Fishkeeping to Herpkeeping/Herpkeeping to Fishkeeping

So ive been into fishkeeping for the past 5 or 6 years. i have a 150 gal reeftank, a 50 gal saltwater fish only tank, and a 45 gal piranha tank. Through all the forum stumbling ive done i noticed that alot of people who keep fish also keep herps. My question is do you guys also keep fish? if so, did you keep fish or herps first? background stories on what made you decide to want to keep both are welcomed. thanks for responding! :gj:

Which came first . . . .

Turtles from Grandma when I was 5 or 6 - guppies by age 7 or 8 - 10 gallon tank by age ten . . . all the toads, salamanders, frogs, garter snakes and whatnot that I could get my grubby hands on, and could convince my Mom to tolerate from as far back as I can remember! (She says opening my lunchbox when I got home from school was always an adventure, LOL!)

Nah - too close to call!

~Bruce

Got a ten gallon aquarium of my own for Christmas back in the 5th grade. It's only snowballed from there. I'm not currently keeping any fish, but I probably will again soon. Even before having my own aquarium though I had every glass jar, coffee can or wash tub I could scrounge filled with tadpoles, frogs, toads, turtles, salamanders, snakes or whatever else I could find.

I started keeping snakes when I was 10 (but I'd been asking for one since I was 3 lol), and started keeping fish "seriously" at 12. I've always had fish, so I'll just say I started at the same time. What got me taking care of my own tanks was a 7th grade biosphere project. It all escalated from 2 white cloud minnows that survived 9 weeks in a jar. Soon I was breeding cichlids, growing plants, and eventually I fell in love with saltwater. I currently have three saltwater tanks and four snakes. Two of my three tanks are single specimen moray eel tanks, and then there's a 155g planted semi-aggressive community. With the eels and the snakes, the interests overlap very much there. I think they are all very beautiful and endlessly interesting, plus they don't shed all over the house.

I have kept fish in the past, and will set up a tank again once we move. My father always kept tropical fish, so I really don't remember when I started keeping them myself. Probably the year I moved out, lol.
I had some reptiles as a child, too, though.

I've had a 180 gallon fish tank (yes, it's huge, I could fit in it and I'm 6' 7"), and a 45 gallon fish tank (not to mention smaller ones when I was younger). I've had herp tanks since I was 7 or 8 though, and I currently have a 50 gallon terrarium and a rack system.

First fish was a goldfish and first herp was a lizard i caught outside. Lol.
First serious fish was a either a needle-nose gar or a reed fish and my first reptile was ribbon snake.

Nothing, in my mind, comes close to having a herp tank. I got ride of my fish tanks to have more room for my snakes.
Maybe it's just cause I'm in love with snakes though.

i started by keeping reptiles in fish tanks, does that count?! heh....

i would love to get into fish... just don't have the time right now. i do have a 120 gallon bowfront a friend gave me along with most of the stuff i'd need for freshwater. i'm thinking chichlids of some sort or maybe getting a brackish water setup going with a lot of plants and some mudskippers and crabs.

got into fish for the aquatic plants mostly, but ended up addicted to cichlids.
I've had to scale back a bit in recent years and am now down to a single 180, 75, and 10. The other two 75s and three 10s are now terrariums for plants instead. plus now I have 3 Boaphile tanks for snakes.
I may convert one of the 75s from plants to salt water at some point in the future - we shall see :cool:

I guess I've always had a small fish tank but we set up our 90 gal african cichlid tank about the same time as we started collecting reptiles. We had to take it down when we moved though.

I went with herps first then fish. I can't remember which I had first out of high school the ball python or the oscar tank. But as an adult I started keeping balls and then I purchased a pet store that specialized in salt water fish and corals so now I keep fish too.

For me, it was fishkeeping first. I'm just now starting to get more involved in the herpkeeping world (even if I don't have any myself just yet). I've tended to be more interested in the cultivated varieties of fish, mostly fancy goldfish and bettas. I've kept all sorts of peaceful community fish, from tetras to livebearers, rasboras, plecos, ect. At one point I had three fantails, a blue oranda, bronze lionhead, tricolor demekin, panda demekin, and a pearlscale, and several bettas. I've also tried dabbling at aquascaping some of my smaller tanks.

I've paired it down lately to just three goldies and two bettas. My oldest and largest fantail, pigeon (5 years old at about 12cm), my two year old bronze ranchu (already almost as big as pigeon, and still growing :gj: ) and my baby panda (already losing the black, he's going to be a white one when he grows up) are permanent fixtures at my parents shop (and getting a brand new 50G tank, since their old one is, well, old). My two bettas, a bronze halfmoon plakat and a black/red butterfly delta currently share a 10G divided tank, but I may have to rehome them before I ship off to school.

I've always wanted to expand into saltwater, cichlids, puffers, and many oddball fish, and I probably will, but if I had to choose I would always keep fancy goldies (especially once I can have a pond) and bettas. Even if some other fishkeepers consider them 'lesser' fish. :P

I've always joked with my parents that that betta when I was a child was a gateway drug to cichlids, saltwater, lizards and snakes.

