Fish you will never keep... Nope Fish

[Farfrumugen]

Damsels, sohal tang , clown tang and flame hawk

Why the flame hawk?

 

[Joem820]

Chromis because of urenoma. Not worth the risk to me.

I probably also wouldn't keep powder type tangs due to aggression and disease prone.

Plenty of things not appropriate for my tank but they are not hard no's if I had the set up for them.

Also surprised to see people calling blennies boring as they are generally regarded as one of the most personable fish. You could call them drab... But boring? Eh.

I was wondering about this too, my striped blenny is super personable and lets me pet him and everything lol.

 

[Boops]

Designer clowns, hippo tang, bangai Cardinals - no, no, no!

 

[Stuartmercer]

The evil neon dottyback, can't wait until mine dies.

Why dont you eat it? I do that with the fish I dont like

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Blue devil damsel and sixline wrasse are 2 for me.

 

[jassermd]

Damsels, sohal tang , clown tang and flame hawk

Why the flame hawk? I assume the sohal and clown tangs due to aggression...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Why the flame hawk? I assume the sohal and clown tangs due to aggression...

Flame is a very greedy feeder and will fight with anthias. Most of all, flame will eat any and all shrimp in the tank.

 

[jassermd]

Flame is a very greedy feeder and will fight with anthias. Most of all, flame will eat any and all shrimp in the tank.

Totally agree to the feeding and the shrimp. I don't have any anthias...
For what it's worth, my yellow hawkfish fits the description exactly. 3 large bites with each pass and is the first to the "drop zone". Oh, and he took care of the coral eating shrimp for me ;-)
That said, he's a good citizen...

 

[Zionas]

1. Corallivore Butterflies (difficulty)

2. Moorish Idol (difficulty)

3. Bangaii Cardinals (Boring)

4. Firefish / Dartfish (too shy)

5. Flasher Wrasses (short lived / jumpers / not very hardy)

6. Most wild caught angelfish (support captive breeding / CB is hardier)

7. Blue Hippo Tang (large, active, ich magnet and not that interesting TBH)

8. Holacanthus angels (large, aggressive)

9. Most predators (need for live foods, don’t fit well in the “average” reef tank with smaller fish- Scorpionfish, Anglers, Waspfish, Stonefish, Lionfish, Eels, Groupers)

10. Most Anthias (complex social dynamics, not the longest lived, need for multiple feedings, I’m only really interested in the larger / non-shoaling species)

11. Most Acanthurus Tangs / Prionurus Tangs (get large, aggressive, nervous and disease magnets)

12. Seahorses (overly specialized needs)

13. Pipefish (Fragile, hard to get feeding, need very slow and peaceful tankmates)

14. Dascyllus and the -glydon Damsels (aggressive, latter genus not very attractive as adults, just don’t have anything over Chrysiptera and maybe some Pomacentrus)

15. Mutant / “aberrant” Scopas Tangs (what’s the point?)


Fish I enjoy:
1. CB Clownfish (don’t get me started on the designer Clowns)

2. Chrysiptera and select Pomacentrus damsels

3. Hawkfish

4. Odontanthias sp. (Borbonius and others)

5. Hogfish (not the huge ones)

6. Smaller Halichoeres wrasses, Leopard Wrasses, some Fairy Wrasses

7. Non-corallivore butterflies (some too drab)

8. Assessors and Reef Basslets

9. Marine Betta

10. Captive Bred ANGELFISH
-Centropyge / Paracentropyge
-Genicanthus
-Chaetodontoplus
-Pygoplites
-Asfur and some other Pomacanthus angels (if I had a huge tank)
-Majestic

11. Orchid Dottyback (one of the few relatively peaceful Dottybacks, nice colors and can be kept in stable pairs / harems which is hard to do with most other)


Fish OK for me but can do without:
-Smaller Zebrasoma Tangs
-Cthenochaetus Tangs
-Foxfaces
-Shrimp and other gobies


Body shape: Angels=Butterflies

Colors: Angels > Butterflies

Behaviors: Angels > Butterflies (because they can change sex which means pair and harem formation comes more easily)

Captive Bred Availability: Angels > Butterflies

 

[HomebroodExotics]

I want them all. I had 2 damsels that were a terror to anything else I put in so gave them their own tank. They were super fun to watch and personable. I do miss them. But the only thing that stops me from keeping fish is tank space and money. I love them all pretty much.

 

[angelsandtangs]

Queen trigger will end up being your only fish left .. I prefer them blackened these days ..

 

[A;exr54]

I will never own a damsel fish.

 

[HK180]

A Mystery Wrasse; one of the best personalities of a fish, but murdered every one of my crabs and shrimp in my reef.

Agreed. Best personality ever, was always swimming out in the open and very curious but soooo aggressive! Bit the head off my skunk shrimp and harlequin shrimp and bullied my rhomboid to the point that it it wedged itself into the rockwork and died. I'd get one again, but only in a species/grow out tank.

 

[Zionas]

Some damsels IMO are pretty decent. Which ones did you have before? And how big is your tank?

 

[a4edwin]

Damsels. All they wanted to do was fight when I had some.

 

[SlugSnorter]

For whatever reason, there are fish that just make us say nope. Aggression, fragility, bad luck, just plain ugly, etc...A great big ole pile of nope.

What is your "nope fish" and why?

Mine are the eared eel blenny or wolf eel and the yellow damselfish.

The wolf eel was one of my first predatory fish. From the start, the fish just gave me the creeps. Vicious and ugly, with a face that looks like an old thug mobster... lazy until times called for violence... that one specimen put me off and I have never desired to keep another one.

The Yellow Damsel I picked up as a kid, while i was learning about the hobby, was the first fish introduced to my 75 gallon aquarium. Alone, it was personable and interactive...always seemed to greet me when i came into my room. And then i decided to add more fish. I had always loved huma huma triggers and my mother picked up a small one. In the tank it went and the yellow damsel did what damsels do...bullied the equal sized trigger constantly. Woke up the morning after introducing the fish only to find it finless and near death...the yellow damsel making harassing passes at the little thing while it attempted to hide behind the heater. I caught out the little trigger and put it in my Q tank but it was too far gone. I tried then to find something that could hold its own and possibly eat the yellow monster...a lionfish came to mind. I got one that was definitely large enough to eat the damsel...but like david and goliath, the smaller fighter felled the giant...this time before it was beaten to death, i pulled the lionfish out and held it in my Q tank until i could convert a 45 tall that i had for the lion. I tried an eel, an undulated trigger, a grouper...all repelled and beaten by the 2 inch long yellow tyrant. Ultimately i had to break down the tank and catch the critter out before i could add anything else. I swore never again.

Cheers!

Lion fish, why get an agressive large fish in a FOWLR when instead you can get something awesome like a Moray

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Let's bump this back up for 2023! What fish are you guys NEVER gonna keep? For me it's anything freshwater. Haha! #Reefer4Life!!

 

[atoll]

Big ones

 

[907_Reefer]

Eels! Never again!

 

[kados]

Vlamingii Tang...gets huge