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You are probably wondering why I am asking - don’t worry all will become clear before long.
For now let’s continue.
I got my very first fish over 30 years ago. It was a gold fish which my sons had won at a local fair. They were both quite young and for a short time they both paid attention to it but before long became bored.
Naturally I ended up looking after it!
It was in a little gold fish bowl on the shelf and I remember feeling very sorry for it. Such a lovely little fish but it had very little room to swim about.
So I got it a bigger aquarium.
I remember being fascinated watching it swim to the surface, down to the bottom and then back up again. It doesn’t take much to entertain me you know!
Quite quickly I decided that I would like to keep freshwater tropical fish. I purchased a new aquarium system and set it up in the kitchen on a shelf. I still had the goldfish as well and enjoyed looking after them both.
Until one fateful day
 I remember this part very clearly.
I went to my local fish shop and there were some fish in one of the display aquariums – bright blue and absolutely beautiful.
They turned out to be called damsel fish.
In the same aquarium were many other fantastically coloured fish.
Speaking to the owner of the shop I was told that they were marine fish.
I watched them for what seemed like hours, eventually dragging myself out of the shop to go home.
But the images of the fish, the colour and the movement stayed with me.
I knew at this point that I had to keep them – no matter what.
I remember talking to my wife about them, explaining the colours and how nice it would be to have them. She must have seen the excitement in my face as she calmly said to me (and I remember this as this was a changing point in my life):
‘Well, why don’t you learn some more about them then and we’ll see!’
That was it – I had effectively been given permission!
She was right of course. I knew the basics about keeping fish from my time with coldwater and freshwater fish but nothing whatsoever about marine fish.
The learning began in earnest
 Over time I must have bought every book available at the time so that I could learn as much as I possibly could. I read all the magazines available (which was very limited at the time) and I spoke to as many people as I could about the subject.
Eventually I felt ready – I felt that I knew enough about it to get started. It was time to get my own saltwater fish tank.
I was so very excited as I’m sure you can imagine.
Off I went to my local fish shop and spoke to the owner for a very long time. We talked about how things worked, what I needed and eventually I ordered everything I needed.
Now I had to wait for everything to arrive!
The day came and it all arrived. I picked it all up and off I went putting everything I had learnt into practice. Everything was carefully checked and put together; I heated up the water and carefully made up the saltwater.
Once the water was ready I had to wait patiently while the aquarium filtration did a thing called maturing. I knew all about this though as I had to do this with my freshwater tropical fish.
I kept testing the water waiting patiently for the tests to be ok and after a short while they were - I was ready for fish.
I knew exactly the fish I wanted so back to the fish shop I went and a purchase was made – 2 little common clown fishes.
These were carefully captured by the owner and transferred into bags ready for the short trip home. At this point I spoke to the owner about acclimatisation techniques and he confirmed everything that I had learnt.
I drove carefully all the way home!
I got them home without harm to the fish, myself or the car and ever so carefully introduced them to their new home using all the techniques I had learnt. The lights were turned off and I allowed the water in the transportation bag to slowly acclimitise to the temperature of the water in the aquarium as well as slowly adding water from my aquarium to the bag.
After a short while it was time to release them from the bag.
I did so ever so carefully and soon they were in my aquarium.
It was a fantastic feeling. I must have watched them for hours on end enjoying every minute of it.
More fish slowly arrived over time until eventually I could add no more. I knew that you should not add too many fish as the filtration could struggle and the fish would not have enough room to swim and may fight so I made sure that I stopped adding fish before I reached the limit.
I felt so proud of myself. I had taught myself everything that I needed to know and now I had a marine fish tank of my own and everything was happy and content.
What’s more both of my children (who were both very young at the time) really enjoyed watching it. They enjoyed the colours of the fish and it gave us something new to do together. My wife was half interested but she knew how much I was enjoying it so showed as much enthusiasm as she could.
By the time the aquarium was completely up and running it must have been about 25 years or so ago so as you can imagine it did not look anything that marine fish tanks look like now – but at the time it looked fantastic.
I was hooked
I did not want to stop there though – I wanted to learn more.
And you know what - I did.
I have a thing for learning new things. I admit that I do not like either not being able to do something or not knowing enough about something.
I knew that this was a large subject and that I had only just scratched the surface as to what there was to learn. I knew that there was so much more that I could learn.
I learnt in so many ways. I learnt from personal mistakes, I learnt from experience and I also learnt from chatting to other people who also kept marine fish.
Once a week after work I would pop into my local fish shop. By this time I had built quite a friendship with the owner and we had some amazing chats. He learnt a great deal from me and in turn I learnt a great deal from him. One of my sons would also come with me and spent his time staring at the fish interrupting me with questions like:
‘What’s that one called?’
Or...
‘Can we have one of those?’
It was nice for me to be able to spend time with my son as I used to work a lot of long hours and time with my family was and still is important to me. To share a hobby with my Son was great – even though he kept interrupting me!
 Fast forward to present day and I am still keeping saltwater aquariums albeit at the moment I am keeping a reef tank. There are numerous times when I consider keeping a fish only aquarium as well though.
The reason for this – there are some fantastic fish which you cannot keep with corals.
Some people are very lucky as they have the time to be able to keep both a marine reef tank and a marine fish tank. For me, however I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren and my wife always has jobs for me to do and I simply would not have the time to devote to two aquariums.
If only!
Ever since I began this amazing hobby I have never stopped learning. I am always looking to improve my knowledge and after all of these years I feel that I have amassed a great deal of knowledge.
Other people must appreciate this as I am always being asked for advice, tips etc.
My son Peter for one, a while ago wanted to start his own aquarium and came to me asking for advice. Of course I helped him as much as I could and he now has an aquarium full of corals and fantastic fish. I spend many an hour on a Saturday morning sitting in front of the aquarium with him talking about aquariums.
It is always nice to see someone else start an aquarium, even more so when it is someone you can help – even more than that is when it is a member of your own family.
The aquariums I had when he was a child must have had an effect on him yet it really is nice that we both share the same passion for the same hobby.
Peter himself has helped various people start their own aquariums and has come to me for advice on numerous occasions. There are some areas in this hobby which he now knows better than me. He is very interested in hard corals and in what is called natural filtration yet he still states to this day that I am the most knowledgeable person he knows in relation to saltwater aquariums.
It is great to hear and I can know bring all of my years of knowledge and experience to you.
I can help you start your very own marine fish tank.
Could all my years of practical knowledge help you?
I know that they can.
Because I know that I can help you, I want to give you all the information that you need so that you can get your very own marine fish tank. I want to ensure that you do not make costly mistakes and that you will not waste money on items which are not required.
Ultimately I aim to ensure that you have a successful marine fish tank.
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