Cool exotic fish to own?

So I have a hairy puffer and... he's basically a bad ass. I have had him for over a year now. Puffer fish have so much more personally than most other fish. They can actually recognize their owners and develop their own personality's. Which I think is really neat.


I noticed my hairy puffer acting weird as of a few days ago, and I suspect he had IP (internal parasites). I ordered some medicine for him and I was able to put the required dose in today. He honestly actually seems to be doing a bit better. For the past 3 or 4 days he wouldn't leave his little "home" thing where he usually just sleeps. Now just a few hours after putting the medicine stuff in, he came out and is just chillin on the sand in the front of the tank.

So honestly I think he will be fine. But I am thinking, if I do lose him. What would I get next?

One idea I had would be to get a Jack Dempsey or an Oscar, along with a pleco and knifefish. I read on this one site though that knifefish require 150+ gallons. That's kind of mind blowing to me because I see them in small tanks all the time. I have a 30 gallon tank. So yeah, not sure what I should do about that. Anyways, that might not even be what I get at all. I heard parrot fish also have great personality's and are cool to own. But if anyone here has suggestions about what I should get next, I will highly consider it.

I don't want a community tank because those fish are boring for the most part. I would be willing to get a fish that would have to be alone in the tank. That's the same way with my hairy puffer, he will eat anything I put in the tank. Also just something unique and cool in general. Bonus points if its carnivorous.

Maybe get a hippocampus? Those are pretty exotic and would make your aquarium the talk of the town

This website sells some:
Exotic Saltwater Fish, Anemones, Corals Frags, Aquarium Pet Supplies, Supplements, Food, Powerheads, Chillers, Skimmers & Plant Lighting from Reef Hot Spot

Tha Greenlander said:

Maybe get a hippocampus? Those are pretty exotic and would make your aquarium the talk of the town

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Having a piece of brain floating in your aquarium would certainly be exotic, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a fish :na:

CheeseHasLeafs said:

Having a piece of brain floating in your aquarium would certainly be exotic, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a fish :na:

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But...but... the website also has other fishes :evil:

I forgot to mention, I am looking to stay freshwater for now. I have done saltwater in the past, and while it's much more dynamic, unique, and just plain beautiful. They are expensive and fairly hard to maintain. With saltwater a small piece of coral could cost close to $100. And imagine how much Coral you need to make your tank look stunning. That's thousands of dollars. Not to mention whenever I did a water change I needed to make sure the water had very close to 0 ppm. Need to measure exact salt, and need to have temp very close to what the tank is at before you dump the water in. With freshwater, I siphon out some water. Fill the bucket up with any old water instead of RO water. Put a little prime in to kill chlorine and ammonia and such. Then just dump it in the tank.

TL;DR: want to stay with freshwater for now. A big MAYBE on brackish if the fish is Really cool.


Thanks for the suggestion though.

A 30 gal won't cut it for a knife fish, unless you plan on it dying or you trading it off
An African knife fish will get up to about 14 (or more) inches at maturity

Do you want color or movement?

Peace,
dave

**EDIT** If you are good with one or two big cichlids (the Dempsey and/or Oscar), you will do fine
They will get big enough, with big enough mouths to eat most other fishes they are tanked with

Axolotl?

Too bad you want to stay freshwater. Otherwise I would try to convince you to get a Mantis Shrimp XD

Other than goldfish I don't really know many types of fish . I have seen little puffer fish at my local pet store and there is something quite endearing about them.

I did see a small stingray at my pet store and I believe it was in freshwater. Its pretty cool looking. Might be something to consider.

Blarg King said:

Too bad you want to stay freshwater. Otherwise I would try to convince you to get a Mantis Shrimp XD

Other than goldfish I don't really know many types of fish . I have seen little puffer fish at my local pet store and there is something quite endearing about them.

I did see a small stingray at my pet store and I believe it was in freshwater. Its pretty cool looking. Might be something to consider.

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When I was into saltwater I was always afraid I would buy a piece of live rock with a mantis shrimp in it. They kinda just scare the shit out of me. Especially since they can break glass and all.

As for the freshwater stingray, I actually looked them up yesterday and yes they are cool. But very expensive from what I saw.

Also I wanted to thank you Dave. While it is so very tempting to get a knifefish, it would be best if I didn't get one at this time.

What about an eel? They can live in (fairly) small tanks, not like 5 gallons small, but you get what I mean. I think they are cool but they creep the living s#$% outta me. Dunno why. Other than that, when I still had my tank, I had some translucent fish, don't remember the names-think it was something generic like "glass fish".


I agree with you on the freshwater-saltwater thing. Saltwater tanks are SOOOOO cool looking, and you have way more variety, but they sure are a PITA to take care of.

Random note: Anyone here creeped out to no end by plucos? Great for cleaning your tank, but CREEPY AS A MOTHERFUGGER.

side note on top of my random note: Googled them, found this guy. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT CREEPY ASS THING. AND HES HOLDING IT.

So after copying 20 links of my favorite fish, I realized maybe I should just link you to the site...

Fresh Water Aquarium Fish - Fresh Water Tropical Fish and Exotic Fresh Water Fish from PETCO.com

I like colorful fish, and fish with cool designs, for the most part. Specifically the "tiger striped" ones, and "neon" ones, as those are attractive to me. I've also owned a Plecostomus, which can get to be a decent size, but they're definitely cool. They also clean your tank, as they like to eat algae and such.

I also found a 'list' of freshwater fish, you can browse through.

List of freshwater aquarium fish species - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good luck, and don't forget to post pics of your completed tank. :beer:

If you do go saltwater again. I like Picasso trigger fish and even Large lion fish are interesting. They spit at the feeder goldfish and knock it out of my fingers.

My brother had a 200 gallon tank with a couple oscars and a pleco in it. The oscars would eat carrots, hot dogs and pieces of chicken.

ETA: I'd like to get a fish tank. It would have to be saltwater though. One of the things I heard is that bigger tanks are easier to take care of than smaller ones. If you make a small error with salt for example, it won't make that much difference in a big tank.

I've been tossing around the idea of getting a tank again. I've been wanting to start up a SW 20gal nanotube for the last 3 years.

Marine bio is my second hobby, almost made it a career

Aside from that, I've had plenty of FW experience, may start one up eventually to relive the glory days. Though these dorms are quite cramped......

Liveaquaria is a great website for both FW and SW resources, I think there may even be a forum. If you ever change your mind for SW, then saltwaterfish.com is a GREAT source! With a forum for everything from large carnivore tanks (multiple hundred, to thousand gallon builds) all the way down to the 6gal nano.

They also have fish, coral, inverts, etc for sale

@ Flutterpie

Don't underestimate your native Ohio fishes. I've kept everything from oscars, tetras, archer fish, even a cuvier's bichir. All amazing and wonderful species, but my favorite is keeping native fishes. The hunt and thrill of catching and keeping them, plus you might be surprised at how colorful they can be. IE - I've kept these two fish you should have near you, an orangethroat darter and a southern redbelly dace, striking colors for a fish you can find in a small muddy creek.

TheDukeAnumber1 said:

@ Flutterpie

Don't underestimate your native Ohio fishes. I've kept everything from oscars, tetras, archer fish, even a cuvier's bichir. All amazing and wonderful species, but my favorite is keeping native fishes. The hunt and thrill of catching and keeping them, plus you might be surprised at how colorful they can be. IE - I've kept these two fish you should have near you, an orangethroat darter and a southern redbelly dace, striking colors for a fish you can find in a small muddy creek.

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I really do like that idea. Just not sure how to catch such a small fish.