Oddball/Predator for 36 gallon bow front

[Joshuakahan]

My plan would be heavily plant the tank both high and low so it feels comfortable, put duct tape over openings, and put a rock on the lid.

That should work, I recommend lots of floating plants and eliminate any splashing. I had issues at first with mine damaging his face hitting the lid when jumping. I saw an experiment that showed splashing triggers jumping-instinctively. When i raised the water level so the hob didn’t splash, it stopped right away

 

[Fishnerd360]

A zig zag eel/half banded eel would work, mine has a big personality, more than my cichlids.

 

[Deadeye]

One of my plans involved 3 Amazon puffers, a peacock eel, and an acara. I do really like the eels...I’d get a moray if I could.

Really the 3 centerpieces I’m trying to decide between are the puffers, the wolf, or 3 noevespicula depressifrons. All have equal benefits and drawbacks to me.

 

[Joshuakahan]

One of my plans involved 3 Amazon puffers, a peacock eel, and an acara. I do really like the eels...I’d get a moray if I could.

Really the 3 centerpieces I’m trying to decide between are the puffers, the wolf, or 3 noevespicula depressifrons. All have equal benefits and drawbacks to me.

I think the cons are the same for all three, tank mates being killed or eaten

 

[Fat Homer]

C.Asellus are quite active swimmers, so 3 of them in a 36G might be a bit small especially with other occupants inside...

 

[Deadeye]

My thoughts on the Amazon puffers was that they are the only puffers not known for aggression, and their diet matches that of a potential eel (easier when they both eat the same thing). They do need groups too, if I could only get one it would make for a much lower bioload.
My main concerns with each is that for the puffers, I’m not the biggest fan of pufferfish, with wolves I would have been hoping for a community (though red wolves are freakin awesome), and scorpionfish are brackish which makes water chemistry exponentially harder to keep in check.

 

[Joshuakahan]

My thoughts on the Amazon puffers was that they are the only puffers not known for aggression, and their diet matches that of a potential eel (easier when they both eat the same thing). They do need groups too, if I could only get one it would make for a much lower bioload.
My main concerns with each is that for the puffers, I’m not the biggest fan of pufferfish, with wolves I would have been hoping for a community (though red wolves are freakin awesome), and scorpionfish are brackish which makes water chemistry exponentially harder to keep in check.

I’ve never kept the other fish, just the wolf, I have read about the others and kept many other puffers. Personally I would find the wasp fish too stationary. Puffers are extremely interesting and intelligent, the only drawback is their teeth will overgrow without enough shells to munch on. I found that giving them snails or clams doesn’t always work. They can be finicky eaters and may not want to eat snails or clams. If you don’t mind that issue, puffers are probably the best choice for your purposes

 

[Fat Homer]

If puffers aren’t your favourite fish then C.Asellus may not be the best choice of puffer due to the fact they have been known to have over-grown teeth problems even with a crunchy food diet and may require manual teeth trimming...

The other option would be something like T.schoutedeni puffer that is slightly smaller who also likes being in groups and are quite friendly (as far as puffers go)...

Only draw back is they tend to cost a fair bit more to due them having only been reintroduced into the hobby in the last year or two...

 

[FLA]

The suggestions above are pretty good. If you can keep the wolf I would do that. If you want another suggestion I would think dwarf pike or brown knife fish. For a real brackish oddball it could be a mudskipper tank. You could build levels in the tank so it can jump around.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ i remember one member a long time ago did that here... had a multilayer brackish tank for mudskippers and some mangrove plants for greenery... looked really interesting for an oddball setup...