Dangerous attraction.

[RJ Harris]

I’ve had a few poisonous fish, but just recently got an orange toadfish. My wife thinks it the ugliest thing I’ve ever gotten besides my snowflake eel. She asked me why do you like these fish? All I said was because there cool. That’s the best I could come up with. So what attracts us to fish like anglers lions wasps rhinopias and all other scorpion/sting fish? Some do look really awesome and I’d love to have a tank full of these fish. So what attracts us to fish that sometimes do look ugly and could severely hurt us? Is it the fact that we have some primal instinct that we get some thrill of them engulfing another live fish or shrimp or simply the fact that we get joy from a fish that could hurt us?
Here’s my recent little buddy

 

[lion king]

Beautiful danger, I keep my predators "predators". I feed my predator tanks live food and enjoy the hunt. Beauty is in the beholder, and I do see the physical beauty in these fish. I found myself with "another" tank, an 85g and was planning a butterfly fish tank. How pretty right, "what was I thinking"; I got the first butterfly fish in qt and he frankly bored the **** out of me. I gave the butterfly away and now have a radiata lion in qt to be the 1st new inhabitant. A black ribbon eel is on my short list with 2 more lion fish.

 

[mort]

If I saw that guy I'd want him too. I'm not a true predator keeper as most of the ones I've had were through shop or service tanks rather than personally owning them (although I've kept a few). For me the interest is in their difference to everything else. I enjoy the learning about new species and how they add different challengers. There is also beauty in ugliness and having a face only a mother could love is an attraction.

 

[Dsnakes]

That is actually a beautiful fish. Lots of predators have awesome patterns. Along with most marine and reef fish

 

[Greybeard]

That toadfish isn't really dangerous... don't be stupid about it, he's very unlikely to hurt you.

Same with our rabbitfish, lionfish, heck, even fang toothed blennies You're not really putting yourself in any danger.

You used to be able to find blue ring octopus on occasion... I've seen them several times in the LFS, years ago. Now _that_ is what I call dangerous.

Now, at one point in my life, I was a fairly serious reptile enthusiast. I had a few fairly common, and quite safe, snakes, but what I really enjoyed was the lizards. Had a pair of 30" + golden tegus that would have chewed your hand off if you gave them a chance, but it wasn't that difficult to deny them that opportunity. Even had a breeding pair of nile monitors. Impressive to look at, especially at feeding time, but not really that dangerous. Nothing I owned could really be considered dangerous. To an adult, anyway... when my oldest daughter started walking, well, it was time to get rid of the large, carnivorous reptiles.

Had some friends that kept what I would truly consider dangerous creatures. Venomous, aggressive snakes, for one. You keep a death adder, fer-de-Lance, or cobra in a glass box, you're taking your life in your own hands every time you open the top. Then, the seriously gorgeous poison dart frogs. I know, they're supposed to loose their toxicity in captivity... You wanna chance it? Not me, thanks.

The people that keep these... I'd include the folks keeping ligars and such without appropriate safeguards (Here, kitty kitty!). These folks, I just don't get.

 

[Bonfish]

I agree learning about the different species requirements is where my interest typically lies. I had a toad fish that went from orange to black and was fascinating to watch eat with his lure on his head!

 

[satttheman]

Very cool fish.