Who or what got you into the SW hobby?

[Myka]

I picked "magazine", closest thing to "book".

In the early '90s (I was a tweenie) I used to go to the library with my mom (she read a lot), and they had this section that was about 3 feet long that was all aquarium books. There were a few in there that had freshwater and saltwater in them, and I remember seeing a Copperband Butterflyfish in one of these books and thinking, "I gotta get one of those!" I never did buy a CBB, thankfully. I bought much worse though... So I then spent my time "special ordering" saltwater books from other libraries once I discovered you could do that.

My mom used to drive me to a small town in the USA (we lived really close to the border) about 45 mins away which was the closest store to me that had SW. I used to spend ALL my babysitting money there - $40 a week. I remember the first time I saw hydroid medusa swimming in my first tank (a 20-gallon hexagonal tank with an UGF, a non-submersible heater, and a single T8 bulb), and both my mom and I were totally in awe! That's definitely THEE most memorable reef keeping moment for me.

This was one of my staple books: You and Your Aquarium by Dick Mills, 1986.



I remember The Conscientious Marine Aquarist, 1996 being brand new, and was so excited to get a new book from the library transfer program.