Fish We Regret Putting In Our Tanks!

[Old Yeller Tang]

I know many don't want to hear the phrase, "I told you so", or be flamed by other hobbyists, but I'd like to start this thread just to give some info that might help others in the future. Most of time we do do our research, but there are never any guarantees that a fish will behave well in certain environments. My tank is 1yr old today and up to now, I've had no real problems with my fish community, but I see potential problems ahead with my checkerboard wrasse. It leaves all the other fish alone but will on occasion chase my other wrasses around. The potential problem here is that the checkerboard grows more than 10" long, twice the size of all my other wrasses.:eek: If I new then what I know now, I would've never put it in my tank. I've tried the plastic liter bottle with the end inserted backward to try to catch him, but it only fooled my flasher wrasse. I know it buries itself in the sand at night, so I will be looking for that area so I can try to remove it then. Another fish that I will be removing, and this one really bothers me because I like this fish, is my Pinktail Trigger. This fish is not aggressive and is really quite peaceful but come feeding time, the poor fish is cursed with it powerful jaws. Because of that, I'm going to remove it because during feedings, it chomps away trying to grab all it can eat and sometimes chomps on the fins of other fish that are in the way. If only this fish didn't have them chompers or else I'd keep it.:( Hope this might give some insight to those thinking about adding fish like these. I would only suggest adding a Checkerboard Wrasse if it were the only wrasse in the tank and the Pinktail Trigger, well, mine is peaceful and reef safe but it's powerful jaws are a nuisance during feedings. Maybe others can share experiences that can help others in choosing fish in the future.

[asmujica]

Damsels bad......

Sorry, its the only thing I can contribute to this :)

[Toutouche]

In my experience, clowns will sometimes use a coral instead of an anemone, and this can be detrimental to the coral. Also my purple tang is bugging the hell out of my GOB which is not expanding as much anymore, ( there is another thread going on now about tangs doing things they aren't supposed to be doing).

[Laura D]

I added a lunare wrasse once to a community tank. He was the only fish I ever took back to the store.

[Jabrams]

Black tip:eek2: , mandarin,damsels,

[TheJ]

Mandarin. Not for the usual reasons, he was very plump, but because the poor guy jumped to his death. :(

[Bomber]

Nuf said :rolleyes:
http://rockyshores.saltyzoo.com/rockyshores/images/crop0012_2.jpg

[nazgul]

Started off nice. Very pretty fish. Lot's O color.

He found a foundness of Elegance - just about killed my Elegance so I tried to catch him/her. No luck, no traps, no hooks, and no jars. Ended up tearing the whole rockwork apart to get him.

Since removed and reloacted. Never again.

[adamgrandprix]

Hmmm... if I had it to do over again... I wouldn't have any of the fish I do now :(

Not because I am having a problem with them but because I either "might" have a problem with them or because they aren't compatible with the fish I REALLY want to have now.

For example:
Yellow Tang. This has been a fine fish so far. He doesn't eat nearly as much algae as I hoped he would when I bought him but that isn't why I don't want him anymore... my current tank will only adequately accomodate one Tang (barely that even) and I really would like to have a nicer looking Tang.

Yellow-tail Damsel. He's very small now and gets bullied around by even the two false percula clowns I have, but I know there will probably come a day when I have to say bye-bye to this bully. He was also my first purchase (to cycle the tank because he was very cheap and nice looking... boy, I've learned so much since then!) and I didn't research him at all.

False Percula Clowns: well... maybe i'd keep these two, they are fun to watch and haven't hurt any coral by choosing it as a host so far.

Mandarin: He's very happy right now, but the future is always unclear. I knew they only ate pods (usually) when I bought it... I just underestimated the amount of work I'd have to put in to try and keep the pod population in my tank up (i.e. adding a refugium, getting pod shipments periodically, etc.)

[RyanN]

Gold Stripe Maroon

This fish found a fondness for the taste of my finger. I finally got sick of it tearing small chunks out of my thumb and returned it to the LFS (the only fish I have had to do this). I feel sorry for whoever bought him.

[64Ivy]

My Sohal tang. He's gorgeous, fat, and happy but at about 8", he's quickly becoming an out-and-out bully who'll have to be removed soon. I wish I'd never put him in because I'm gonna miss him a lot when he's gone.

[WINDHAM-REEF]

SAND SIFTING GOBY

oh my god what a freakin' mess he makes of the bottom.

anyone want him he's your if you can catch him (and i'll throw in 20 bucks too)

fun thread

anthony

[whirley]

Yellow headed Jawfish...aka the carpet surfer !!!

