Legal and disclaimers
What AquariumHQ can and cannot tell you, stated plainly.
Legal status
Legal status is recorded from the sources named and was correct on the verification date shown. Rules change, and sub-national rules often differ from national ones. Check the current position with the relevant authority before acquiring, selling or moving any animal or plant.
Aquarium legality is jurisdictional, layered and volatile. A species can be freely sold nationally and prohibited in one state; an EU-wide list can add a species with a sell-through period; a US injurious-wildlife listing restricts import and interstate transport while leaving existing possession alone.
AquariumHQ separates possession, sale, import, release and breeding, records each per jurisdiction, requires a government source for any stated legal claim, and shows the verification date. Where we have not verified, the status is recorded as not verified and says so. Absence of a prohibition in the sources we checked is not proof of legality.
Health and veterinary advice
AquariumHQ describes what is commonly reported and what husbandry correction is usually indicated. It does not diagnose and is not a substitute for an aquatic veterinarian. Many treatments are given to healthy fish suffering from a water-quality problem, which makes the outcome worse rather than better.
Never release aquarium life into the wild
Aquarium animals, plants, and aquarium water must never be released into ponds, rivers, canals, drains or the sea — not even in a country where the species is sold freely. Released fish and invertebrates establish populations that displace native species, and released plants and water carry pathogens, parasites and fragments capable of spreading without any animal at all. If you can no longer keep an animal, rehome it through an aquarium society, a retailer that accepts returns, or another keeper.
- Rehome through a local aquarium society, a specialist retailer or another keeper.
- Unwanted plants go in household waste or a hot compost heap, never in a watercourse or a garden pond.
- Never empty a bucket of tank water into a drain that discharges to open water.
- If an animal is beyond rehoming, ask an aquatic veterinarian about humane euthanasia rather than releasing it.
Accuracy and limitations
Much of the husbandry guidance here is labelled as an AquariumHQ editorial position rather than a measurement, because that is what it is. Every value on a species or plant page carries its evidence type and its confidence, and both are displayed. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is shown rather than averaged away.
AquariumHQ does not guarantee outcomes. Aquariums are systems with many interacting variables, individual animals vary, and a verdict from the compatibility engine is a statement about probability rather than a promise.