TL;DR Introduction

**AVN** · 10-03-2012, 05:23 PM

My name is Alexander, call me AVN.

A little bit about myself
I'm only 20 years old, but have been dabbling in the aquarium hobby for all 20 of those years. I started as a child because my father used to be a Koi breeder and he would take me to his warehouse to help him. (Because he was too cheap to get me a babysitter)
At home, I loved to mess around with all the creatures that lived in the pond. My earliest (and fondest) memories involve getting mobbed by Koi when I decided to go for a dip in the show pond and getting chased around by the resident Red Sliders.

As I grew up, I found that my love for all things aquatic could not be ignored, even more so when I discovered the plethora of life that is offered for observation in this hobby.

Now I'm nearing 21, and I can't seem to control my hobby anymore. It's evolved past the point of it being a hobby and has become more like a lifestyle for me.

Now on to my experience
I have, like I said, been in the game for two decades. So I obviously should have some sort of knowledge on the matter.

You're absolutely correct in assuming such.

In order to minimize the wall of text that I've written, I will make it simple and just tell you that my set up is over 500 gallons. This total doesn't include all the sumps, overflows, breeding/isolation tanks, refugiums, or the outdoor pond.

I would say that I've kept 80% of all freshwater fish available to the hobby over my span of time.

I am an intermediate level breeder, as I've dabbled in breeding and had incredible success with the following species.

Shrimp:
Amano
Crystal Red & Crystal Black
Red Cherry
Ghost
Tiger (Blue and Brown variants)

Crayfish:
Florida Lobster (Light Blue)
Louisiana (Red)

Fish:
Guppies (I had over 300 guppies)
Goldfish (I sorely regret starting this tank, it was worse than the guppy tank)
Tetras (Neon, Glowlight, Rummynose, Cardinal, Diamond, the list goes on)
Danios (Zebra, Pink)
Koi (Reg & Butterfly fin)

Reptile/Amphibian:
Southern Painted turtle (Yellow)

I won't even get into plant propagation... we all know how that goes.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read my long-winded introduction. I look forward to becoming a major contributor in the forums and I have an inkling you guys will love having me here.

Hint: RAOK = cost of shipping.

Will edit further.

**balt** · 10-03-2012, 05:26 PM

Welcome to the AC. Great detailed intro.

**AVN** · 10-03-2012, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by balt

Welcome to the AC. Great detailed intro.

Hello and thanks!

Originally Posted by Lady Hobbs

Interesting. You started keeping fish when you were 1?

Welcome.

That was an exaggeration. Of course I wasn't much use at the age of 1, I mentioned it as a device!

I can't even remember exactly when I started caring for fish...

However, there are photos of a two year old me feeding fish/cleaning fish tanks; who is to say I wasn't doing that in my diapers?