Thing made a little home, then decided to to carpet surfing 1 week after I bought him...

[Exocet]

Engineer Goby!! Man this sucker didnt mesh well with my plenum. :)

He was in the tank for 24 hours, and then I tore it down to return him to the LFS.

[sandy]

Yellow headed sleeper goby. Very personable, keeps the sand bed stirred up, but I don't have as many worm trails in the bed like I do my 135 gal. Would have gotten a cuke or conches.

Old Yeller Tang,
Feed your pink tail several pieces of food with feeder tongs. Make him take it out of the tongs, (Mine eats equivalent to 1/4 of a silverside in one feeding twice a day) He will learn to relate to the tongs and big chunks of food. As he is chomping on his big prize put the smaller food in for the other fish. It will take some time for him to learn to come back to the tongs for more food but it works.

Sandy

[DresdenKali]

Damsels. THey are a pain to remove if the get aggressive. I had to pull mine becuase he was beating up My baby Hippo.

[fishymissy]

Have to agree with Windham-Reef.....I added a diamond goby to my tank and the sandstorm was incredible! After several days of blowing off all the corals and the clam, I got him out. He lived in his own tank for awhile, but eventually I took him back to the store.

[mastaJ]

Royal Gramma...

He always fights with my fire shrimp. As of now my shrimp has one claw and is in seclusion for about 6 months now. The shrimp always hides, he use to come out... GRRR!

[goldscarf]

Neon Pseudo, pretty fish but I had no idea how belligerent the thing was. He terrorized everything in it's path.

Stupid Mantis that hitchhiked onto one of my rocks. Cost me almost $100.00 in livestock before I tore my tank apart to catch it.

[narvaezjc]

Blue devil damsel.

I have 2 but only one annoys my Long Horne Cow Fish. I am afraid one day I will find everyone dead after the cow fish said enough, and releases his poison.

[Skitaemen's Ocean]

A frogfish. I added one to my community tank...then later added a keyhole angel...well the frogfish got a nice dinner and a trip back to the store. That was 6 years ago when I first started into this hobby.

[Chip Douglas]

HAWKS!! My god they are nothing but trouble.

[Nanook]

I thought the 120g would be more than enough room for the small shark...but alas, he is all grown up now and needs a bigger tank:D


nanook

[dc]

Yellow Headed Sleeper Goby, very messy but awesome fish!:D

[Leopardshark]

Funny thread!!!

One bacl dogface that destroyed all my decoration.
1 zebra morray that found funny to destroy all my rock work.
1 eniochus that found tasty the nasal tubes of my blue ribbon eel
1 xl queen trigger that found tasty a couple of clowns (also the blue ribbon ate 2) and also my finger.
and the list goes on and on

[Leonard]

Two fish top my list:

Juvenile Coris aygula (twin-spot wrasse). I was a newbie 10 years ago, and bought a cute lil' specimen not knowing in 5 years, it would grow to a 6" clam eating monster. 4 clams, 3 major reef collaspes, and 1 accidental hooking later, I finally fished this guy out.

Pseudochromis splendens. Back before they were captive bred, this species was THE holy grail of Pseudochromis, as rare as fish come. Having found one, I couldn't turn it down. I added a 2" specimen in my tank and it promptly chased out my two $$$$ Cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis wrasse pair. Bastard was immediately exiled.

[gooch]

Lemonpeel angelfish.

[Newreeflady]

Not a fish, but florida live rock. I love the amount of sponge life, the clams, the good extras, and the color is amazing; but the price is in the bad extras; aptasia, mantis, unknown shrimp, and who knows what else:( I love the rock, but I don't think i'd do it twice.

Angela.

[naka]

I had a cleaner wrasse go crazy after 2 mo. Ended up losing 2 clams. I lost flower pot and pagoda corals due to emerald crabs. Leonard's story scares the hell out of me, because I currently have a twin spot wrasse and a splendid dotty in my 120 reef.

[Leonard]

naka,

Captive-bred P.splendens are much more docile then wild caught specimens. I wouldn't worry too much.

As for C.aygula, get it out ASAP. For starters, they become destructive when they grow larger. And to top it off they get to about FOUR FEET long (no typo). This is not a fish for captivity ... I wish they'd stop importing them.

[lori344]

Great Thread!!
I'll second the engineer gobies!! Digging, sand moving, tunnel building, impossible to remove sob's. Cute, but not that cute. We took them back to lfs. Live and learn.

