What fish is your kryptonite?

[Old Fritz]

Is there any fish that you have tried to keep multiple times and just fail at keeping alive?

for me its not a saltwater fish but a freshwater one, its the neon tetra. Its the only fish that has given me any trouble with keeping alive, and it annoys me because so many other people have kept this fish with ease and I've tried everything from doing a neon only tank, to lowering ph and hardness, and nothing seems to work and I want to die.

 

[ncaldwell]

Midas blenny. I've had 6 and have given up. First they will never stay yellow for me. They turn blue immediately and never change back then they jump out if the tank even with an artfully acrylic lid with no gaps.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Bettas. The last two I had, in a 10g planted, not a tiny bowl and one after the other not at the same time, got bloat. One couldn't sink, the other couldn't float. I gave up on them.

 

[Old Fritz]

Bettas. The last two I had, in a 10g planted, not a tiny bowl and one after the other night at the same time, got bloat. One couldn't sink, the other couldn't float. I gave up on them.

I know that pain. I had a betta in a bowl for 3 years and then I made the betta mansion and 3 bettas died in there. Frankly i think its because the dwarf gouramis and cherry barbs out competed it for food because it would only eat food that fell into the substrate.

 

[AcroNem]

Freshwater angelfish...I've been doing this (both fresh and salt) for almost 15 years so it's a little embarrassing to tell you all. With saltwater I haven't found one yet, thank goodness.

 

[Waters]

Juvenile Red Coris Wrasse. Doesn't seem like a difficult fish......I have failed twice

 

[Labridaedicted]

Pipefish, but I mainly attribute that to having to many wrasses that outcompete them for food

 

[TexasTodd]

Copper Band Butterfly. I quit a decade ago, but at least 6.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Copper Band Butterfly. I quit a decade ago, but at least 6.

Ooohhhh, yeah. That's a good one too. I've even gotten ones that are eating only to eventually have them stop for (seemingly) no reason.

 

[Hitman]

Green Mandarin and Ruby Reds. Tank has thousands and thousands of amphipods and copepods. In my old 300 I couldn’t kill one if I wanted to ( which I didn’t nor want to ) in my 240 I cannot keep one past a week. They are my wife and kids favorite.

 

[Hitman]

Juvenile Red Coris Wrasse. Doesn't seem like a difficult fish......I have failed twice

Personally I haven’t found a single person to keep one over a few months. I’ve read they do not do well in captivity. They are absolutely beautiful tho!

 

[TexasTodd]

Green Mandarin and Ruby Reds. Tank has thousands and thousands of amphipods and copepods. In my old 300 I couldn’t kill one if I wanted to ( which I didn’t nor want to ) in my 240 I cannot keep one past a week. They are my wife and kids favorite.

Maybe time to pony up for a captive bred? I wonder if wild are sometimes caught using cyanide? Seems strange with such a hi pod population. I've had a wild pair of greens in my current tank for about 5-6 weeks. So far so good but the male is still a little skinny.

 

[Hitman]

Maybe time to pony up for a captive bred? I wonder if wild are sometimes caught using cyanide? Seems strange with such a hi pod population. I've had a wild pair of greens in my current tank for about 5-6 weeks. So far so good but the male is still a little skinny.

Well if I could get that dang Flame Angel out of my tank I would be more then happy to pony it up! The wife decided she wanted this Flame and ever since I can't add anything new. He is the smallest fish in the tank and the biggest bully!!! If I could catch the jerk he would get rehomed fast!

 

[drblakjak55]

Personally I haven’t found a single person to keep one over a few months. I’ve read they do not do well in captivity. They are absolutely beautiful tho!

Surprised. I bought a beautiful red Coris juvenile with all the white striping grow to red and blue dot adult. The bad is he would overturn large islands of corals and rocks every day.

 

[drblakjak55]

Look great one day than gone, presumed dead: six royal grammas, eight assorted basslets, nine assorted blennies, countless colorful acros. Lol. Only three years

 

[Hitman]

Surprised. I bought a beautiful red Coris juvenile with all the white striping grow to red and blue dot adult. The bad is he would overturn large islands of corals and rocks every day.

What's your secret as I want one but have never talked to anyone that has been able to keep them.

 

[ca1ore]

Neon/cardinal tetras are susceptible to bacterial infections that will take out entire groups. I don’t do FW anymore, but when I did I treated them with gram negative antibiotics with good success. These days, the black leopard wrasse is my nemesis.

 

[Tamberav]

Midas blenny. I've had 6 and have given up. First they will never stay yellow for me. They turn blue immediately and never change back then they jump out if the tank even with an artfully acrylic lid with no gaps.

Ha..yeah when I had them they would come flying out onto the floor when I just cracked the lid to feed. They have to be the worst jumper I ever had.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

These days, the black leopard wrasse is my nemesis.

I ordered a trio of negrosensis from Live aquaria. I really did want all 3 to make it. One came in DOA. The largest of the 3. I had a QT set up of a 20 long with sand and live rock. All cycled and ready for fish. Add a light and you technically could call it a nano. 24 hours in I lost my second one, the smallest. The third one hung in there tho, and went thru two treatments of API General Cure, then into the display after about 3 weeks in QT. He/she hid for a day, and has been out hunting pods ever since. It doesn't pay frozen any attention at all, but my meleagris eats pellets(very rare treat) LRS and nori.

I think if they would ship leopards with 2" of sand in the bag they would do much better. I would be willing to pay for the extra cost for all sand dwelling wrasse. Slamming your face into the bottom of a box isn't healthy when you're expecting sand.

 

[ca1ore]

The curious thing is that I mostly don’t have issues with leopard wrasses; I have nine in my system (4 meleagris, 2 moyers, 1 bipartitus, 1 ornate and 1 lapillus). It’s just the negrosensis that I cannot keep. Same thing happens .... fish arrives, gets acclimated in my QT and starts eating frozen. But then over the course of a month or two it slowly loses weight and dies. I’ve done deworming treatments ..... all the others do fine and maintain a healthy weight. It’s mystifying.