From before I was born, my father had an aquarium. I grew up with it, and from about 3 years of age, I had my own aquarium in my bedroom. Sometimes I fell asleep against it
My grandmother liked goldfish as well, so when I was 6 years old, she let me dig a hole in her garden and put in a bowl used for washing clothes. We did put in some waterplants and goldfish.
When we moved to another house, my father made me a bigger aquarium, and I started breeding fish, such as guppy, ciclids, betta splendens, goerami, and finally fancy goldfish as well. I had a salt water aquarium for a while as well.
After I moved to Houston, Tx in 1988, my parents and sister visited me. I took them on a trip around Texas, and visited the Japanese Garden in the Forth Woth Botanical Garden. It was there I saw koi for the first time, and was fascinated by all those koi coming up when food was thrown in.
Some years later, when I had returned to the Netherlands, I built a small pond for mothers day. Then one day in the spring of 1994, I was called by my girlfriend, who told me she had seen the fish I had told her about. I went over and had a look, and bought 6 small koi for about $2 each. It didn't take long before I bought my first japanese koi, donated the first 6 koi to an aquantance of my parents, and built a 1000 gallon pond. I was hooked.
After moving to the house where I live right now, I built a 50 ton pond, and a oriëntal/japanese stile garden. Last year I built a 15 ton quarantine pond where I keep new and sick fish, but also my entire collection during winter months.
Regenmeneer