I'll also second the yellow tang for the same reason as someone mentioned earlier... He is a model citizen, however if I had a choice (I inherited him with my fiancee') I would have picked a different tang and there is not enough room in that tank for another tang. Our plans are to consolidate our three tanks and I hope to persude him to give the YT away at that time. (he's had him for 5 years)

Damsels too, inherited them as well... went straight to the lfs when the tank was transfered to "our" house. They are just flat out mean!

My great lessons...

Cover your tank when you keep a flasher wrasse!!!

Strawberry pseudochromis like to pick on shrimp!!!

Clownfish are "just pretty damsels" that play in an anemone, and they bite you when you get close. (I've learned to live with this one... they are just too awesome)

Too many tangs in a tank is bad news, very bad news.

I'm sure there is more stupidity to share (oops i mean lessons that I've learned), but that's all I can think of right now :D

[IrishStock]

I will second and third the Engineer Goby........WHAT a mess that fish can make in a short period of time. 100% of the time constantly disrupting the sand and rocks :mad2: and the tank was in terminal uproar.

I caught mine with a tiny teeny hook, like a trout hook, on a piece of fishing line. My other option was taking apart a 150 gallon tank and I was not even going to do that, if I didn't have to. I put a piece of silverslice on the hook and within 2 minutes I had it. It went BACK to the store FAST!!!!!! Never ever again and I would have taken the tank down to get it out if I had to. :uzi:

No matter how harmless they look in the LFS with NO sand in the tank.......BEWARE if you have sand, you will be very sorry. :bounce1:

[Dragonlady]

Juvenile emperor angelfiSH can grow VERY fast. My late emperor started out in my tank at 1 1/2-2 inches. Within 7 months the emperor angelfish grew to 4-5 inches. It mysteriously contracted marine velvet(nothing new was added) and died, despite early treatments with garlic, formalin dips, and 4 cleaner shrimp. It REALLY needed at least a 200 gallon tank. It showed this by contracting a disease in 'perfect' conditions, other than the tank size. It never bothered invertebrates other than sponges, macrolagaes, and worms. I figured the angelfish would have at least a year before it needed a larger tank. Wrong.....This is a hard lesson learned. Please look at the maximum size of the adult fish you are considering because growth is sometimes quite rapid, and upgrades are almost never soon enough. ;) BTW, emperor angelfish can grow to about 16 inches in the wild. I miss that juvenile emperor angelfish, but I would not think about getting another emperor angelfish until the tank was large enough to support its adult size with more appropriate swimming room.

[naka]

Thanks for the warning Leonard, I'm going to try to catch the twin spot wrasse tomorrow morning. He is already 4" long.

[acrophoria]

I bought a Hawaiian blenny that ony ate sps,Hey I thought they were all the same...24 hrs later he was fished out.


Leonard,sucks to hear about your Rhomboid pair$$ I tried to aquire one but have had no luck,MY favorite fairy.:)

[absolutc]

Sand sifting goby. Great fish that cleaned the sand and didnt make too much of a mess. But, only lasted 2 days. After that I found him slightly crunchy on the floor. I think he is still sitting in the cup under the cabinet. 35 bux down the carpet!

Ill post a pic if hes still here :)

[lori344]

Originally posted by absolutc
I think he is still sitting in the cup under the cabinet.
Ill post a pic if hes still here :)

ohhhh noooooo, don't do that!!!!!:(

[laguna]

great thread..


I have one of this damsels in my first tank (total of three), a LRWFO, its being there for about a year, it only bother the (non expanding) yellow tail that I actually like. It has outgrown a humu-humu, a coral beauty and almost as big as my good old tomato clown. As I said it doesnt really bother anybody else but I sure will like to have room for a different fish...

[pillions]

I regret putting in a percula clown... from PetCo. It was my first and last PetCo experience. The Percula we purchased from the LFS is living well and by far the household favorite (named Mr. President in honor of George).

[donut]

Sohol tang, beautiful, mean and aggressive- back to store
lunare wrasse, mean- back to store

[TheJ]

named Mr. President in honor of George :lolspin:

[Jerry W]

Rock Beauty angel and a Bicolor angel. The only two fish that have died on me in over three years. Both were doing well, eating, no signs of anything. Had the RB for close to a year and the Bicolor for two mos. Never figured out what went wrong other than they are species with dubious survival rates. Lesson learned.

[MDreefer]

I have to agree with the folks that have that dang SAND SIFTING GOBY he is nothing but a Sheperd for the Devil LoL. It looks like a snow storm has hit the North East in May....in my 155gal. my entire tank is cloudy and has sand everywhere. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to hunt this beast, im starting a posse.

PS I have a beautiful Goby for sale, ooppss I mean free, I will deliver!! any takers.........please!!!!

