What s the Most Unique and hardest fish you’ve kept?

NotFishyFishGuy

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Hey guys thinking of getting another reef tank and that got me thinking About What fish should i put and how big Of a tank i should get. Then I started thinking of keeping more unique fish instead of the more basic clowns and damsels (not saying they arent unique, there are plenty of them with cool patterns) and i thought of starting this thread. So let me know what is the most unique fish you have ever kept and what is the hardest to keep fish that had a lot of requirements that you have kept. The most unique I’ve ever kept was just a Black icecap clown. Wish I still had him so i could put pictures :(. for some reason doesn’t even show up when you type the name into google. anyways leave you comment down below :)
 

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Hum. Once person's idea of "unique" could be another person's idea of common. I enjoyed keeping the little brackish water flounders at one time. They were cool to watch eat, easy to care for, and lived for many years in my tanks. In the salty world of 35 ppm, I would have to say the hardest fish to get to eat was my Copperband Butterfly, though I would not say it is any harder to 'keep' than most other butterfly fish once eating well. As for unique marine fish, I'll have to say my Pacific Redstripe Hogfish (Bodianus sepiacaudus). When I had this fish years ago it was a fish that pulled the eye to it immediately with its active behavior and bright red stripes. I miss this fish and have often thought about getting another one, but the destination tank for the fish is already fully stocked. Maybe someday down the road...
 
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NotFishyFishGuy

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Hum. Once person's idea of "unique" could be another person's idea of common. I enjoyed keeping the little brackish water flounders at one time. They were cool to watch eat, easy to care for, and lived for many years in my tanks. In the salty world of 35 ppm, I would have to say the hardest fish to get to eat was my Copperband Butterfly, though I would not say it is any harder to 'keep' than most other butterfly fish once eating well. As for unique marine fish, I'll have to say my Pacific Redstripe Hogfish (Bodianus sepiacaudus). When I had this fish years ago it was an active, fish that pulled the eye to it immediately with its active behavior and bright red stripes. I miss this fish and have often thought about getting another one, but the destination tank for the fish is already fully stocked. Maybe someday down the road...
Well a “unique“ fish Could be just unique to you and that would still be unique ;)
 

ca1ore

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None of those are unique of course LOL. I had a koi scopas years ago that was unique (one of a kind). I’ve seen a few since, with their unique patterns, but all overpriced. Fish hailing from remote places like Mauritius are certainly less common in the hobby. Gem tangs have been found more broadly, so they’re not particularly rare anymore. Jeweled leopard is one of my faves; bought the one and only I’ve ever seen for sale. Get a big enough tank and you can go for one of the larger species of naso.
 

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Personally in my own tanks, probably princess anthias.

In stores where I worked, big "show" size Achilles tangs we would get in, that IMO shouldn't even be collected at that size.

We also got in several bandit angels in that were super finicky eaters and considering their price, basically waited on those guys hand and foot.
 

jurgenph

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Koumansetta rainfordi.
unfortunately, my tank didn't grow enough food for it to survive, and refused to eat what i fed the tank.

J.
 
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NotFishyFishGuy

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Personally in my own tanks, probably princess anthias.

In stores where I worked, big "show" size Achilles tangs we would get in, that IMO shouldn't even be collected at that size.

We also got in several bandit angels in that were super finicky eaters and considering their price, basically waited on those guys hand and foot.
Wow how big were the tangs? Honestly sometimes I don’t get why stores would get fish that are very rare and expensive. you go into a store and the tanks are to small for them but they always say its fine because it wont be permanenT. with super big or expensive fish those are basically their homes because nobody has the money to buy them except that one guy who spends all his money on fish and barely has enough for food lol
 
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NotFishyFishGuy

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Has anyone kept any huge predator fish like a green moray or something?
 

C. Eymann

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Wow how big were the tangs? Honestly sometimes I don’t get why stores would get fish that are very rare and expensive. you go into a store and the tanks are to small for them but they always say its fine because it wont be permanenT. with super big or expensive fish those are basically their homes because nobody has the money to buy them except that one guy who spends all his money on fish and barely has enough for food lol

The store that I worked at the time that got in these massive Achilles had its "fish system" setup with 90gal cubes on the bottom and 180gal tanks on the top row, so while catching fish could be a chore, at least the big tangs had decent swimming space, however, I think fish for the ornamental trade should only be collected as juveniles or sub adults only, big show fish have a much harder time adapting to captivity IMO

The big show Achilles tangs we got would be 7-8+ inches. I believe we were getting them from Hawaii- this was around 2008? 2009?
 

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My Regal and Copeprband which I have had for a couple of years now. Not unique, but difficult to keep.
 
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NotFishyFishGuy

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What about captive bred fish had anyone had a hard time keeping them? I think they would be easier though since they are used to living in captivity. Does anyone have anyone unique fish that are easily found in the wild but uniuqe because it is captive bred? Maybe captive bred yellow tangs?
 

tehmadreefer

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Actually I've kept a shap-tail eel which is very rare to find in the aquarium trade.

Knew a guy that had a 4ft banana moray. Thing was vicious!
 

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Mine would be a firefish. Tried probably a dozen times over the years. Would put one in the tank and never see it again.
 

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