There are two ways to go when stocking your aquarium. You can design and stock a tank for beauty and color. Or, you can populate the fish tank with unusual and exotic specimens that are more interesting to watch.

I usually have tanks dedicated to each and some of my tanks mix the two. Right now, my main tank is a 92-gallon aquarium with small and colorful community fish including swordtails, barbs, and tetras. But it also contains a couple of more interesting inhabitants: a fire eel and a large freshwater shrimp.

The centerpiece of our 40-gallon tank is a fascinating teacup stingray. Balancing out the tank are beautiful but ordinary angel fish and rainbows.

If you, like me, have a taste for the exotic in the specimens you keep in your fish tanks, the sites below can give you some ideas and resources for stocking an exotic tank:

• Cephalopods (octopi, squid)
• AquariumFish.net
• Live Aquaria
• Piranha Cove
• Blue Lobster
• Alligators
• Reptiles
• Arawanas
• Segrest Farms
• Ecospheres