MARINE FISH AND INVERTEBRATES TO AVOID

[Jay Hemdal]

MARINE FISH AND INVERTEBRATES TO AVOID

While selecting good quality animals and then properly quarantining them is vital for acquiring long-lived specimens for your aquarium, some species start the process with one or more strikes against them. Knowing which species have extra challenges helps home aquarists avoid heartbreak down the road. The following are some species that may pose problems for you, despite the level of care that you offer them.

This list only includes fish known to have specific issues that affect their longevity in aquariums. Any fish, poorly handled, or for which you are not prepared to properly care for, is not going to thrive for you.


Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni – wild caught Banggai cardinalfish frequently develop an incurable viral disease. Mortality rates from this seem to be higher than 80% in affected fish. If tank raised fish are housed with wild ones, the disease can transfer to them.

Blonde Naso tang, Naso elegans – For unknown reasons, this species has shown declining durability in the past four or five years. What happens is the fish arrive and either do not start feeding, or begin feeding, but die from unknown causes in a few weeks to months.

Blue-spotted jawfish, Opistognathus rosenblatti – This species does not thrive at tropical temperatures and is prone to developing severe external bacterial infections.

Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses or flasher wrasses, Pseudocheilinus – some of these fish will develop the incurable, “Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease” (UNWD). The rate of infection of this is not known, but may run about 5 to 10% of these fish. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

Clownfish, Amphiprion sp. – all wild caught clownfish are prone to developing Brooklynella hostilis, an external protozoan disease that is difficult to treat without resorting to formalin. Even captive raised clownfish can develop this malady if housed with wild caught clownfish at some point.

Green chromis, Chromis viridis – this species commonly develops incurable Uronema infections when first acquired. Additionally, because they are low value fish, they tend to be handled poorly while in the supply chain.

Orange anthias, Anthias squamipinnis – this species commonly develops incurable Uronema infections when first acquired.

Yellow “Coris” wrasse, Halichoeres chrysus – This species commonly develops Uronema infections that are usually incurable. They also can develop the “Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease”.

There are other species of marine fish that are more delicate, or that adapt poorly to captivity no matter their source. The following tables identify most of these “poor doers” that are currently found in the trade. These listings are for typical wild caught fish. Tank raised fish of the same species often fare better, as well as wild caught fish from short supply chain sources.

Anampses sp. Red Tamarin wrasse
Aspidontus sp. False cleaner fish
Chaetodon austriacus Exquisite butterflyfish
C. baronessa Triangular butterflyfish
C. melapterus Arabian butterflyfish
C. meyeri Meyer’s butterflyfish
C. ornatissimus Clown butterflyfish
C. triangulum Triangle butterflyfish
C. trifasciatus Red-fin butterflyfish
Exallias brevis Leopard blenny
Labroides phthirophagus Hawaiian cleaner wrasse (wild caught)
Plagiotremus sp. Mimic blenny
Pseudanthias pascalis Forktail anthias
Solenostomus spp. Ghost pipefish
Stethojulis spp. Orange shoulder Wrasse
Marine fishes that almost never survive past the year mark in closed system aquariums


Centropyge (Paracentropyge) multifasciatus Many banded angelfish
Chaetodon citrinellus Citron butterflyfish
C. lavartus Masked butterflyfish
C. reticulatus Reticulated butterflyfish
Doryrhamphus sp. Banded pipefish
Holocanthus tricolor Rock beauty angelfish
Gorgasia preclara Gold-banded garden eel
Macropharyngodon sp. Ornate wrasse (may be hardier once established)
Ostracion sp. Boxfish (some cowfish as well)
Oxymonacanthus longirostris Orange-spot filefish
Platax pinnatus Red-rimmed batfish
Pseudanthias tuka Tuka anthias
Pygoplites diacanthus Regal angelfish (Except Red Sea)
Rhinomuraena quaesita Ribbon eel
Scarus sp. (large specimens) Parrotfish (except bicolor)
Marine fishes that rarely survive past the two year mark in typical home aquariums


Chromodoris, Phyllidia & related sp. Nudibranchs
Dendronephthya (Roxasia) sp. Soft coral
Goniopora sp. Flowerpot coral (wild)
Hapalochlaena sp. Blue ringed octopus
Iodictyum sp. Lace bryozoan
Lamprometra and related spp. Crinoids
Lima sp. Flame scallop
Pseudocolochirus violaceus Sea Apple
Spondylus sp. Thorny oyster
Trikentrion flabelliforme with Zoanthid Red spider sponge
Invertebrates that rarely survive past the year mark in closed system aquariums.


