What got you into reefkeeping?

[Lydia]

I can't remember if I wanted a tank when I was a child, but I do remember always liking seahorses. Growing up I was allowed to have gerbils, but there was no money for anything like an aquarium. I moved around a bit after leaving home, finally settling in Alberta in a newly purchased house in 1992. 6 months later I took my young children into Pisces to buy a handful of colorful gravel for a cactus plant. And came out with a 25 gallon tank. It was on sale! And so it started... A few years later a 10 gallon fry tank came along. Both were FW, and I fell in love with livebearers (even brought some Endlers home on a plane from Ontario one year). And every trip to the LFS had me looking at the seahorses, whenever they were there... I knew that one day, when I had the time and the money, I would keep seahorses...

Well, that time came September 1st, 2007 - the day I made my last truck payment I got tank #3 - a 55 gallon bowfront corner unit. A real beauty. I quickly found out that captive bred seahorses were few and far between, so after a few months I bought a Royal Gramma to hold me till I found the right breeder. When that time came, a year after I had the tank set up, I bought tank #4 (20 gallon hex) to house the Royal Gramma (who I knew by then would be too aggressive with the seahorses). The seahorses were great! But they were not practicing safe sex, so I knew I had to separate the males from the females. Along comes tank #5 (25 gallon tall)... A bit of shuffling saw the Gramma moved to the 25 gallon, and the female seahorses into the hex. And since one should have a QT, tank #6 has been kicking around for awhile now, too. It currently stocks a peppermint shrimp and a clownfish (ha! Got a Nemo jab in here - LOL) that will eventually go in with the Gramma.

Tank #7 will be a much bigger tank, for now I think I want to keep a "Dory"... But shhhh, we don't talk about tank #7 just yet