Your most difficult fish

[guppyguy]

What is or has been your most difficult fish to keep ?
What makes it so challenging ?
Has the difficulty of the fish increased your resolve to keep it successfully, or has it pushed you away ?

[lesfromlakeshore]

Another good question . When I was young I tried discus with very little success mainly because I was very inexperienced with keeping fish in general. The most disappointed I was with a type of fish was when I obtained 6 corydoras ortegai from Oliver Lucanus at Below Water in Montreal . Spent a small fortune on them and could not get them to breed . I tried everything I could think of even sot out help from cory experts and still nothing . They slowly died off over time ....Would love another crack at them ....

[Andre]

Have not run into a situation like this.
I will say that i fall into the "stereotype" thinking of fish keeping. ie: Discus are so hard to keep, saltwater is challenging, This fish needs a large tank. etc...

Hearing things like that get to me and then it pushes me away from trying it out for myself.

I will say another aspect that also deters me is the money factor.

[guppyguy]

We for me everybody as most know I work mostly with live-bearers. And 2 species have been tough on me. Micropoecilia picta and Scolichtys iota. Micropoecilia picta has been challenging because it simply does not do well in our local water. There has been minimal success with a few fry born but ultimately they wither away and die. Scolichtys iota on the other hand does well in our local water but the mystery is quite frustrating and that is obtaining fry. Many different attempts have been made with this species and as yet have not been able to get any fry. Contrary to what many think not all live-bearers are easy to keep or breed. And it is true that what works one hobbyist may not work for another. Trial and error hopefully will eventually leads to success. And when the challenge is overcome there is a great feeling of accomplishment.

[freshwater]

This is what I wanted 

[freshwater]

After following some breeders from the states on line. I decided I wanted a group of ELBJ (electric blue jack Dempsey)I finally got 4 from Captain Cichlid about $120 about 2 to 3 inches inches in length. They lasted about 2 months one by one they got bloat and died . A month or so after that Sam's said he could order them for me so thinking I would try again another $80 for 4 EBJD. I tried everything with these ones top quality food low protein diet water changes every few days and the same thing after a couple of months they get bloat and die. So I gave up on the EBJD

[freshwater]

 It wasn't any problem from our local stores. I think it was just poor breeding or week stock

[gabor129]

I also have a couple of nemesis! Well three actually, first I tried to breed Banggai cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni). They say it is the equivalent to breeding guppies, except it is in salt water. Well I can tell you it is not!!! Get a pair of fish they breed and the male eats the eggs after a few days ( mouth breeders )! Than the male jumps, spend two months finding a male that is good size for the female, they breed, male eats the eggs, female gets eaten by starfish! I had seven pairs, all took the 'big' swim! I gave up!

German white peril guppies! Several times I tried, and miserably failed to breed them! They just withered away in several months!

Starlight plecos! My attraction to these plecos originally was the known breeding challenge! Currently have two males and a female, and no luck what so ever! LOL!!!