Hold on... life story coming, get the popcorn... I was around 6. My dad kept cichlids in a 55, and kept his original tank, which we still have, a Metaframe stainless frame plexiglas 10 with black slate stone bottom glazed in. Both tanks still running in my parents house. He got tired of the aggression when his two oscars died and he went community, and let me try my hand at it with the 10. Eventually I took care of both, collected local sealife and tried to keep it in the 10, mostly short term. I had a minnow trap in Boston Harbor, took water for water changes from the harbor too, or Revere Beach. Caught sticklebacks and grubby sculpins in the harbor little flounder, and I kept a tiny lobster for a time too. That was awesome. Bulldozer! I read the Innes book front to back many times as a kid! A guy named Ben ran a small aquarium shop at Northgate in Revere and I remember his first saltwater section. Blue Devils and Lionfish. This was our local shop, but my dad was an HVAC repair technician and drove all over. His company had Tropic Isle in Framingham as a customer. The first time he worked there he came home and related the description in awe with detail. He would occasionally come home with new fish if he spotted stores in his travels. I remember my first trip to Tropic Isle, in about 1989 or so. I am almost 43, so I have been in for over 37 years now! My dad is responsible, as well as my parents choice to live on the harbor for my first 14 years. I volunteered at New England aquarium and got into the Husbandry Dept. (Aquarists) as soon as I could. I spent 5 years there and got to care for all tanks other than birds/mammals and the Giant Ocean Tank. Then I would take buckets of water home in the trunk of my car at the end of the day for my first serious reefs in High School. I can’t get away from the ocean and probably never will. I am a Marine Biologist and my coworkers think I am nuts- love it more than most I guess... so much to know, so much more to learn. I have 5 tanks in my house now and a reef in my cube at work. 180 Reef, 40 local marine, 29, 55, 10 and 5 fresh.
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