Cone shell - Conus spp.
Blue ring octopus - Hapalochlaena spp.
Stonefish - Synanceia spp.
Many other scorpionfish have toxins in their spines that are unknown in their effect on humans – treat ALL unknown scorpionfish as if they are as toxic as stonefish!
Species capable of causing serious harm/death to humans through true venom.

 

[MnFish1]

Nice discussion!

 

[RedoubtReef]

Avoid: Six line wrasse and GSP

 

[Rp8]

Thanks @Jay Hemdal! Does this include the life span of the animal or just considering certain illnesses and adjusting to aquarium life?
Aquarists should know what they are getting into. Avoid impulse buying. flame scallops live 4-5 years and most are collected half way to that. Most octopuses live 14-24 months naturally, are escape artist, and in an aquarium are the artist of their own demise.

 

[7of9]

Good to know. It seems more like you need to weigh the risks versus benefits with some of these. I mean, everyone has clownfish, but it's good to know their risks?

 

[dbroncos]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article MARINE FISH AND INVERTEBRATES TO AVOID. Please add to the discussion here.

@Jay Hemdal really nice article. I have a question. I have an order out with Dr Reef and one fish in that order is a Blue/Green Chromis. Should i avoid that one?

 

[Borat]

Jade Wrasse - avoid, unless you are planning a wrasse barbeque party in the future..

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Thanks for putting this together @Jay Hemdal!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal really nice article. I have a question. I have an order out with Dr Reef and one fish in that order is a Blue/Green Chromis. Should i avoid that one?

The problem with green chromis lays solely on the supply chain. Buying pre quarantined fish from Dr. Reef reduces that issue to a high degree.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks @Jay Hemdal! Does this include the life span of the animal or just considering certain illnesses and adjusting to aquarium life?
Aquarists should know what they are getting into. Avoid impulse buying. flame scallops live 4-5 years and most are collected half way to that. Most octopuses live 14-24 months naturally, are escape artist, and in an aquarium are the artist of their own demise.

Flame scallops are listed because I've never had one survive longer than 8 months in an aquarium, they are just too difficult to feed properly. I put blue ring octopus on the list due to them being venomous, plus being short-lived in captivity, even for an octopus.

Jay

 

[Nick711]

Re: Halichoeres chrysus - is Uronema typically something a 30 day QT will flesh out or does it have something to do with the way they like to sleep in the substrate?

 

[dbroncos]

The problem with green chromis lays solely on the supply chain. Buying pre quarantined fish from Dr. Reef reduces that issue to a high degree.

Jay

Thanks @Jay Hemdal does that condition if it occurs affect other fish? or is it species specific?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks @Jay Hemdal does that condition if it occurs affect other fish? or is it species specific?

Good question - the issues that I'm trying to explore here are mostly specific to the individual fish that is acquired, few of these issues are communicable to other fish in the same aquarium, aside from the Brooklynella clownfish problem and the Uronema issue that is rarely, but possibly contagious to other fish.

Jay

 

[Sharkbait19]

Great discussion! Curious - is the viral infection in cardinals seen more typically in wild vs captive (seems like so based on your post)?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Great discussion! Curious - is the viral infection in cardinals seen more typically in wild vs captive (seems like so based on your post)?

So - the issue is a bit unclear. Early shipments of Banggai cardinalfish were very sturdy, the fish did great back in the 1990's. Later, they did poorly. The research showed that these later fish were infected with a virus. Nobody really knows where the virus originally came from, but it became common in the exporter's systems housing these fish. Tank raised cardinals, never exposed to wild cardinals, still seem pretty hardy.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Re: Halichoeres chrysus - is Uronema typically something a 30 day QT will flesh out or does it have something to do with the way they like to sleep in the substrate?

Uronema is not super common in yellow wrasse, but we see it more often than I would like. It typically shows up in these fish within the first 30 days after importation. I don't think it has much to do with them sleeping under the gravel, since other wrasse don't have the same issue.

Jay

 

[Uncle99]

Since I see many on this list which are regularly sold in my LFS store, does that many perish after we get them?
That seems sad to me.
Great report. Big eye opener for me.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Since I see many on this list which are regularly sold in my LFS store, does that many perish after we get them?
That seems sad to me.
Great report. Big eye opener for me.

Yes - it is a pretty sad state of affairs. Some of these fish are still commonly sold. The retail buyers typically think, "I can do better, that won't happen to my fish", but that is often proven untrue.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Jade Wrasse - avoid, unless you are planning a wrasse barbeque party in the future..

That is a very similar species to the "yellow coris" that I listed. But, I don't have enough data to include that species, have you seen multiple issues with them?

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Avoid: Six line wrasse and GSP

Ah, those are problem animals in many aquariums, but they are almost TOO hardy!

Jay