| Sometimes i think collectors just get their hands on | | | | Filefish |
| anything from the wild and hope some aquarium shop | | | | All filefish look very similar to one another. They have |
| will take them. I' have seen the strangest fish being | | | | a highly compressed body like that of the surgeonfish |
| imported that i know will probably never sell. Fish like | | | | and they possess a distinctive dorsal fin that when |
| the flying gurnard and the crocodile fish. | | | | erect, looks like a spike. |
| Unfortunately they also bring in some very common | | | | The problem with these fishes also has to do with |
| fish that do extremely poorly in our aquariums. The | | | | their diet. They feed only on one thing. Coral polyps. |
| three listed are the scooter blenny, the mandarin | | | | Which means keeping them alive would mean deep |
| goby and members of the filefish family. | | | | pockets to spend on live corals as food. They will |
| Scooter Blenny | | | | destroy a SPS coral colony with gusto and as such, |
| While somewhat drab looking with their overall white | | | | they are not reef safe. |
| and brown markings on their bodies, they are still | | | | Mandarin Goby |
| brought in with great regularity. The problem with the | | | | The difficulties in caring for the mandarin goby are |
| scooter blenny is the fact that it has a very narrow | | | | very similar to its cousin, the scooter blenny. They |
| dietary range in the wild. | | | | are both imported in huge numbers and the both |
| They eat any small crustaceans they can get their | | | | eventually die in huge numbers as well. However, it |
| hands on like copepods and munnid isopods and any | | | | should be noted that with persistent effort, you can |
| other small life forms in the sand substrate and | | | | get them to feed on frozen foods most of the time. |
| around the rock. Attempts to get them on prepared | | | | There is no guarantee for success and some |
| fish food often fail. Only those with large established | | | | specimens for one reason or another simply do not |
| aquariums manage to keep them with successfully. | | | | feed, even on copepods. |