Unusually deep and profound meditation on how we classify aquarium inhabitants

There are many really cool species that are technically reef safe, but may eviscarate and nuke the tank, or die and nuke the tank, or may just not be suited to, or not thrive in the average reef aquarium- Sea cucumbers, anemones, upside-down jellyfish, garden eels, carnation tree coral, staghorn hermit crab, flame scallop, coco worms, sponges, non-photosynthetic gorgonians and many more.

I was thinking- what do they all have in common? They all hate water quality fuctuation more than most things and rely heavily on planktonic food sources. Maybe not anemones so much (with regards to "heavily relies on planktonic food sources), but possibly dragonets and leopard wrasses could be added to the list (planktonic foods to cope/amphipods to fish?). Many of the mentioned animals are either "Expert Only," or "Difficult." Maybe they are just not suited to the normal caste system of REEF F.O.L.W.R, or F.O and are hard to keep in tanks not designed for them. In the ocean there are many more biomes than REEF, F.O.L.W.R, or F.O, even if they are not possible to maintain in a home aquarium. Or maybe animals that rely on planton are just plain hard to keep, or both. *

But, could there be another line of aquariums? Reef, FOWLER, FO...... Reef(B)? Nutrient rich reef? Planktonic tank? Other? If you could keep an aquarium with some of the above mention species, specifically for them, it would be flippin awsome. A tank with lots of live plankton, ever-circulating current, and very high, constant water quality. just an idea.......




*Bear in mind I have only kept a few of the above mentioned species, and probably do not know crap about what I'm talking about-its just a thought. Also, many people (PhrmrJhn, cough, cough) can and do succesfully keep induviduals from this list in reef aquariums.

 

Either you feed alot or dont filter the water as much. This is one of the reasons why Goni's tend to last only 6-10 months, b/c we filter the hell of the water. luna