[fishiechick]

arabian psuedochromis..I wanted to get one till my friend told me how much of a horror his is. It terrorizes anything he puts into the tank..and I do mean terrorize.

[AlgaeMan]

Sohal Tang. He hated all the other tangs.

[seasquirt]

I've been pretty lucky so far, just a few minor problems. I wish I had added my kole tang BEFORE my yellow tang. The yellow tang got quite belligerent when the kole came to stay. They have since sorted things out, with minimal injury. I also wish my false percs would get the heck out of my xenia and colt corals and start frolicking in my green star polyps - those things could use some mowing.

[JasonD]

Regal Angel-Beautiful fish he picked at everything in my tank including my SPS's. They wouldn't open up. Caught him and placed him in my 40 gallon Ritteri tank.

Bangai Cardinal- In my 120 gallon tank he's turned into a holly terror chasing around my Anthias with gusto. Going to have to trap him, hopefully shouldn't be too hard. Would never do that again.

Blue Tang-Just grows too big for my 120 gallon reef, very skitish and tough to trap.

Diamond Goby-Makes a mess out of everything dumps sand on everything. Cool fish though.


Jason

[sdreefer21]

I would have to say the neon dottyback. Man talk about inferiority complex. Ive watched him bash shrimp into the rock until there was nothing left. Then he will sniper a snail until it flips over then leave it to die. Not to mention the fact that pods are his main source for food. This guy is a super efficient hunter. Can't find any life out at night anymore. I also had an engineer goby commit suicide hours after purchase. And those stupid lunar wrasses. Killed almost all my astra snails.........

[Old Yeller Tang]

I almost bought the Arabian Pseudo(neon dottyback) to put in my 30g hex I recently set up, but the price on these fish is outrageous!:eek2: Luckily, that kept me away after hearing the horror stories of this fish. Beautiful fish though and tough as nails.

[griss]

My mean human flesh eating Gold Band Maroon Clown.

Griss

[1coolvw]

Dragon Wrasse! The wrasse takes about a week to decide the tank isn't to his liking and begins moving everything, snails, hermits, rubble rock, big pieces of rock he should't be able to carry. Before long the tank doesn't resemble the original masterpiece i had spent so many hours aquascaping. Too top it off - he buries himself everynight stirring the sand into a frenzy that covers everything.

He really is a cool fish though, very sleek, fast, cool looking and is a bit of a character.

If you like this thread try this one.

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74318

[panther g]

madrian and an 8 line warsse

[holeinone1972]

Bi-Color Blenny. Very cute other than the fact he ate my sps. So he is in the sump. I think I will set up a nano for him sometime. I got lucky when I had to fish him out of my 240. He chose a hole in a rock near the top of the tank. Just picked the whole rock out and he fell into my hand. I am sooooooooooo glad I did not have to dismantle the whole tank for this lil s.o.b. :smokin:

[DJ88©]

Sand Sifting Goby.. Noticing a trend here.

Maroon clown. Too mean. Way too mean. When she hit 3" it began to hurt. Jumped out of the tank twice going after my hand.

Atlantic Blue Tang. 4' tank is NOT long enough for it. Won't own another tang.

Mandarin/Scooter dragonet. If you can't feed em don't buy em.

[Agu]

Bi color blenny ! It went from clam to clam nipping them until they closed up, then it would attack the SPS until it was time to again irritate the clams.

Agu

[cubicus]

I know it may sound silly but I have also introduced fish that were not as compatible as I hoped. A #16 wet fly (barbless so unwanted catches can spit the hook) has admitedly saved a total tank teardown. :rolleyes:

[cubicus]

I know it may sound silly but I have also introduced fish that were not as compatible as I hoped. A #16 wet fly (barbless so unwanted catches can spit the hook) has admitedly saved a total tank teardown. :rolleyes:

[Reefraff]

Bluehead Tilefish - did teach me to research before buying, but turned out to be very difficult to keep and eventually went down the fresh water whirlpool.

I inherited a Flame Hawk, am beginning to think I am regretting his presence.

[obie66]

Lunare Wrasse. I took him back to the store. He was so hyper siwmming all over the tank at great speed, knocking corals left and right. He was expected to grow even bigger, so it would have gotten worse.

[Beach Native]

Actually, I'm surprised at the negatives on the gobies. We liked ours and felt that he was an integral part in keeping the sand clean (yeah it was cloudy at first, but soon cleared up and stayed that way).

At least he was until he went surfing, which seems to be another common report in this thread. You'd think a fish who spent so much digging up the bottom would be the last to go out the top...go figure...

