Fishkeeping to Herpkeeping/Herpkeeping to Fishkeeping

[thetonyage]

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!

[BrucenBruce]

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

[MarkS]

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.

[Tikall]

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.

[WingedWolfPsion]

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.

[EchoPyrex]

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.

[Colin Vestrand]

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.

[fishmommy]

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

[jsmorphs2]

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.

[kellysballs]

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.