What drew you to SW aquariums

[Dearth]

My nieces wanted me to get Nemo and Dora and the Pufferfish from the dentists office.

Their wishes and reality clash often

[Leah]

Mandalay Bay...sorry I know...what happens in Vegas... is supposed to stay there. Hope I can safely post this.

[CherylMcKay]

I had kept fresh water fish for a while and was a diver. I had only dove in cold water up north here, never tropical but the pictures on National Geographic made me decide to switch my tank to salt so I could start seeing some of the fish I wanted to when I could afford to travel.

I started with a 40 Gallon Walmart tank and a LFS (now out of business) that did a lot of salt water. 5 years later I have 150 Gallon and if this keeps up, I may still not travel as I spend all my money on the tank.

[Coleus]

scuba diving in Puerto Vallarta DR and hand feed a mating pair (i think) fishes and they were blue in color. Too bad i did not have camera with me to tell what kind of fishes they were. I wished i know so i can get them in my tank. But they are blue and fat (maybe powder blue or emperor angels or Conspicillatus Angel) but they are round and blue and not blue tang

[marie]

My husband bought me a 20g tank with a clown fish for a christmas present in '93, after managing to keep that fish alive for 7 yrs I decided a reeftank was worth a try

[wayner]

I remember many moons ago, picking up a copy of FAMA (Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine) - mind you, I already had a Marine Fish only tank going at the time, there was an article by a fellow named George Schmidt on trickle filters, which was something totally new at that time, he went on to talk about the possibility of keeping a small part of the ocean in your home, as i kept reading article after article, I knew i was about to convert my fish only tank into a reef, I had a trickle filter built holding many Blue Bio-Balls and a small protein skimmer made out of pvc which was part of the trickle filter.

And so it began, I've had a reef ever since.

[Coralgurl]

Funny, Finding Nemo was a huge turn off for me keeping sw, actually felt guilty about the poor fish pulled from the ocean and put in a glass box, so I don't get the connection others have. My bf had a fw tank with an Oscar and pleckos in a 55 gl tank. He set it up around the same time we started dating and it followed when we moved in together. The Oscar died 2 years ago and the kids begged for a sw tank. He held off bec he knew how expensive they are to set up. Next spring and a tax return later, he bit the bullet and got started. I still didn't really care much for it, added some clowns and chromis. Meh, nice fish. Then one of the boys and I went to WAIS, bought some "nice" corals. They didn't do so well and that's when I got hooked. Had to figure out how to keep them alive. I should have known better, I can kill a cactus, what was I thinking with corals??Still have a lot to learn, my interest wanes here and there but now I love my fish, I love the accomplishments and the tenacity needed to keep going.