total dissapointment with FW tank

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yea even though saltwater tanks are OFTEN times more beautiful from the fish down to the tanks set ups themselves. i just seem to be more interested in freshwater. i just got rid of my two shovelhead catfish (breading pair) both 13 in. and my 25 in. long nose gar that i caught myself and raised for the past 4 yrs to get a vampire piranha, a royal pleco, and a GATF... bye mr. gar :(
 
I think it's the corals make a SW tank look bright not the fish! and maintain a SW tank isn't really hard, just expensive!
 
I couldn't disagree more with the "limited in terms of behavior and lifestyle" comment. The most boring saltwater fish I have ever owned had more personality than any freshwater fish I've ever seen or owned. Just a few examples of some saltwater behaviors and fish that have a ton of personality.
Eels/fish living with and having their mouth and body cleaned by shrimp
Gobies pairing with shrimp and sharing burrows/protecting each other
clownfish hosting anemones/powerheads etc.
Tangs that will follow you around and stare at you through the glass all day long
Triggerfish, which have more personality than any fish I've ever seen
Groupers/lionfish/anglers/rays/sharks/octopus the options and different behaviors are endless.

I can stick my hand in my 28 gallon reef and handfeed any fish in there, get attacked by the clowns defending their anemone, have my hand cleaned by shrimp, and have every hermit crab in the tank race towards my hand to get on it and start picking at my skin. The personality and behavior is just on a completely different level than freshwater.

Also, if you buy healthy saltwater fish, properly acclimate them, and quarantine them, you shouldn't be losing more saltwater fish than freshwater. I'm 3 years in and have yet to lose a single saltwater fish or shrimp.
i agree 100%, i didnt agree with this person at all. i find FW to be limiting because the fish all seem to behave in the same way, sure they come greet you looking for food but thats about it, you rarely see the inter-species relationships you see with SW fish. also thats true you shouldnt be killing more SW fish based on the fact that they are SW, it comes down to your knowledge and expeirience.
Like a few other people already mentioned I've never been too interested in keeping SW and the only thing I find appealing about them is the vibrant, flashy, bright colors. That's it.
you say the only intresting thing is the vibrant flashy colors...HELLO thats just it, thats what makes SW so nice to have, you can look at a SW tank from 20 feet away and see the fish whereas in FW you need to be dead centre 2-3 feet to see the colors and patterns.
I think they're both cool, just depends on what you like. I enjoy all the little creatures interacting in a SW tank, and on some of the bigger tanks SW fish have great personality and behavior. Freshwater is my personal choice, I like my big aggressive CA cichlids. Also, I enjoy filling my tank with tap water and not having to worry as much about water chemistry. Planted tanks are another really cool aspect of freshwater, if you look at some of the Amano style stuff it's just unbelievable.
i like the way you think, you acknowledge both types of fish for what they are and not for what they aren't. should i get a school of 4-5 balas just to enjoy my tank until i can afford to go salt which would be a few months to a year or should i wait and sell my current stock when i can afford to go SW, or should i get a school of balas and keep my current tank running fresh and get a second smaller 10-20 gallon aquarium in a few months on my birthday in november and turn that into salt? what do you think is the best choice? and beautiful beautiful beautiful {there had to say it 3 times} tank.
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One of my issues with a lot of SW tanks is it's harder to disguise a lot of equipment and stuff. A lot of Sw tanks very obviously look like fish tanks with all the equipment hanging out. I've managed to avoid a lot of that with my 125...

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Minus the canister output which I'm working on disguising next. I'd like to see some of the techniques I used in the 125 used in a SW tank (background and stuff), would be awesome.

yea even though saltwater tanks are OFTEN times more beautiful from the fish down to the tanks set ups themselves. i just seem to be more interested in freshwater. i just got rid of my two shovelhead catfish (breading pair) both 13 in. and my 25 in. long nose gar that i caught myself and raised for the past 4 yrs to get a vampire piranha, a royal pleco, and a GATF... bye mr. gar :(
you know i raised FW for 10 years and didnt even consider going salt but now its like im bored of same old same old FW boring and drab IMO.
I think it's the corals make a SW tank look bright not the fish! and maintain a SW tank isn't really hard, just expensive!

i dont agree with that point, SW fish are "stunning" whereas FW fish are just "oh nice". you see what i mean in terms of color
 
Well, some salt water fish are very colorful, but I wouldn't call any of my fish drab. It's just a different sort of coloration. I don't really like the super bright colors of a lot of the commonly kept SW fish to be honest... Same reason I don't keep African cichlids or discus. Just doesn't really do it for me.
 
i forgot which species of snakeheads but one of them have crazy coloring. looks frkin awesome! SW looks nice all but it gets boring and doesnt really appeal much to me besides maybe a reef/shark&ray tank with a sea turtle in it ofcrse. :D
 
Well, some salt water fish are very colorful, but I wouldn't call any of my fish drab. It's just a different sort of coloration. I don't really like the super bright colors of a lot of the commonly kept SW fish to be honest... Same reason I don't keep African cichlids or discus. Just doesn't really do it for me.
your right i shouldn't say drab, i mean not bright and colorful, and i know i used to be very satisfied with balas and angels but its almost like i got a taste of SW and am no longer satisfied. but i decided to keep it FW and buy balas so excited now lol
And some FW fish have pretty insane colors...

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holy crap that is insane wow, i have never seen such a beautiful FW fish what species of cichlid is this.
 
Thing is I'm not made of money and time and salt water requires double that over FW setups. I'd rather save the monthly cost of running a SW tank and got to the shed aquarium or something. I have a DIY thread on here about my former fish room and it cost me less to setup than my neighbors SW 125 did. (my setup was 2 100 gallon long tanks, 1 110 tall, 2 40 gallon breeders, 6 20 gallon fry tanks). Money is one thing but the amount of work that a SW requires(for my standards) is more than I care to contribute.

To simply put it no, I've never been disappointed by a FW setup other than realizing it wasn't large enough for my fish.
 
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