<p>The pet trade is a frequent pathway by which organisms become introduced and invasive in many ecosystems, resulting in ecological and economical damage. To prevent such damage, species with the potential to become invasive need to be identified beforehand to give managers an opportunity to prevent introductions. Here we use an interdisciplinary approach to illustrate how species most likely to be introduced, survive, and threaten the health of an ecosystem can be identified by considering non-native marine fishes in south Florida. We collected information on marine fishes in the aquarium trade from online shops and identified which are most likely to be released based on traits of already introduced species and a semi-quantitative assessment of responses from stakeholder surveys. Species that were high in popularity, of lower trophic levels, and grow to larger maximum lengths were most likely to be introduced. Stakeholders reported aggression and large maximum length as key characteristics that lead to fishes being unwanted by owners. We identified species with this suite of traits, and then assessed their likely establishment based on whether or not their thermal physiology matched annual conditions in south Florida. Eleven species are predicted to be the most likely to become introduced, and, if introduced, capable of becoming established on south Florida’s reefs. Our results demonstrate how this trait-based approach identifies future risk and can generate management recommendations to prevent the introduction of invasive species. Our framework can be applied to any ecosystem to provide location-specific risk information to local managers.</p>