Welcome to Saltwater Advice
This is a website dedicated to saltwater fish and aquarium keeping, we hope to provide quality information about the marine and reef aquarium hobby. Our goal is to help educate people about the saltwater aquarium hobby, enhance awareness of coral reefs and there inhabitants. We hope you will find the information you are looking for and that you find this site useful.
Currently we are working on a common fish database that will contain the most often kept and easiest to keep aquarium fish. This will be steadily expanded over the next several months to include most if not all offered species. There is also a forum in the works, this will provide a members area and an arena for discussion as well as question and answer forums.
Almost all species kept in marine aquaria at this time are caught in the wild, although tank-raised specimens are becoming increasingly common as a viable alternative. Only a few species such as clownfish are captive-bred on a commercial scale. Much collecting is done in Indonesia and the Philippines, where use of cyanide and other destructive collection methods, while discouraged, is unfortunately common. The majority of live rock is also harvested in the wild, and recent restrictions on this harvest in Florida have caused a shift to Fijian and aquacultured rock. Natural rock, because it is created by coral polyps, takes many years if not centuries to form, and is a vital habitat for countless marine species; thus, commercial-scale harvesting of naturally-occurring live rock has been criticized by conservationists.
Additionally, many animal species sold to hobbyists have very specific dietary and habitat requirements that cannot be met by hobbyists (e.g. Labroides genus wrasses, the moorish idol); these animals almost inevitably die quickly and have markedly reduced lifespans compared to wild specimens. Often these specific environmental requirements cause improperly housed lifestock's color and appearance to be poor. These issues are often downplayed by individuals and organizations with a financial interest in the trade. Hobbyists should be urged to buy only certified net-caught fish (although ensuring the legitimacy of such claims can be difficult) or captive-raised fish, as well as farmed corals and to support legitimate reef conservation efforts. The majority of corals can be "fragged", whereby a portion of a larger captive coral is separated and can subsequently be raised into an individual specimen, allowing for coral propagation within the domestic aquarium; the trade in frags (i.e. fragments) offers a fantastic opportunity for marine aquarists to obtain new and unique corals while limiting the impact on the natural environment. Rare species and those without a history of being successfully kept in captivity should be avoided.