Top 10 Hard to Keep Saltwater Fish

[@NerdistAquarist]

Surprised Moorish Idol didn't even make the list, thought it would be in top 3 for sure.

[@MadHattersReef]

Definitely worth a mention while we are on the subject.

[@mikemyers2677]

I love these videos. My wife hates it. Every time she says “oh let’s get this “ I’ll tell her no and she won’t listen to me so then I have to pull out the old MHR video to give her proof

[@BahamaLlamaCoral]

But, But, But, they're soooo beautiful!!! Thanks for the content Jeff!

[@MadHattersReef]

Thanks Baha!

[@b_bogg]

I’ve been in the hobby for about 8 months now and I find your videos so informative! Keep it up bro !!

[@MadHattersReef]

Thank you.

[@AquaSplendor]

I actually watch the whole thing, very interesting subject, i learn a lot!. I love Goby, but i haven't got luck yet with them in my current tank, they just disappear (yellow goby). maybe the source where i got them wasn't.. good i don't know. This is why Captivity bred fish is so important. so you don't waste money and live!

[@ElianWailmer0323]

Me and my Dad have trained multiple orange-spotted Filefish to eat frozen and flake food. We breed Saltwater Mollies and we'll put the orange-spotted Filefish in with them and since the Mollies eat anything except corals the Mollies teach them how to eat and because Mollies have almost absolutely no agression so the get along well with the passive orange-spotted Filefish Also a way to get an orange-spotted Filefish to eat is to buy 2 or more at a time because they kind of school and when the Mollies teach them you're more likely to get 1 to eat while another 1 might not make it We've had this work multiple times and we've been able to keep orange-spotted Filefish in reef take that have multiple types of coral except Acroporas

[@christophtonnis2935]

I got a scooter blenny dragonet by accident in my current tank. The store sold it as a blenny and i learned later it was a dragonet. Thanks to an epidemic of copepods in my tank it actually is doing very well now. Having it since 4 months now and it is at great health and is greeting me every morning it seems. It is an awesome fish to keep if you manage to feed it.

[@lonestarpatriot876]

A scooter blenny is much easier to care for than a Mandarin Gobi.

[@Ripsaw17]

Mandarin are super easy to keep as long as you understand what they need to eat I have six of them in my tank flourishing

[@davidhughes1843]

Copperband butterfly fish I find difficult

[@MadHattersReef]

Another Beautiful but hard to keep fish.

[@jaxenwages1340]

luckily I had a healthy copperband butterfly

[@darrenc2900]

My orange spotted filefish is so easy to keep we’ve had him about a week now, but he eats frozen and does well with my ornate leopard wrasse 2 damsels and engineer goby in my 30 gallon reef system

[@AlexHernandez-rd1oq]

All of the best looking fish are the hardest to keep

[@stormyg9169]

Somehow I knew the blue box fish was on there.. This one has been so tempting to buy so many times..

[@Ripsaw17]

My fish store has one of the harlequins gorgeous fish but it would have to be like a group of them in a tank by themselves it's like an oversized Nemo

[@ReeferGil]

Another enjoyable vid!

[@MadHattersReef]

Thanks Gil!

[@ethanbowles5773]

Where did you get your intro song I love watching your videos just cause I love your intro song

[@jaxenwages1340]

The ribbon eel looks cool

[@omaga4478]

So the spike fin gobi do you think it would do good in a 5 gallon with a pair of clown fish

[@tragical7328]

8:00 wow did not know that they were so hard to keep mine just died a half a month ago but i had him for 3 years.

[@lonestarpatriot876]

Great video as always. Mandarin Dragonet are amazing to look at and are in every LFS I have been to. With that said, they probably should not be as I would bet my bottom dollar that most of them die by being bought by the unknowing aquarist who likes how they look.

