YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL.
If you research a fish and you find it's "expert only", and you ask on here or other sites about this fish you have your heart set on, and you have multiple people tell you that the fish is very difficult to keep, you should pass on it, don't even attempt it, remember that you are not different than anyone else that has tried to keep this fish and has failed.
If you think that you just might get lucky, the fish will do fine for you, and you are willing to take that chance, remember that's not the case.
Moorish idols are a great example. Because of "Finding Nemo" we had a lot of people coming on here saying they wanted to get a moorish idol. Do five minutes of research on them, and you will realize this fish is not realistic for 99% of the people in this hobby -- not even the vast majority of so-called "experts" with years of experience are willing or able to keep a moorish idol healthy and happy. Yet inevitably people will still buy them thinking they are different, or they are special, that everyone else must've been doing something wrong, that they can be the lucky one that is able to keep this fish alive.
Not true. YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL. The moorish idol is going to die in your tank just like it dies in everyone else's tanks.
So that's what I mean by that. I just see all to often good advice on this site being dismissed because people think that for some reason they will have a different experience with a difficult animal than everyone else has experienced.
If everyone tells you that the powder blue tang is very susceptible to ich and not a good idea for your 55, but you do it anyways because you think you are lucky, you are different, you are special and you are hopeful that this fish will be just fine in your tank, you are wrong. Fish is gonna die.
Or how about if those irresistible seahorses would be so cute in your mixed reef, and even though you've been told that they don't do well with aggressive fish, you think that your experience is going to be different, your seahorses are going to do just fine with your other fish, because you are different and you will have better luck than everyone else. You are wrong about that. Sayonara, seahorses.
Or you want to put that hippo tang in your 29 gallon? You think it's okay because it's small, even though all the research you've done tells you otherwise, and the knowledgeable people you've asked tell you it's a bad idea, but you do it anyways because you think that your situation is different than everyone else's? Ehhh. Wrong. You are not special. Your situation is not different. You are not luckier than anyone else that has tried and failed. You do not have some sort of magical ability that will allow you to keep big fish in a small tank. Acknowledge it, admit it, accept it; accept that tangs just aren't meant for a 29 gallon tank, and find a better fish for your tank.
