New Tank: Large Fish Or Angel Fish

[AriaDragonfly]

SO if/when my house closes escrow I want to start a tank again, I had two 30 gallon tropical freshwater while I lived in California, then a 20 and 5 (with a betta) while I lived in Florida, and now I'm back in California and ready to start anew. I learned a lot from my first experiences, I did do a lot of research for my first tank so I was prepared and did cycle it and watched the ph levels, water changes and had a lot of fun with guppys, dalmations, gourami and the like, but now I'd like to try something a bit more difficult. I plan to get a 55-100 gallon tank but I am unsure if I want to get 4 or 5 "larger" (6"-12") fish or try out angelfish.
Angelfish are my favorite fish aesthetically but I've always been scared since I don't want to accidentally kill one of those beautiful fish. I also like the red tailed sharks, and a handful of the other "shark" or "eel" fishes.

Does anyone have any advice on angelfish or what kinds of larger attractive freshwater tropical fish there are?
Or which I should try first?

(two others that intrigue me but I'd be too scared to try keeping are the ghost knife fish and elephant nose)

 

[karin]

Well it is a good time just to do research. Angelfish I find to be pretty easy once you get over the "hump". That being the hump of weak individuals or strains due to them being over bred. But they are pretty straight forward after that. If you go larger, you can look into a couple of angels and then severums (several variety), and other south american and central american cichlids. These tend to be bigger fish with personality but also are often labeled as semi-aggressive meaning it takes some thought as to who the community members can be. Check out the new world cichlid section of this forum and start looking at pictures of types of fish you like.

I can't speak to the ghost knife and elephant nose. Check out my 60 gallon below for ideas.

Good luck and have loads of fun.