NOT reef safe = ??

Not Reef Safe generally means that there is something common to most reefs that will likely be lunch for the organism described as Not Reef Safe.

It always means that more research is in order.

Personally I consider 'Not Reefsafe' as a fish will eat corals of some type. That can then be broken down into if it will eat softies, or anemones, or lps, or sps. Technically anemones, zoa's, morphs etc aren't true corals but when referring to fish as reefsafe I think they can be lumped together.

Then there are fish that are also labelled as 'Not Reefsafe' because they eat shrimps, snails etc. Personally I wouldn't call a fish that eats shrimp but leaves all corals alone 'Not Reefsafe', I would call it Reefsafe but eats shrimp. But thats just me.

Reefsafe is such a general term so like Squawkbert said every fish needs to be researched no matter what its labelled as.

For example I have 3 butterflyfish, all of which are 'Not Reefsafe', but I keep them with some types of corals, and shrimp, snails etc are fine. Because of the research I did I knew what they should and should not eat.

Being reef safe or not reef safe would depend on what the word "reef" means to you. For most in the hobby, "reef" is simply the corals and fish. Personaly, I would like to see others expand their view and appreciation of that one word and try to better provide for as much diversity of life as possible. In an enclosed system, to do so will force having to exclude a number of creatures, most notably the crabs, including hermits along with a good many fish species.

Chuck