Scary Fish: These fish are too scary for you to keep in your aquarium?

[revhtree]

I'm not talking about being afraid that one of them is going to take a chunk of your finger off, which some can, but rather scare you because you are afraid they my not survive your tank or they may eat your coral or may kill other fish etc! Some types of fish traditionally don't do well in home aquariums for various reasons but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't like to give them a try. Let's talk about these fish today!

1. What fish would you like to keep but are afraid to give it a try?

2. Why are you afraid to add certain fish to your aquarium? What are the factors?


Peppermint Angelfish Photo by @LiveAquaria

 

[Aboynamedsous2]

Also poisonous. I have some green palythoas that hitch hiked on some rock and I become paranoid every time I stick my hands in the tank.

 

[Uncle_Matthew]

Snowflake Ell! i would love to own one but I'm scared my tank mates would be eaten if not immediately one day when it where to decide its extra hungry

 

[davidcalgary29]

Harlequin tuskfish! I had the opportunity to pick one up from a local reefer -- and that's a one-of-a-kind event here -- and then spent the night fretting that it would make several new and unattractive holes in my angelfish. And eat all of my shrimp. And fill up my tank with poop that the skimmer couldn't handle. I ultimately passed on the fish.

 

[Pistol Peet]

Box fish can and will nuke ur tank if spooked or stressed.

 

[SlugSnorter]

My tank isnt big enough, but I wanna keep some garden eels or a moray only tank

 

[Mflores888]

I want a pink tail trigger, but I have super tiny fish (red head goby, hector goby, yasha, hi fin) that would turn into a snack for the trigger

 

[MillennialReefer]

I would say the most road block I have is tank size. The dream fish I would have are a large Clown trigger, tesselata eel, blue spotted string ray an array of large angels and tangs. This would be in an SPS system. All these fish are not exactly that sensitive or demanding but would require a swimming pool sized tank. I would high demanding fish like seahorses or Anthias are something I tend to avoid, since I like my systems to be on auto-pilot as much as possible.

 

[reddevilant]

I chose other. My display is full of macro algae so any herbivores and most omnivores are absolutely NOT allowed near my tank lol.

 

[Miami Reef]

Box fish can and will nuke ur tank if spooked or stressed.

I was going to say this!

Boxfish are one of the most comical fish.

 

[mike89t]

Always wanted a Clown Tang but I'm afraid of them becoming too aggressive.

 

[flagg37]

Oh man, I clicked every box.

 

[jfoahs04]

1. What fish would you like to keep but are afraid to give it a try?
I've always loved Moorish Idols, but they don't do well in captivity. Even if with a large enough tank, I wouldn't do it.

2. Why are you afraid to add certain fish to your aquarium? What are the factors?
Lots of reasons, but generally it comes down to wanting to make sure everyone in my tank has good odds of survival. So things like too small a tank, incompatible tankmates, or a fish that doesn't transport well will turn me off from a fish. I particularly don't like supporting the capture and sale of "difficult" fish with low survival rates in tanks/transport and/or questionable harvesting methods.

 

[NashobaTek]

Had to vote other, because my dream fish is now captive bred. However it still requires a lot of time until it gets past the juvenile stage,and a very large tank once an adult. Unfortunately it also loses the juvenile color.

Seahorses are another one day fish as well as the long horned cow fish. I've had both before, but until we're settled in a new house,not even going to consider them.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I would love to keep a damsel, but I'm worried about aggression. And I would love to keep a filefish, but I'm worried about it nipping at corals.

 

[Zach B]

I would LOVE a harlequin tusk but I love my shrimp and corals too much to risk it...

 

[bevo5]

All of those reasons are valid. Hard to pick one. I’d say making sure nobody will eat anyone else is important. Then it comes down to cost and my unwillingness to put anything too crazy in there.

 

[kzenoni]

Cured the problem and did a 200 gallon fowlr tank, got a lot of the ones mentioned. If they can’t go in the big tank they go to the fowlr. Lol

 

[davidcalgary29]

I chose other. My display is full of macro algae so any herbivores and most omnivores are absolutely NOT allowed near my tank lol.

Well give us a look, then.

 

[i cant think]

I'm not talking about being afraid that one of them is going to take a chunk of your finger off, which some can, but rather scare you because you are afraid they my not survive your tank or they may eat your coral or may kill other fish etc! Some types of fish traditionally don't do well in home aquariums for various reasons but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't like to give them a try. Let's talk about these fish today!

1. What fish would you like to keep but are afraid to give it a try?

2. Why are you afraid to add certain fish to your aquarium? What are the factors?


Peppermint Angelfish Photo by @LiveAquaria

Deep water/Cold water fish, I find it VERY hard to keep my tank cool (from 30 Degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius) so a cold water tank is just a nightmare for me, even in the UK we get hit with VERY warm summers due to global warming. Deep water fish scare me to keep because they tend to be more delicate aswell as hardish to keep.
Coral I don’t really mind about however when it comes to something like size… that scares me a lot because my tank is only 4’ and the biggest I can go atthe moment is 6’ so anything that gets 1’+ is out of the picture. I also put range into place because if we do it with coral and wonder where it’s from and what it’s habitat looks like, why don’t we do it with fish too? Clownfish aren’t always found on reefs in fact many photos are actually them on the outskirts of reefs in their nems. Wrasse at 90+ meters down probably only live near NPS corals if at all any coral, any planktivorous fish probably don’t stick to coral reefs and more hang around the edges/drop offs of coral reefs. My tank is Indonesian dominant so yes I have the odd “forever Tourist” but most of my fish are Indonesian so that also plays a BIG factor in what fish go into my display tank.
Also, if you want to recreate the ocean or a piece of the ocean, why not try get your fish that are found mostly around one area with a few “tourists”? I don’t understand why the origins of a fish don’t come into play when we pick out our fish - I know most are more adaptive than others but still, we focus on “Will this get along with this” or “Will this eat my coral”