New 40g...any ideas?

I have MTS as well now. I have a little betta tank, soon I will put him in a bigger one with other fsh since I don't think it's right to keep them in small tanks. So there's him in the 1.5g, there's a 10g with 2 silver-tipped shark catfish in it and 3 snails (one is black), my 75g saltwater, there's a 2.5g that I will soon be hanging on my wall, there's a small 5.5g rectangle tank, a 25g high, and my newest addition, a large 40g hexagon with oak cabinet, cover and light that I bought for only $40. I love craigslist!!!!

I need help on ideas. Here are my thoughts.

So I wanted to get a larger tank for the sharks because they can grow up to a foot. I also would LIKE to keep glass catfish and/or needlenose fish, both are freshwater. My sharks can slowly be turned to saltwater if needbe but you cannot put other fish in the tank with sharks or needlenose. My 75g has FOWLR and there is also a large hermit crab and medium long-spine black urchin in there. I would love to start a coral tank but want to keep my budget down for new protien skimmers and such. I also want a QT.

Oh, and my husband want to keep trout. They are coldwater fish. They can get pretty big as well. I can't be selfish and not let him have the fish he wants...WHAT DO I DO? lol

 

A native tank would be awesome! I kept a 55 gallon native tank once. You will not have to go too terribly cold. 65-70 will do just fine.
A note about trout though, I could NEVER get them to eat. I just kept having trouble with them. I always did much better with catfish, largemouth bass, and bluegills. Don't worry about how big they will get. Catch them small, and take them back to the lake when they get big, catch some more small ones Just as a note, if you try to keep largemouths and trout together, you will most likely wake up to a tank with no trout and really fat bass

 

I just feel so bad putting trout into a hexagon, even though it is a large one. They are river fish and LOVE a strong current, so I don't know. I was thinking more along the lines of a planted tank, like a biotope. To replicate an Amazon river tree trunk buried under water. Have a huge peice of log with roots downs there and plants everywhere, even growing on the log. Then I would have to have a few small fish. Although my preferences are black ghost fish, needelnose fish, and oscars, which all have to be kept with thier own species. And I would probably want fish that look natural in this setting. lol..the choices the choices, arg

 

40G hexagon isn't really what I would call "big". Roughly 24" square but not quite. Not near enough room to give any swimming room to any fish that get any size to them (trout, bass, etc..). I tried native fish here in Alabama about 15 years ago and my results were dismal, lost everything within 2 weeks. Not sure why but I gave up on the idea and decided to let them live where they came from.

Trout, get him a 6' 125 or an 8' 180 to give the trout swimming room. Then you can turn the 40Hex into a Seahorse tank

And about the Bettas, I wouldn't get as worried about them in smaller tanks. If you research there natural habitat, its basically mud puddles in Southeast Asia and surrounding where they live in very little water during the dry season. I found with mine that if I tried to keep them in anything deeper than about 10" of water, I had a hard time keeping them. Seems they didn't like the water pressure from the bottom and it wore them out trying to swim and stay at the top.

 

Jeez, Kelly, you really have got he bug bad!!!! I love it. But at least the hubby is in it with ya. That is a good thing.