The RED List of Fish, Inverts, and Corals

[Myka]

I figured we could all get together and write up a red list of fish, inverts, and corals that should be left in the ocean due to the fact that they are nearly impossible to keep in aquaria for one reason or another. Let's do a red list and a yellow list for those that are questionable. Please suggest animals and I can't think of all of them on my own right now.

The Red List - Leave these animals in the ocean. Do not buy them, do not encourage LFSs to carry them:

The Yellow List - For very experienced reef keepers only.



RED LIST:


~ Nudibranchs of any kind (have very specific diets and usually die short term)
~ Blue Ribbon Eel (reach 4' length, do not adapt well to captivity, high mortality possibly from Cyanide poisoning)
~ Wild Collected Bangaii Cardinal ("Critically Endangered Species", poor acclimation to captivity, buy captive bred instead)
~ Moorish Idol (rumoured 5% of the fish captured make long term survival, lack of appetite, and prone to disease)
~ Panther Grouper (reach 2' length, "Endangered Species")
~ Butterfly fish - Exquisite, Orange Face, Ornate (these species feed primarily or possibly even exclusively on coral polyps, will starve to death in captivity)

YELLOW LIST:

~ Copper Banded Butterfly (high long term mortality as most are caught using Cyanide)
~ Starfish (other than Brittle and Serpent, most are near impossible to keep long term)
~ Mandarin Dragonets (rarely eat packaged foods, most will only eat live copepods, most will die from starvation)
~ Cleaner Wrasse (specialized diet, poor long term survival)
~ Wild Caught True Percula Clownfish (poor shipping and acclimation rates, high susceptibility to Brookynella)
~ Large Angelfish - Regal, Queen, French, Blue Ring, Emperor (often caught with Cyanide, require specific diet of sponges, prone to disease, often refuse to eat in captivity)
~ Flame Scallops (heavy feeders, high long term mortality)
~ Non-photosynthetic Gorgonian corals (these are usually the brightly colored ones, heavy feeders, high long term mortality)
~ Bamboo sharks (some species reach 4' length)
~ Powder Blue and Powder Brown Tangs (high susceptibility to Ich and HITH, challenging species to keep healthy)

[Zoaelite]

Wow Great Idea! Can you add a few species of Octopus to the red list, specificly the Mimic? Perhaps something about species of Cuttlefish and there has to be some species of Sea Horses that don't do well in captivity/ are rare in the wild?
Levi

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Great idea and Im sure I can think of a few fish for the list although I have to say that the Bamboo shark would be much better on the Yellow list...or IMO not there at all.

They are quite easy to keep if you have a large enough tank or pond.

Also there are many species of Bamboo and only one I believe gets close to 4' (Chiloscyllium punctatum)...although I can think of one more that may also get close most species stay well under 3'. Grey Bamboo sharks for example reach a max of 2.5' and often much less. The very common White Spotted Bamboo is about 32" max.

These are just not unmanageable fish and the best suited to aquariums from the shark family. Any of the reasonable sized bottom dwelling sharks live good lives in the right sized tank. They are just not the most active sharks.

The other problem I have with them being on this list is that the White Spotted Bamboos are mostly all captive bred now. We need more of this in the hobby.

[subman]

Add Pinnate Batfish to the red list

[naesco]

Great idea.
Everyone benefits and most importantly we stop the necessary deaths of impossible to keep species and give all of us the heads up on those species on the yellow list.

[MikeP]

I think all Anthia's should be on the YELLOW list. Maybe RED depending on the type.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by MikeP

I think all Anthia's should be on the YELLOW list. Maybe RED depending on the type.

Agreed but your going to have to start to get quite specific. Most Anthias will fit on one of the two lists for various reasons. Some are temperate fish for example and just don't belong in our tropical reefs. There are some species that do ok but need specific feedings. You can't just put Anthias on the list (not that you were suggesting that).

I think lists like this can start to get complicated unless you start to add sub categories and not generalize. The Bamboo sharks were a good example...too many species that vary in size to say they all reach 4'.

IMO, pretty much any species should be available. I just don't think they should be part of a regular shipment or common to see in a stores display. Many of the fish on that red list should be special order fish, probably making them expensive and only really sought after by a serious buyer. Someone with the proper set up. I think the real killer in this hobby is impulse buys and lack of knowledge. If these fish are not seen, not easy to get, the average person isn't going to want or look for them but when a Copperband Butterfly is $25 and in stores every few weeks...well people will keep buying and killing them. I am guilty of this. But if someone (and I know someone who does) wants to buy Zoa frags and sponges for their Moorish Idol regularly, then there is no reason they should not be able to keep these fish. His eats absolutely anything it seems anyways...even nori

Will never happen but would be nice. This list is a great idea to at least encourage and remind us to make the right decision.

[Haloreef]

Almost every thing we keep now, and consider "easy", was "impossible" less than 20 years ago! Through trial and error we learn. I don't think we should get any animal unless we are ready to try our best to keep it as close to happy as we can. Some animals are harder than others I agree! It was "impossible to breed clown fish, or Manderin Gobies not long ago! I think the best we can hope for is responsible people buy pets of whatever kind! Sadly not always the case!
Just my two cents worth, don't bite my head off.

[i have crabs]

same deal with the panther grouper, easy to keep fish even at 2' if the tank is bigenough, if its on the list for collection reasons thats a different issue
dosent the goverment have a redlist type of deal on fish allowed to be imported? maybe start with that, i can see this getting ugly

[Delphinus]

You know what, I'd consider bamboo sharks on your yellow list instead of your red list. The main problem with them is size, but otherwise, they more or less just sit there on the bottom and don't really have a lot of requirements. The main problem here is that most people will not have an appropriate sized habitat for them. But if you had the space to build, say, a lagoonal habitat that was really long, really wide and shallow, I don't see why they couldn't do fine long-term in there.

Also I disagree about gorgonians. Or at least you have to specify that you mean the non-photosynthetic species as being questionable. There are several species of photosynthetic gorgonians that are incredibly hardy in aquaria. Do agree that the nonphotosynthetic gorgonians belong on the yellow list over the red list because it is not impossible to keep them, but it is rather challenging and rather specific requirements that will be beyond the interest of the average aquarist.