[@joshmai8462]

I actually got a mandarin on my first beginner tank and found it’s not too bad, they do have other foods made for them that they will eat, only thing is they have to eat everyday and the food is pricey, I spend $27 on a small bottle of its food

[@aimeewolf557]

I have a target mandarin Dragonet and he is one of my most hardy fish in my tank also how the heak did the frog fish not get on this list

[@tmategames5251]

I am in love with the mandarin dragon I am conferring my 40 to a reef cause I wanna have 1 so baldy I do my research on Copepods just because I wanna give the fish plenty of food also do you have a fid about how to make them colonize your tank course that will help very much with my research

[@turnerdischinger6365]

The spikefin goby doesn’t sound difficult. It just sounds like it is a fish that you just won’t see much. Not sure how that came on the list. Let alone the number one spot

[@MadHattersReef]

Not much info on them but they are Beautiful and pack a price tag. Availability seems to be a problem as well.

[@turnerdischinger6365]

Mad Hatter's Reef ok. Just wasn’t sure👍

[@slgaray]

Great video! Copepods is pronounced Copa-pod. I never said anything and sorry to do it now, but had to. I had the flaming prawn goby(#1 on your list). They were eaten by my Candy basslet. So sad!

[@Ripsaw17]

I have 10 mandarins and they are easy to keep but I have easy access to copepods

[@BolverkrLimited]

Really wish you'd of included the Copper banded butterfly.

[@JBrass98]

Copper bands Achilles tang,definitely harder to keep than a regal,the regal is not at all a beginner fish but with the right size tank and water changes it's an intermediate level of difficulty fish to keep,if you have the tank and want it and are willing to do a decent not crazy amount of water changes get one now!For around a hundred dollars it's one of the prettiest Angel's for the money!

[@MichaelCleveland-by7jx]

I am a bit surprised seahorses aren’t on this list (I’m not sure if they’re technically considered fish, however)

[@orpheus1180]

Yep, seahorses are in fact fish. Captive bred horses aren't too difficult if you know the husbandry.

[@dsay4158]

I have a Mandarin in my 36 gallon. He's doing just fine.

[@lonestarpatriot876]

They will do good as long as you have copepods. With that said, they will run through a population of copepods quickly which is why you either need to buy copepods often, which gets expensive, or you set up a tank specifically for copepod cultivation. I know guy's who have to spend over $200 dollars a month on copepods for their Mandarin Gobies.

[@adamsilversmith]

Surprised Moorish Idol didn’t make the list.

[@MadHattersReef]

Definitely worth a mention while we are on the subject.

[@YohanM99]

Every fish you listed is on my wish list.😭😭😭😹😹😹

[@MadHattersReef]

Definitely some nice looking fish with some cool behavior.

[@gabesreef]

All great choices, only thing is the mandarin... I never had a problem but I also dropped pods a few times. Now they have the aqua cultured ones that will eat prepared foods so they're getting easier.

[@turnerdischinger6365]

Gabes Reef Tampa got one last week the apparently was eating mysis. I should have made the guy show me. Anyway, he has only ate one piece in front of me so I’m hopping he really does eat it🤞

[@gabesreef]

@@turnerdischinger6365 not sure how old your tank is or how established your pod populations are..... but I added some pods every couple months to help keep them up. Unfortunately I've never seen mine eat anything excet pods

[@MadHattersReef]

I figured you would have something to say on that one. Haha.

[@turnerdischinger6365]

Gabes Reef Tampa about over 2 years old with lots of pods. The problem is it’s a 10 gallon. I saw him eat a single piece of mysis so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. I’m gonna try some brine shrimp also. I will return him if he does not eat frozen though

[@gabesreef]

@@turnerdischinger6365 mine was in a 13.5g.... I threw him in the 56g with a couple bottles of reef nutrition tigger pods or whatever they're called lol

[@jeremybw2180]

"The 'Idear' behind this video" LOL

[@MadHattersReef]

Mainer

[@jeremybw2180]

@@MadHattersReef I was thinking deep south ;) As you hear lots of that in Texas.

