Quote:
Originally posted by blown63chevy
There are several people here on RC who have MI's that are over a year old.
Also I have had 4 long nose hawk fish and I have never had one jump out of the tank nor have I ever heard of one jumping out of a tank.
I've also kept a clown gobie years ago with no problems. He lived for several years in the reef tank before I got rid of the tank.
Same with the mandrin dragonetts. A lot of people are keeping them and some are even breeding them.
I also beleive that garabaldi's are illegal to collect. I think the only place they are found is off the coast of Calif.
Maybe it's time to do a serious update to your list and maybe do some research on the species before posting a list such as this.
|
If you had read the post you would realize that once Humdrop/Clow gobies make it past their first couple weeks they seem to do fine. However I've seen huge amounts of them die off after importation, often well over 50%. If that a price you're willing to pay to keep them in your aquarium, because it's not one I am.
Same goes for the Moorish Idol, when I owned my own fishfood company I had one that lived for over 2 years, big freaking deal I say. The amount of them that actually live that long is incredibly small, I've seen how they fare on the wholesale end, at the LFS, and then in the home aquarium. We should be ashamed as a hobby that this fish is even still available to us. Sure some of us can give them a fighting chance but in general the people that buy them are just looking at them as a disposable decoration.
I've seen and heard of dozens of longnosed hawks jumping from aquariums. I'm not saying people shouldn't keep them in the least since they're quite hardy, just saying that people should be aware that they're known to jump and should take precautions. Could my experiences be a freak occurence, I suppose... But when you say you've had 4 and none of them have jumped doesn't make me inclined to not caution people that they can and are known to jump. After seeing many thousands of fish come through wholesalers and the LFS the two that I find are the best escape artists are Longnose hawkfish and Tilefish, I've seen any other fish dried up on the floor like I have those two.
As for the Mandarins, they're under the heading of best left for experienced hobbyists. I don't really know many people that would disagree with that... They usually require live food when newly introduced to captivity and often only thrive where there is live rock present. They also react poorly to disease treatments and I don't know of many newer hobbyists that don't somehow manage to get some sort of parasite outbreak in their aquarium. I simply don't see it as a fish that any beginner should have unless they start out with a larger reef aquarium and understand the dietary requirements. I all too often see it as a fish that people new to the hobby add the their tanks because of how odd and beautiful they are but have no idea that they can't just throw some frozen brine in a tank and expect it to live. I always had wonderful luck with Madarins, but they were in 75+ gallon reef tanks and they were fed live food early on in their captivity.