and in the dawning moments of what would become an obsession...

I've been interested in fishkeeping as a hobby since I came to UVM. For my first two years in college, I lived on campus in a residence hall (a.k.a. dorm), Living and Learning. I was therefore limited to aquatic pets (technically, JOHNNY although I housed several rabbits, rats and mice over the years, while I was living there). In the summer after my sophomore year, I bought a little chocolate oranda (fat little brownish fancy goldfish, like the one pictured, except "chocolate" colored), and had her for several months. I kept her in a little bare bottom "tank" with a bubbler. My "tank" was an old, cleaned bulk yogurt covered raisins bin, turned onto its bottom. She was healthy for a while, but then died, probably because there was no filter or gravel, and therefore, no biological filter.. (I was a *real* newbie at this point - I can't believe the HAS petstore folk allowed me to walk out of there with a fish!). Not wanting to repeat that experience, and assuming (wrongly) that her death had something to do with her goofy looks, I replaced her with 4 comets (tiny "feeder" goldfish) from a local pet store. They looked really crowded in their 2 gallon home (gasp!), and A luckily, I realized this before too much damage was done, and moved them to an old 10 gallon glass tank I had. Three years later... here we are!