[@MS-sr4hr]

It’s true that harlequin is hard to keep 😭 Also I have so many butterfly fish in my tank, copperband, latticed, melon, auriga, yellow teardrop, hope they r healthy forever 🙏

[@count_doodku8026]

I’m surprised the moorish idol wasn’t on here

[@robertvega2114]

I was just wondering… What are some of the fish that were close to making the top 10 list in your opinion?

[@MadHattersReef]

Copperbanded butterflyfish, Achilles tang and Signal goby.

[@ChrisMintjes]

I was expecting the signal goby. Love those!

[@theideaofclips5481]

Where is moorish idol

[@nathanmoore7142]

I made the mistake of getting the manderian goby. Had him for 2 months was sad he died. Fish store said that they were spot feeding eggs.

[@MadHattersReef]

Sorry to hear.

[@stormyg9169]

My ribbon eel was doing so good until one of my crabs grabbed it. No one told me you couldn’t have crabs and eels in the same tank. Ugh so mad..

[@Ripsaw17]

You guys need to turn your mic up vido starts out good and then it's hard to hear you

[@deviation9872]

The manderan dragnet can be trained to eat frozen food

[@deviation9872]

@@Booneville2024 what do you mean nope?? I'm just speaking from experience it's a rare accuracy but it can and will happen. I have seen it in my own tank and I'm sure others have too dont just say nope if you have only ever owed one.

[@wesbrackmanthercenthusiast4695]

My dragonet loves flat worms

[@perezfamilyadventures3514]

I see Petco sets people up for failure 😅!

[@tonyswaggz]

I have a harlequin sweetlips for over 2 years in a 72 bow front and he eats anything that I drop in the tank

[@jpav01237]

I thought for sure the Achilles tang would be on here

[@MadHattersReef]

Didn’t make the cut but it is one of the harder to keep tangs out there.

[@mikmok_DS]

I'm curious about this. I have a new (3 month old) 135 fish only. Been adding non aggressive fish so far. Thinking about this fish or a powder blue. What makes the Achilles tang difficult to keep?

[@Haazza]

@@mikmok_DS they need a huge tank with extremely high flow as they are from surge zones in the wild so are one of the most active fast swimming fish in the hobby and if you don't provide that they get stressed and die. They are extremely prone to parasites like ich and its very difficult for them to recover, they're difficult to feed, can't handle stress or any changes in parameters and need always pristine water so yaa they just don't really do well in captivity. They're also very aggressive

[@mattsparks4145]

mandarin dragonet is easy to care for i have a breeding pair over a year . anything can be listed as difficult if you dont do your research if you dont have a refug to grow copepods and cant buy them then why would you buy this fish and they can be pellet trained as well over time with mysis pellets and frozen mysis !!!

[@Badboii21]

Forgot the clown tang!

[@dodgecoffman9794]

Enjoyed the video and once again seeing your beautiful face.

[@CoralReefkid]

I’ve never even heard of a spikefin goby 🤣 that just goes to show I shouldn’t keep that fish

[@CoralReefkid]

It’s quite beautiful though

[@medic5836]

Yes the mandarin is the hardest for me to keep I gave up

[@MadHattersReef]

Sorry to hear.

[@liamwelch3167]

A small tank???? Hell yeh I'm getting a spike fin goby

[@MadHattersReef]

It made me want to start the nano back up.

[@joseruizruiz2420]

Me

[@brandonavery133]

Mandarins aren't hard to keep... the copepod farm is the hard thing to keep. Still, if you can raise pods, they're not very demanding.

[@MadHattersReef]

Great thoughts

[@brandonavery133]

@@MadHattersReef Thanks!

[@hermanherbert5315]

How is it that seahorses didn’t make the list?

[@MadHattersReef]

That’s would be a good one.

[@go4384]

Two spot gobies are bad bad bad in captivity. Probably shouldn’t be sold at all. Hard to keep alive and eating.

[@jaxenwages1340]

First

[@MadHattersReef]

☝🏻