7 Saltwater fishes you should never keep part 6

First of all, I apologize for the long pulse before I resume writing in this blog. The recent tragedy in my tank - All six clams passed away due to disease, has left me depressed for days. I had questioned my hobby like all other hobbyists who have experienced large amount of death in their tanks.

I wish to use my long overdue what not to keep fish article to resume my writing here.
The sixth species of fish that are commonly found in the aquarium trade but I recommend against purchasing is the Banggai Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni).
You might see them very commonly available and comes in fairly low price. On top of that, they are truly easy to keep.

The real reason then behind why not to get them, is that they is only ONE place on earth these fish are found. They are found in the seagrass bed, usually near a large congregation of long spine seaurchins near the Banggai Archipelago of the Indonesian territory. With every fish you buy, there is one less in the ocean to reproduce and replace the already depleted population.

However, as you can see these fish are stunning to look at and they do exist peacefully in large congregations- making it a great community reef tank inhabitant. So how can we find them? Here is the saving grace- They breed easily and readily in the home aquarium. You can begin to find more and more "captive bred" or "locally bred" specimens available in local stores and online or among local hobbyists community forum. As a natural mouth brooder, their breeding habits resembles those of African Cichlids. If you have experience with African Cichlid breeding, you should have no trouble breeding them (provided you are willing to find food for the juviniles).

Peacock Mantis

Peacock Mantis Odontodactylus scyllarus has nothing to do with peacock, nor a mantis, nor a shrimp. But just a kiss-ass creature all on its own. The peacock refers to the colorful appearance and the signature "eyes" on its tail that resembles a peacock's tail. The mantis part refers to its front appendix that not only shapes but also functions like that of a praying mantis insect. Finally, as you can imagine, it's easy to mistaken it as a shrimp as it possess many qualities of a common shrimp.

I have been wanting one of these for quite a long time but have not had one for several reasons: 1) they aren't exactly every popular in aquarium trade 2) depends on the source they can be quite pricy 3) they require absolute solidarity and can harm their owners if you don't know what you are dealing with.

It's only been one day since this little guy has been in this 24gallon species tank that has nothing but the mantis along with liverock, some soft coral, macroalgae, and some micro snails. I have prepared a crevice for it, but the little dude was so busy all night "remodeling" it by moving rocks around and puffing out sand. By morning the "cave" is officially a "burrow". They are "reef safe" by the way to a certain degree, that is they will not touch any sessile invertebrates such as anemone or corals, but will readily consume any crustasian, fish, snail, hermit crab, etc that are living alongside them.

There are two types of mantis- the slicer and the splitter. The slicer has razor sharp claws that can slice a fish into two halves before consuming them. The peacock mantis belongs to the splitting group: using its pair of hammer shaped claws, they "punch" the prey with up to 180lb force to either knock them out cold or to split the shell (even clams and snails) before consuming them. Another awesome feature is their two perky eyes- the most complex pair of eyes in the animal kingdom that can see 4 times more "things" than human, including 12 difference color channels (UV and IR included), how neat is that?