What is the hardest fish to keep in this hobby?

[dhnguyen]

Box Fish or Cow Fish.

I never had issues with keeping either. Kept a long horned cow fish and yellow box fish for years without issues.
They do better when housed with other non aggressive fish and in tanks of lower flow though.

 

[Sarcazian]

+1 Leopard Wrasse

Scared of its own shadow and after acclimation, difficult to even get eating live food.

The stars have to align with high quality water, perfect sandbed, no other intimidating fish, great endless supply of pods.

They are absolute PITAs. 100%

.

Not a Leopard Wrasse, but I just had a six-line wrasse die likely due to starvation in QT. It was a scared of it's own shadow and only picked at the frozen food I gave it. It outright refused pellets and I tried 5 different types.

Mind you, I don't count a six-line as hardest... just neglect since I was hoping to force it to eat pellets or other food I feed my DT.

 

[Uroplatus]

I find something interesting about this, I have an old book from 1968 that explained how to keep some of the fish we consider impossible today and before you say that the views on longevity were different back then, yes they were but this author had the same views on longevity that we have today

 

[jaganshi066]

Whale shark.

:3

I think you win

 

[Azedenkae]

I think you win

Might be a bit egoistic, but I think I gotta agree. I think I did select the largest fish currently extant. I think.

 

[Picasso the Triggerfish]

Orangespot filefish, no experience with these guys there's no need to be a rocket scientist to know that a fish that only eats SPS polyps (and they love Acro polyps from all the SPSs out there) and won't accep't anything else ain't gonna be easy at all. Some specimens just eat Acro polyps and nothing else, like, not even Monti or Seriatopora's polyps (which are much easier to take care than Acro), JUST Acro polyps, nothing else.

Also, from all the Acros out there, they will nip at Milleporas to a point that you can actually lose a colony because a OSFF (orange spot filefish) was nibbling at the Mille so much that it's skeleton was peeled off from the tissue. In fact, they like Milles so much that a OSFF that devoured every single Millepora in the reef tank would rather starve to death rather than eating any other species of coral, let that sink in just how picky they are.

 

[jaganshi066]

Orangespot filefish, no experience with these guys there's no need to be a rocket scientist to know that a fish that only eats SPS polyps (and they love Acro polyps from all the SPSs out there) and won't accep't anything else ain't gonna be easy at all. Some specimens just eat Acro polyps and nothing else, like, not even Monti or Seriatopora's polyps (which are much easier to take care than Acro), JUST Acro polyps, nothing else.

Also, from all the Acros out there, they will nip at Milleporas to a point that you can actually lose a colony because a OSFF (orange spot filefish) was nibbling at the Mille so much that it's skeleton was peeled off from the tissue. In fact, they like Milles so much that a OSFF that devoured every single Millepora in the reef tank would rather starve to death rather than eating any other species of coral, let that sink in just how picky they are.

People have success feeding it frozen and other things

 

[EakTheFreak]

I think keeping difficult fish has become as much of a hobby for me as growing and succeeding with coral.

I have the following fish thriving in my tank at the moment but will not get cocky as I know they are considered difficult. They are all fat and happy at the moment. Those 3 species I listed below:

* Copperband Butterfly Fish (Eats LRS, Live clams, Mysis Shrimp, Cultured white worms, Masstick)
* 3 Blue Star Leopard Wrasses (1 transitioned to male & 2 females) (Eats LRS, Live Clams, Cultured White worms, Nori, Mysis shrimp)
* Mandarin Goby (Eats pods, LRS, small bits of clams, Cultured White worms, all kinds of everything)

I think the key to all of these fish’s success is the cultured white worms and feeding the white worms 4 times per week.

 

[Tamberav]

+1 Leopard Wrasse

Scared of its own shadow and after acclimation, difficult to even get eating live food.

The stars have to align with high quality water, perfect sandbed, no other intimidating fish, great endless supply of pods.

They are absolute PITAs. 100%

.

IDK... I have 3 leopards because I can't keep fairy's alive. I find these guys much easier. Unless we are talking about Chaot's.

 

[Tamberav]

thats a shipping issue mainly and having a food they will readily eat , the new chroma boost pellets work a treat i got my idol a year ago and had him eating them within half an hour hes fat as healthy and beautiful but i have no zoos left lol

I seen a lot of short term success with these guys. People seem to keep them healthy around 5 years then they die. They don't seem to make it the 15-20 years they should. I always wondered why as there are many stories of "My idol was my most aggressive eater and fat, and then it was dead". Some people say diet and live sponge but it is all speculation.

 

[Picasso the Triggerfish]

People have success feeding it frozen and other things

It ain't a easy task tho, specially if the fish tank contain Acropora, specially if said Acro is a Millepora

 

[Bob LI]

A wild caught sea horses

Probably true in general, but I had some friends catch one clamming in the Great South Bay south off Long Island, NY back in 1976. They brought it to me in a bucket full of eel grass and water.
I had him for several years and he used to curl around my finger so I could fend off the other fish and feed him slices of clam.

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

What's the definition of "difficult?" I think it means different things to different people. Leafy sea dragons and flamboyant cuttles were probably the most "difficult" animals I've kept, due to the endless supply of live mysids they need. So difficult here means more about expenses, and/or having no control if a flight gets delayed/canceled and you run out of foods.

 

[Karen00]

Probably true in general, but I had some friends catch one clamming in the Great South Bay south off Long Island, NY back in 1976. They brought it to me in a bucket full of eel grass and water.
I had him for several years and he used to curl around my finger so I could fend off the other fish and feed him slices of clam.

I love these guys so much! They're so other-worldly. That's amazing you had him for so long!

 

[Nick D]

Regal Angel

 

[Nick D]

Regal Angel

 

[Bob LI]

I love these guys so much! They're so other-worldly. That's amazing you had him for so long!

He had to be tough with his tankmates, but developed some issues as he got older, including lesions. He would come to my finger, I would take him out of the tank and my wife would treat him with mercurichrome (not sure of the spelling). Notice the plastic plants and bleached coral. This was a long time ago.

 

[Karen00]

He had to be tough with his tankmates, but developed some issues as he got older, including lesions. He would come to my finger, I would take him out of the tank and my wife would treat him with mercurichrome (not sure of the spelling). Notice the plastic plants and bleached coral. This was a long time ago.

That's what I also find amazing is that you had him for that long back then!!!!! Kudos to you and your wife. My dream tank is to have a bunch of these guys (the dwarfs because I have no room to even keep a pair of the big ones). Seahorses, sea dragons and gobies are my favorite.

 

[tehmadreefer]

 

[kcschwabe]

My blue crab .. I know it’s not a fish but she keeps climbing out of the tank .. I find her across my living room and sometimes all the way out into my kitchen