I got the bug as a toddler in Penang, Malaysia.
My father had a large fish tank (or at least it seemed huge to my young eyes) and I used to walk around with a small dip net catching common guppies and wild bettas and such out of the ditches & puddles along the side of the roads. (Too bad we can't do that now, eh)
After we moved to Vancouver, I didn't have a tank until my parents went on vacation back to Malaysia & I used part of our food money that they left for us to buy a 5 gallon set up & about 30 fish (hmmmm, the lfs owner who sold me the tank & the fish at the same time told me I could keep that many in a 5 gallon...
). The first sign that this would become a life-long addiction (choosing fish over food). Luckily my dad came home, took one look at my waaay over-stocked tank & bought me a 33g. That was when I was 8.
In the 80s, I worked for a local petshop chain & ended up with 9 tanks, including 33g & 108g Marine systems, all crammed into my mom's laundry room. Needless to say, our clothes took a long time to dry in that humid environment. In those days, there were no protein skimmers, live rock, etc. Total KISS (Keep It Simple & Stupid) systems in the 80s, which is one of the main reasons my tanks are still KISS.
That's my story & I'm sticking to it.
Anthony