I think (most) novice fish keepers buy fish because they are cool and nothing else about the size that it can grow and how much water and work it's going to take. When I started fish keepers, I was one of them so I bought different types of fish even though they weren't compatible and the tank was way to small. I also dreamed that one day I can get a huge tank, but of course that never happened and all of my fish died by being overcrowded or having diseases that I didn't know how to treat. Know o I'm pretty good with my fish. I guess the moral of the story is don't buy fish before buying a tank to keep it in that is big enough to keep so the fish can live a healthy life. It's like buying a Pima, Pacu, aro, RTC etc....and thinking it can stay in a small tank until they are too big for the tank and you will be buildig a gigantic tank to keep them in. I'm not trying to flame, but most big fish that get huge. I had a friend who used his big swimming pool for a tank for his pima, aros, pacus and Oscars. You will need thousands of dollars keeping these fish and if you don't have something big enough to keep them, you're going to find out the hard way that no one wants them. Hobbyist like to see their little fish grow but then they don't know what to do when they get huge. I have a friend who had a huge silver aro, huge jardini and gigantic pacu. He had a huge home made and but he was moving and it would be too hard to move everthing. He called a lot of zoo, and fish stores and no one wanted them, even for free. The LFS will be losing money everyday keeping such large fish that are expensive and large because most are looking for small fish for small tanks that can adequately house them because they will probably the lose a lot of money because without anyone buying them LFS keep them for years and no one will buy them. Also, he called the huge California of Sciences with huge tanks with a gigantic amount of huge, large fish. They didn't want them because they already have a huge amount of large fish (aros, pimas, sturgeon, RTC etc... If buying a fish that will be huge when grown and keeping them until they are too large for their tank is probably a bad idea but you better be sure that you have the means to keep them, Ed. Also, check out the website for the California of Sciences. You'll feel like your in heaven with all the fish, animals, attraction. They also have a cool alligator pit and they have a cool, rare albino alligator named Claude. A must see attraction you will have to go there at least once in your lifetime, The Doctor.
