Chris,
Very nice article, clear and quite thorough. No good deed goes unpunished, though, so here are a few very small comments. I was going to send them as a PM, but decided that others should be allowed to disagree.
First treat with low salinity and heat then try a copper based medication if that doesn’t work
Add a period
I'd cut comments about inverts for the moment. Rather than trying to do too much, an article that just focuses on selection, purchasing and quarantining of fish might be more digestible. JMHO.
That said, if you keep inverts in, the hermits I think of as reef safe are what is called in the trade "scarlet reef" rather than red.
There is certainly more than one species of Caribbean shrimp being sold as peppermint. Lysmata wurdemani is the "true" peppermint and has more contrast between a light body and red stripes, while L. rathbunae looks a lot like it but is deeper red and may be more ravenous. When TBS has shipped me "peppermints," they always look like rathbunae to me and are pretty obnoxious. Those individuals I knew to be wurdemani (because they were CB), looked rather different (more "pepperminty") and have been well-behaved. Another argument for getting CB livestock.
Another aspect of aquaculture that is hopefully going to take a bigger part of the market is post-larval growout (aka tank-reared). Taking post-larval fish, which would be subject to enormous mortality, and growing them in tanks gets past the problem of delaing with planktonic larvae. This reduces the harvesting pressure on the reef and gives the aquarist a wider choice of fish that are fully adapted to aquarium conditions and foods. I have only seen it online, but I assume it will be coming to a LFS near you at some time.
One other thing that may be worth including is online fish purchasing. Some would never do it, but there are a few things that make it appealing to me. First, the quality at the LFSs here is spotty. Second, I can find CB and tank-reared fish that are unavailable here. There are some very reputable places, although some can be pricey, and I haven't had any losses due to shipping.
While we're on the subject, it still amazes me that people can be such cheapskates when it comes to buying CB livestock. So you don't want to spend a few extra bucks for a fish or invert that will acclimate better, probably live longer, and will support an industry that protects the reefs ? What's up with that?
