bucktoothed tetras, vampire tetras, pickerel, red evils need help an info

mlhunsaker

hey i have had several tanks over last 9 years well 3 actually me an my wife had a nice community tank when we married it was a 20 gallon had some gourami's, swordtails, cory cat, an a huge upside down cat i had for 7 years ,woodstock you were awesome, then we had a girl an a 20 gallon tank with couple of warmouth's and a yellow belly mudcat. we kept them till bout 5-6" an turned them loose in dads pond. we then had our boy an got a 20 gallon tank going an it had lots of plants an dirftwood we had a dinosuar eel, 2 red tail sharks, and pleco. well we moved an my cousin wanted a tank so i let him take it. now my kids just have a 2 gallon tank with a betta he's cool white body redfns etc they named him dogface. but i am wanting a new 20-55 gallon tank i want to go with a hearty fish that is very aggressive an semi easy to care for regular changing, heater, etc no over the top care. my girl loved watching the warmouths destroy minnows an my boy loves watching dogface destroy bloodworms. so i want to go to the next level an get a big tank well semi big 20-55 gallon. i would just want some direction on what fish would be a good suit, type of environment they need, an size of tank to reach optimum size. also price i dont want to give more then $30 ish a fish i dont have to have many fish just hearty, beautiful, aggressive fish that really show off an react to their owners.

CaliforniaFishkeeper

I'm partial to puffers for the feeling of aggressiveness. They might be a fish that you would consider to have "special" requirements though.

mlhunsaker

what do they take to care for them? if its salt an brackish water i can handle that i mostly mean keepin ph at a select point that if i go on vacation for a few days that someone could feed them an i wouldnt have to worry. any certain puffers that are well suited to what i want

kitten_penang

flowerhorns, oscars are good fish that get to about a feet an are intelligent.

CaliforniaFishkeeper

Green Spotted Puffers are what I keep. They're very intelligent, and always come up to the glass whenever I enter their room and follow me around watching me do stuff. You would start them as freshwater and gradually go brackish>marine as they grow.
Pretty sure foot-long-fish are out of his space requirements. We can't all be as lucky as you, Kitten. :P

kitten_penang

very funny CaliforniaFishkeeper

mlhunsaker

my dad had oscars when i grew up i have bad memories he fed them nightcrawlers an rosies alot he had one bout a foot long prolly 3 inch wide i went to feed it when i was bout 6 it got the nigtcrawler plus my thumb lol it shocked me. yeah space is a i will have the tank on my kitchen/living room wall its open floor so you walk thru there when go to garage,kitchen,living room, or back yard i want fish to have plenty of interaction with family an it'd be cool if they disliked visitors kinda like our saint bernard in the backyard.

kitten_penang

the flowerhorn or dragon fish is like a puppy literally except it doesn't fetch or sit =S but your tanks too small.... agree with californiafishkeepers about keeping the nippers around.. funny fish just watch your fingers cause if this baby bites you your gonna get more then a shock. you'll have to make sure all your digits are there 0.0 really scary if a puffer just tagged you =S

CaliforniaFishkeeper

They definitely react differently to different people. Make sure no 6 year olds try and feed them though. They have teeth.

kitten_penang

teeth or bucked tooth like a parrots beak ^.~ looks like a real mean beak the last time i looked in ones mouth with pliers. he swallowed a hook while fishing.bloated to the size of a football 0.0