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your marine fish can be difficult even for seasoned aquarists. Talk to your store, find out what they know and understand about the hobby. If you're not happy with the answers to your questions, go elsewhere.

A lot of the success or failure with your marine fish can be traced to your source. Proper handling of the fish throughout the importation process will be directly tied into their long-term survival expectations.

These will have been first caught in the ocean, then bagged and shipped inland, rebagged at the exporters and shipped to either a distributor or a trans-shipper, rebagged again, shipped to the store and let out in their tanks. These fish may have been exposed to any number of diseases or parasites, water chemistry and handling stress along the way. It's safe to assume that the fish have been traumatized along the way.

While there are numerous good distributors and stores out there, there are also those that will try to simply capitalize on anyone who walks in the door. They will sell you whatever you want, regardless of whether you're properly set up to care for the fish or not. People like this should be avoided at all costs, as they will no doubt have poor fish handling practices and be unaware (or uncaring) of the fact that their fish will not live long after arriving in your home. The good news is these types of stores and people are normally easy to find. Simply ask them a few simple questions about keeping one or two difficult fish and gauge their answers. Honest stores will try and dissuade you from keeping difficult fish if they know you can't care for them as required.

Another good measure of a store is how well their display tanks are kept. Are the fish and corals healthy? Do their setups appear to be well groomed? If in doubt, look elsewhere.

Conclusion

Although there are many more details to choosing a store, choosing your fish and having long-term success for the marine aquarium hobby, we've covered some of the basic necessities for getting started.

Marine fish are a precious commodity, and until large-scale captive-breeding programs are established (which, due to the inherent difficulties of raising marine fish through their sensitive larval stage, can be quite difficult), their numbers will continue to dwindle. Reasonable, sustainable harvest can be made, but only if we take it upon ourselves to care for this fish as opposed to treating them as replaceable. The day may come soon when they're not as easily replaced as they once were.

If you can take one thing from this discussion, it should be to research thoroughly any purchase before you take it home. These are all living organisms and many are strict and demanding in their requirements. Allow yourself to be successful. There are many aquarists who have been successful for many years, and their advice is priceless when it comes to finding your way in the hobby.

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