I really love catfish

[skydnay]

Wow, that is a lot in a one bedroom apartment. I'm sure you'll love the space of a house!! I'm fortunate to have a house and plenty of room. Besides my girlfriend and I we have one cat, 4 ferrets and 4 snakes (like I said, focusing more on snakes, so more to come) and now just the one 75 gallon tank.

Plecos do get huge, getting them out of the tanks and into transport buckets was quite the adventure, hahaha. I was soaked just trying to get them out, they were thrashing and splashing everywhere, even with the water levels only half full in the tanks.
As for Oscars, I 10000000% advocate for them if you've got the room and are into fish. They are AWESOME fish. They are so personable, I never knew fish could recognize their keepers until I got into Oscars years ago. My albino years ago would swim up to my hand and brush against it when I put my hand in his(?) tank, but wouldn't let anybody else touch him. My 3 now are all such cool fish, they love it whenever my girlfriend or I approach the tank. Of course, they're thinking food, but if guests approach the tank they completely ignore them.
They are bulldozers though, so a minimalistic tank setup is best. Plus, they are slobs when they eat, so require plenty of filtration and regular water changes (another reason to keep the tank simple).

Oh my goodness, it is so much. We've started stacking tanks, so I have those small wire storage racks with like three layers of terrestrial tanks, and then aquariums on whatever sturdy surface can hold them. It is very lively in the apartment, that is for sure! I'll be soooo glad to move, plus, we'll be adding a cat to our menagerie!

Four ferrets!! That's got to be exciting. I'm currently house/babysitting some ferrets for some friends, and they are very full of energy and poop. My husband likes to point out the smell and tell me that we don't need to own our own when I can visit them. Which is true, I suppose... But they're so fun.

Oh my god, I'm sure! Our pleco is about 6 or 7 inches right now, and he is quick and powerful and does not like to be messed with, so I can only imagine the kind of mess you had to deal with! And I don't know about your plecos, but ours sure does like to poop absolutely everywhere, especially when he's upset. My husband redid the community tank this weekend only to find the sand covered in poop within hours, and then moved around as per the pleco's linking in the morning. He's got a big personality, that one.

Also, that's exciting to hear about oscars!! I really love interactive/personable pets, so that is neat! We were definitely planning on going nearly bare for larger tanks, as some of the kinds of fish my husband wants to own are not exactly known for being gentle in any way.