180gal african cichlids
30 and 50gal salt water

We began with a 60G freshwater planted and then added a 40 breeder freshwater planted. Then we aquired a Columbian boa, a Nicaraguan boa, and a normal ball at a reptile show. Unfortunately our little ball did not make it and we got rid of all of our fish and took down our tanks when we had to move from Texas to Colorado. We also got rid of both of our boas (which totally broke my husband's heart). Once we got to Colorado my husband talked me into a 40G saltwater reef tank which shortly there after upgraded to a 150G reef tank. We now run that and are slowly aquiring the goods to get 2 ball morphs hopefully in the VERY near future (we are trying to get rid of our saltwater setup if you are in the vicinity of Colorado Springs!!!)

I technically started with fish. In 2005, I started with bettas. I had 4 of them. One in a 3g, one in a 2g, and 2 females in two 1/2 gallon tanks. I seriously considered breeding betta fish but I lacked the space and my grandmother said "no." I then graduated up to a 20g long freshwater tank with tropical community fish (danios, tetras). I also set up a 20g long tank with 2 comet goldfish but I learned quickly that goldfish need lots of space. I also set up a 10g for the babies of my mollies. I had plans for more, but between school and work, I had no time for them.

I then began keeping herps but I have always wanted to get back into fishkeeping. I tried a 20g long saltwater but it got too expensive before I really got anywhere with it. I am going to get into fish again. I just need the space and time.....and money of course.

First fish keeping. I kept some herps every once and a while but only recently have I really gotten into them. But I am still primarily a fishkeeper, I just got a new 130g tank I'm setting up now.

I had fish for a while. For one of my birthdays I got a 10 gal tank, which was MY first tank. I upgraded to a 16 gal later....but after that I just didn't care all that much. My dad's into it BIG time though and has a 100 gal tank running. I don't plan on getting back into it, really. Maybe a betta here or there, or if I have the drive I'll get a big pickerel tank. But that's really it.

I had reptiles a little before that, but again, not seriously. I just got really interested in keeping them about two years ago when I got my leo.

So I said fish first, then reptiles.

I started out with a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium, then to my snakes. I think I've kind of neglected my fish tank lately!

Thought I'd throw a picture in for fun, nothing special but I'm proud of it, I was only 16 and stupid when I started with this tank.

Any one else have pictures of their tanks :D

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/918/img0421v.jpg[/URL]

Been keeping fish (sort of) withvmy parents when i was little, then fishkeeping again this year and picked up on herp keeping a few months after

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Carlene16

I started out with a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium, then to my snakes. I think I've kind of neglected my fish tank lately!

Thought I'd throw a picture in for fun, nothing special but I'm proud of it, I was only 16 and stupid when I started with this tank.

Any one else have pictures of their tanks :D

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/918/img0421v.jpg[/URL]

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I have never had fish before but I really would like to get a medium saltwater when I live on my own. I really like yours! Love the fish you choose.

I had one normal male ball python first, but got into reefkeeping and did a 24G Aquapod set-up. I then started to add more snakes to the collection when my reef started to go down hill.
http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/a...1290/FTS-1.jpg
That was my tank in the prime of it's existence I now have it as a FOWLR tank and only have a Serpent Star, a Valentine Puffer, a Yellow Watchman Goby, and a Candycane Pistol Shrimp. P.S. there is fish in the tank in that picture they just all seem to be hiding and I can't find a better picture.

had a senegal and endli bichir in my first tank
then a group of exodons. then leopard geckos, thank ball pythons, and also western hognose :p

We had lizards first, an anole, some un-id'd desert lizard, than the iguana, then fish, then a ball python. Currently have a 7.5 gallon for non-photo lps, 24 gallon nano lps reef and 135 fowlr with some corals, all saltwater, only freshwater I've had was my betta and he died last year. Still have the ig and bp for herps.

I have been keeping fish since I turned 10. My birthday present that year was a 10 gallon tropical fish tank. I had a primitive HOB filter, some plastic plants, rainbow gravel and rainbow rock decor. Oh, and an oyster that bubbled.

I had at least one tank running for most of the intervening years. In 2004 my fish-keeping interests really exploded and I went from three smaller tanks to over 300 gallons of mixed freshwater. I dabbled in marine and brackish as well. In 2006 I got my cornsnake, Hokie, and it was all downhill from there. Now I've got 36 snakes (I share with my spouse, of course!) about a dozen lizards, some frogs and turtles and three T's.

I just broke down my 75 gallon African cichlid aquarium yesterday. Sold the tank and adopted out the fish. They will be gone tonight. Gotta make room for the viv for the Burmese Python I am adopting from my friend Robbie. I've still got one 50 gallon up and running, but once the Mbuna leave tonight it will be kept aside for my growing Axolotl. And I've got one planted 55 gallon that has a mixed tropical community in it. Tiger barbs, mostly, as they are my favorites. I think I'll always have one community tank.

My spouse would like a dempsey and a reef tank in the future. I'm cool with the Dempsey but I told her the reef is her problem. I won't mess with salt anymore... too hard!