Saltwater Fowlr vs Freshwater fish+rock+driftwood. Which one do you prefer?

[Subnautica]

I know this is a SW forum, but l swear lot of people here vastly prefer corals to fish so this poll might be a different story.

So let's say, if you can have a FOWLR setup, with fancy scape and a bunch of dream fish, and a freshwater system with fish + rock + driftwood, could be an African cichlid biotope or a south american one, then which one do you prefer?

For me personally, it could be a tie, but I slightly prefer a FOWLR. Sure I love a "tanin" tank with only driftwood and Discus, and most of them have way better aquascaping, but they are still boring compared to a FOWLR. SW fish are more intelligent and the variety of inverts you can put in there is insane.

 

[Reefing_Engineer]

I’m definitely one to prefer corals to fish, but I have a freshwater planted tank as well, so I would choose to create something with that scape instead of fowlr, I feel like there’s more scaping options for fresh! Good question though I look forward to seeing some other people’s thoughts

 

[SaltISlife]

 

[dani5]

I like fowlr better

 

[WVNed]

I think saltwater. A long time ago I kept mixed tanks of freshwater fish. In the end one of the fish always killed/ate all of the others. Usually a cichlid killed everything but the cats. Then the cats grew so large they ate the cichlid.
There are a lot of interesting new freshwater fish you can get now though.
At 60, I am not going to live long enough to explore all the options.

I am easy though. I have a 55 gallon with guppies and ghost shrimp I feed to my lionfish. I like watching them too.

 

[smacbride]

I’ve done both over the years and I think the salt water fish have more of a personality than the freshwater ones. Also the inverts are fun as well.

 

[dani5]

Good topic so bump for ya.

 

[snorklr]

fresh is much less labor intensive and less prone to blooms, salt creep,overflows and cases of the uglies ....so that makes the wife happier with it in the living room...but no comparison between the colors,patterns and shapes of saltwater fish compared to fresh....thats what blew our minds when we first saw them in our LFS and made us go "what do i have to do to keep those?''

 

[gpd124]

I agree that the colors and patterns of saltwater fish make them appealing. It was what drew me to the hobby years ago.