Reply To: Introduction Thread:
Hi all, regular users might already know a bit about me but here it go’s..
As you might of guessed my name is Steven i am just turned 30 and still have a full head of hair :lol: , i am married and have been for ten years, i have two lovely children, Ben who is 10 and football mad and Kelsey who is 6 and loves dancing and also crafts and fishes. My wife is currently pregnant with our third child(Not planned :roll: ) so we are looking forward to another little girl next spring. I wanted to call her Guppy but the wife and kids have settled on Grace and that sounds nice, guppy can be her second name :wink: I work full time and am currently doing well in both private and working life.
Right onto my hobby, i have been interested in fish ever since i can remember, i have recollections of wading ankle deep catching sticklebacks as a 5 year old and digging small ponds in my Grandads back garden to keep them in, i also remember receiving a book on freshwater fish around the age of 10 and it became my bible. As soon as i was old enough i asked for fishing equipment and set of into the big bad world, friends and i used to fish for perch and roach using huge hooks and even larger worms, needless to say we didnt catch much but the time spent in the open next to a pond, river or lake was priceless and very rewarding.I continued fishing until this summer 2007 and over the years became very competent at it, i sold my fishing equipment this year to help pay for my fishkeeping expansion.
My first tanks arrived at the age of around 15, my auntie had two 3ft tanks on the old steel 2 tier frames, i was facinated by the neon tetras which just shone compared to the dull native fish i was used to seeing, pearl gouramis were another fish i can remember being amazed by.
Eventually my Auntie wanted to get rid of the tanks and i scraped, borrowed and used all my savings to aquire the tanks, they took pride of place in my bedroom and stayed with me for 5 years until i moved into my own home. The tanks saw all sorts of fish from guppies and platy’s to barbs, tetras and gouramis. I also kept a Oscar for three years that i grew from a 2 inch juvenile to a 12inch eating machine.
I moved into my own home when i was 20 and started a family early,for two years i had no tank as other things were happening, i then pursuaded my wife to let me have a small 2ft tank in the living room, My angelfish soon outgrew this and it soon turned into a 180litre Juwel tank with inbuilt filtration and lighting, then there came another 100litre to grow on angelfish fry and another in the kids room to breed Kribs, then another four small tanks in the kids alcove to breed tetras and pencilfish…
Soon after the four breeding tanks went in i realised i had a problem, i didnt want to see a counciler or attend self help meetings so i decided to lock myself in the shed, i emerged two days later with a silly look upon my face….Thats right! i had a fish room. I now have a total of 27 tanks of various sizes and i think it works out to around 1200 litres in total, i keep and breed many different types of fish but my first love is south American fish especially SA Dwarf cichlids, i have bred a total of 38 species of fish and kept many many more.
I also use the forums so i am certain i will see you all around and about, dont be afraid to get in touch as i love to make contact with other fishkeepers all over the world and share info and gossip about the hobby.
See you around…Ste