[Nataku X]

Thanks. I've always had freshwater fish; I want to move onto marine aquariums...

Yeesh, what a horror story... you don't want to imagine how much it had to cost to clean up that place! Especially if they were hiring a third party... poor small business owner paying that bill for rest of his life.

cleaning, chemicals, or temperature regulation

Don't make me to launch into a lecture on biological filtration (no chemicals or cleaning). :-) Although you're certainly right about the cat... I have 2 and they're absolute sweethearts!

[FoxInSocks]

poor small business owner paying that bill for rest of his life.

Don't feel bad for the business owner. Feel sorry for the fish. At the time (six years ago?), I was a temp at Virginia's third largest law firm.

I wouldn't say my 12-pound tuxedo cat is a sweetheart, but he's certainly a cool character. :-)

[Central Scrutiniser]

I've had both, fresh water is too easy, I had Oscars that ate anything, including the Plecostomus.

As for salt, its tough here in AZ, because of the summer heat to keep the water cool, but I always had problems with my 55 gal. I once had a grouper that ate a wrasse that was 2/3rd his size, he had its tail sticking out of his mouth for a day.

I don't have room for a salt tank now, but I will get a 100 gal with a wet/dry when I do. Its gratifying to see all the fish I killed in their natural environment, Iv've seen almost everything diving except for blue tangs. And I got nailed by a lion fish once, that hurt!