic saltwater setup back to my apartment. Nektonics Undergravel plates, I think I had the original green Sicce Powerheads (First Powerheads Out), Vita lite bulbs with a twist and a Sander Ozonizer hooked up to a Silent Giant Airpump (the best there ever was-lol).

Once I was out on my own, without the parents telling me no to salt the addicition only grew and grew. And now 4 decades later I can say I have done just about every aspect in this hobby. From successfully spawning rare angels (but never hatching an egg), to running a fish store, being a coral wholesalers, being a fish and coral distributor, owning a Trans-ship company, owning collection stations, building out rageous custom aquariums, consulting on national aquaculture facilities and always remaing an addict to the box of salty water in my house.

Dave B

 

[workhz]

I'll add that in addition to color (fish) was the variety of corals and their colors also. It's just a much more vibrant (no pun intended) world.

 

[Enderg60]

My Brother went to college and came back with a 29 with two triggers and a puffer. I was 10ish at the time and wanted those kind of fish.

Then I found out about corals a few years later and now Ive had a reef for over 30 years.

 

[revhtree]

Don’t shun me but…..my wife wanted a Finding Nemo aquarium.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Always loved tide pooling as a kid. So when George Smit wrote about a new way to keep inverts and fish I was hooked. About 1985 or so in FAMA. Became one of his first distributors for the Northwest.

 

[aminals]

I thought the planted freshwater tanks looked beautiful. Sadly social media wasnt showing me reef tanks a year ago.

 

[Jrain904]

First of all I’ve always been obsessed with fish but what really brought me to the hobby was when a buddy of mine started a SW tank while we were in high school (2004?). I instantly fell in love with ocean live rock and all the cool and amazing critters that came on it.