 Hello everyone!
Hello everyone. My name is Kevin. I started my first 55g salt tank over 30 years ago. Lost interest due to life, house payments and my lovely daughter but mostly cost. In my 20's, I always knew I wanted to keep sharks. Back then, I did not have the knowledge, the tank nor the money to do it "right". About 7 years ago, I wanted to teach my daughter the joys of a marine tank so I decided the time had come. My wife did not want the tank in my den, so if it was not going to be in my den, but rather in the garage, it was going to be a big tank. I purchased a 240g glass tank, built a stand and placed a 50 g sump tank under it. So the adventure started. We kept mainly three types of sharks. Leopards, smooth hounds and of course, a very mean and aggressive nurse shark.
We, (mostly me) made many, many costly mistakes but I learned a lot . The biggest lesson was that “conventional wisdom” concerning shark keeping was often wrong. We enjoyed the learning process, observed many hours of shark behavior. I would recommend it to everyone who can resist the temptation of putting their fingers in the tank. When my daughter started high school this year, we donated some of the sharks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Very sad day, my daughter cried and did not speak to me most of that day. Word to wise: If you donate sharks, be prepared to receive a lecture. Apparently “the man” does not believe that a guy like me should keep sharks. I asked them why they kept a great white in their tank.....I got the “stink eye” in return.
The new chapter of my tank’s second life has now emerged. Coral reef. I know little about corals but expect to learn via the school of hard knocks.
Santa brought me 75 pounds of uncured Tonga branch live rock and my daughter’s gift certificate gave my about 100lbs of other live rock… so the next adventure has begun.
Kevin  | 
01-27-2007, 12:09 AM
