I had my first tank when I was at school, late 1960s, given to me by a friend of my father's when he upgraded to a bigger one. I think it was 60 cms, with a solid metal frame. Started with no filter at all, but later added an under gravel and an air stone at which point I was most surprised to see that fish did not always hang around the surface for choice, but would actually use the whole tank when it was aerated and circulated.
Light was a single 60 watt tungsten bulb. Water would condense on the metal hood and if you lifted it up too quickly the water would splash onto the bulb which would explode. Heater was at one end of the tank and the thermostat at the other.
Fish were an odd mixture, all ones and twos. I do remember the angelfish. Once I saw a female guppy give birth to a ball of young which the angelfish sucked in all in one go, life expectancy of the guppy fry 1 second. Strangely fascinating at that age.
Strangely, I hardly ever had a fish die, in spite of overstocking and no regular water changes. I partly put this down to temperature, the thermostat was set to 68 - 70oF and I'm still convinced that most tropical fish live longer and healthier lives at lower temperatures than are generally recommended these days. There are good physiological reasons for this.
Two friends also had tanks and we bought our fish from a chap who used to breed and sell them from his house in a village about 10 miles away. None of our parents had cars and so we used to ride our bikes down, buy a fish or two and pedal home as fast as we could with the fish in the saddle bag. In winter, they were pretty chilled by the time we were home, but they always pulled through and recovered remarkably quickly.
We were avid readers at that age (I still am) and I would often get books from the library and could identify most fish pretty well. I still prefer books to web sites, at least one knows that the author must have some knowledge and experience to get a book published. We also belonged to the local aquarists society and would go to talks and slideshows in the evening.
All good things come to an end. One day when I came home at the end of a university term the tank was gone. My parents were tired of looking after it and had given it to a younger cousin. It was 40 years before I took up fishkeeping again .................
Still, fish were part of a general enthusiasm for anything living which eventually led me to a degree in zoology. I still find fish and other living things far more interesting and attractive than any human "art".