Well I LOVE oddball fish, just wish I hadn't kept my blue gourami and gotten 3 more, maybe then I could of had something a little weirder looking. I love catfish but seeing as most grow massive I'll have to stick with corys, which I really love. I'm really getting into plants as well, just got to raise the cash to do it properly, all I have at the mo is a load of plants in my tank and some cheap fert.
I too am interested in all the gadgets, I took the filters apart in my 2 smaller tanks just to have a look, I even read up about equipment I'm not likley to use for a while, such as RO units & skimmers(for when I eventually do a SW tank) then I have alot of the info ready for when I decide to go for it. The whole plants thing gets me confused though so that's gonna take more reading.
I also do all the maintenance, tank design, pick the fish etc, although my husband picked the bichirs I have, he totally fell in love with them and I had other plans for the big tank but as soon as I got them I realised how fantastic they are. He hasn't got a clue about what to do, I explain things to him but he's not really interested, I've had to leave him instructions on how to feed the fish / when to turn the lights on and off but most days he either forgets or doesn't have time(I'm in court doing jury service). He does understand how much I like it and always keeps an eye out for PFK magazine when he's in town as they don't sell it anywhere around here apart from wh smith in town & doesn't moan when I'm spending anything between £5 - £40 a week on fish stuff.
So to conclude in this house it's me(the woman) who loves the fish / looks after them, I prefer oddball fish / predatory fish but I do have a soft spot for corys(I don't really like my gouramis or goldfish but I'll look after them all the same), I'm interested in plants & equipment and tbh I find neons / guppys etc very very boring. I just wish I'd made better choices with the fish I got and then maybe all but 1 of my tanks would be oddball!