Fish that should NOT be kept in your aquarium.

[niranjan_s1983]

very nice post and very interesting information for the beginner like me..

[Paul B]

Not to be mis understood, most of the fish on the list can be kept if we are willing to cater to their special needs. It is not the fishes fault if we think it is hard to keep, it is our lack of knowlege or lazziness that prevents us from keeping them.
The sharks and rays are just common sense, they get too large. There is a store near my home that has baby baracuddas about 3". These are very common on a reef and grow very fast to about 7'.
Moorish Idols are also common and in NY anyway they are cheap, about $30.00. These are very difficult to keep. My last one died in an accident after five years but the maintenance of an Idol is beyond what most people want to do.
Smaller Pipefish are actually rather easy to keep if you want to hatch a lot of brine shrimp. The problem with them is the same as seahorses, they have no stomach and must eat all day.
I find mandarin's the easiest, least maintenance longest lived fish there is. Ppeople just put them a too small, too new system. They really take care of themselves. I never lost one to natural causes, only stupid accidents on my part and I have been keeping them since they became available.
I forgot ribbon eels, I agree, a tough animal to keep.
Boxfish do have poison problem but of the dozen or so of them that I kept, I have never had a problem with the poison thing.
Many butterflies only live on coral so although they can be kept, no one wants to keep throwing live coral in there for food.
Here is my wife looking for a nice specimin for our tank.
I smeared makeral guts on her before this dive as a shark repellent, sharks hate makeral.

[Reef Goddess]

Great thread! You guys are missing a lot of fish that need to be in here.

These are on difficulty of providing diet, don't ship well/hard to keep alive, and grow much larger than you would assume:

Nearly all Filefish
Groupers
Snappers
Jacks
Many hogfish grow large

These grow large or are hard to keep:
Lunare wrasse 10 inches
Top hat wrasse (pseudojuloides sp) jumpers
Bicolor parrot fish (so cute when they're little, grow to 30 inches)
Leopard wrasses (macropharyngodon sp) diet
Broomtail wrasse 18 inches
Dragon wrasse 12 inches
Formosa wrasse 24 inches
Red coris wrasse 12 inches
Clown wrasse (coris aygula) 24 inches
Maori wrasse 20 inches




Powder brown tang
Clown tang
Powder blue tang

Blackcapps (Gramma melacara)

Seahorses (not for beginners)
Pipefish
Rarer types of anthias
Clingfish
Catalina goby
Frogfish/anglers
Batfish (grow large and ugly)
Boxfish
Sweetlips
Lionfish (need more of a species tank, volitans grow 12+")
Soldierfish
Tilefish (they like ending up on your tile)
Pineapple fish (if you can actually afford one)
Highhat/jacknife 9 inches

Since you guys were wandering into inverts:

Carpet anemones esp blue or red ones
Hells fire anemone
Pizza anemone
anemone shrimp
harlequin shrimp
abalone
porcelain crab (filter feeder)
horshoe crab
decorator crab
sea apple/ any filter feeding sea cucumber
christmas tree worm
lobsters
flame scallops
nudibranchs (leave them in the ocean they have very specialized diets, sea hares are a different story)
Red serpent star
sand sifting star (bad for sand bed, not beneficial)
Mantis shrimp
Cowries/large conchs/tulip snails
Pencil urchin
Cuttlefish

[kathywithbirds]

Good list. I should say I've got two sand sifting stars, one I got early on, one Mike picked up a little later. Didn't know they were so hard to keep at the time. They seem to be doing well, both move around and settle down depending on mood, they do both seem to be a bit bigger now and again. I don't have a ton of CUC so maybe that's helping.

[Reef Goddess]

They are not hard to keep. They are just not good for your sandbed, they will eat all of the microfauna out of your sandbed which isn't a good thing since you want your sand to be "alive". Horseshoe crabs do the same thing.

Its much better to get some jumbo cerith and queen conchs for your sandbed. They will eat the detritus/algae and leave the other stuff alone.

Sandsifting stars just happen to be one of the top things that lfs like to sell to beginners.

[DrHank]

I knew there was a reason that I didn't like sand sifting starfish. I assume that brittle stars fall into this category. Also, could you tell me a bit more about soldierfish.

[Reef Goddess]

Brittle stars are fine, very good detritivores.

Soldierfish grow up to 12", prefer dimly lit tanks.

[coralmansan]

How about one that should only be bought if the are Aqua Cultured, Bangaii Cardinal Fish. They are only found in an area around Banggai Island off Sulawesi so they do not have a big population in the wild.

[SubRosa]

Research your purchases before you make them.Most animals on these lists are fine to keep if you are aware of their requirements and make provision for them.But know the limitations of your system and yourself before you decide to purchase any animal.Consider the following:What animals would have been included on a list of this type 30 yrs ago that are today considered "easy"?If we stop trying we stop learning.

John

[Craig Manoukian]

Great information all!

[plecosword]

good list!

[untilthen]

i dunno about the mantis shrimp though... it seems to me that alot of people keep them... i mean they have their own club dont they?

[lcstorc]

Just because they have their own club doesn't mean everyone should have one. They have specific requirements that need to be met.
I am a member of the BlueSpot Jawfish club and our primary purpose is to try and learn how to successfully keep them alive long term. They have a very poor survival rate but we are learning from each other. I'm shure the mantis club does the same.
I do think they are cool critters but I have never had one.