[CrimsonTide78]

All damsels I have had have been very agressive, especially a red honey damsel who is now in my sump. He would bite me everytime I went into the tank. As far as gobies go, I have loved all the ones I have had, two engineers (in different tanks) and just recently got a diamond goby that is now in a FOWLR tank. I always wanted an eel but didn't want to worry about them carpet surfing so I got the EG and he has gotten very VERY big, but stays hidden and doesn't tear down the rock work. I also agree about the Lunare wrasse, they fly by very fast and knock stuff over.

Great Thread!

Will

[Brock]

Not too many inhabitant mistakes ......but-

1. choc chip starfish...no matter how much you feed them by hand when they go to the top of the tank and stick out two arms...they will still catch and eat fish and all your clams, mussels and scallops.

2. blue damsels- luckily they are not larger or they would be worse than shark attacks

Now the good-

1. my kole tang has been priceless in keeping down unwanted algae in my 90g...you can see the stuff where he can not reach it and it is great how his constant grazing makes a difference

2. coral beauty...pretty fish and after a week of territorial displays by my tang..they get along fine. she even nips the algae and has not tried to touch any of my soft corals or my clams.

3. white sand sifting goby (faint blue spots on head and single black spot on dorsal)....stirred up sand quite a bit first two days as he found a home in the substrate...now he does not dig anymore and only sifts the top layers. worried about him getting enough to eat but on his second month and seems to be fine. have not noticed a significant drop in pod population either...they are everywhere.

4. cleaner shrimp...love it...getting 2 more for the tank. used to steal food from my open brains until he tried it with my anemone in another tank. this one is great...

5. 2x captive raised ocellaris clowns...no anemone but have two nice frags of toadstool leathers I am hoping they will move into when it grows larger. read and told toadstools do not mind the clowns in them...

6. will likely only get one more fish for the tank...but not sure what else is going to fit in...maybe this is enough and I will concentrate on compatible corals and a couple more clams.

Biggest mistake of my reef keeping is going with a DSB and obviously I did something incorrect because it crashed terribly...back to a 2 inch bed and all is great since January 02.

[Angel*Fish]

Great thread!

1) Bicolor blenny - he's ok, I would just prefer something with a little more color - when I got something w/more color, a royal gramma, the blenny promply killed him - very spunky though: he makes his home in maroon clown territory - gotta love that!

2) Maroon clown - I like mine, but people should know what they're getting into. The problem is you buy a sweet wiggly juvenile/male that looks at you lovingly in the LFS who gradually turns into "big bad momma fish" Wouldn't trade her and her mate for anything, but people should know what they are in for

3) I love my Valentini puffer - very well behaved with the corals...but ate my gorgeous red dictyota macro and could not be kept with a mandarin as he eats all the pods, worms etc

4) BLUE CHROMIS!!! Sorry for shouting... but if I could hate any fish, these would be it - they are obnoxious...totally wrecked the feng shui of the tank - before they came , I fed everyone by hand/stick - now you wouldn't believe the algae bloom from my making sure everybody gets enough.... Oh well since they are just so hard to catch, ...guess they won't be able to make the move to the 150 -ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (evil laughing):furious:

5) Any jawfish - for some reason these "hardy" fish just aren't hardy in my tank - which is sad cause they are one of my favorite fish

[hawk]

Any tang. Nuff said.

[esmithiii]

#1- Bicolor angel. Beautiful fish, but definitely not reef safe
#2- Atlantic blue tang- Couldn't keep it alive
#3- Maroon clown- Mean SOB- I would rather have a pair of ocellaris clowns but need to get the maroon out first
#4- Yellow damsels- Just a waste of bioload in my tank. One is so mean he chases the cleaning magnet, and I do think the magnet is actually scared !

[Angel*Fish]

One is so mean he chases the cleaning magnet, and I do think the magnet is actually scared ! LOL!

[creativesmurf]

I noticed there is a lot of negativity on the damsels, which is probably justified. However, I did my research before purchasing and my first fish was a small blue green chromis and he's a very nice fish. He doesn't bother anybody and always minds his own business. The percula clown sometimes swims with him, and then for no reason will chase the damsel away, a behavior I can't understand since most of the time he won't. The damsel is great at eating the tiny food bits that the other fish won't eat (like my huge pajama cardinal, another great fish.. he eats all the big food pieces and leaves everyone alone!). Anyone who has a damsel should try feeding baby brine into the tank at least once, they got ABSOLUTELY NUTS sprinting left and right eating them.

The bicolor I have right now I might be regretting soon (mostly because I'm worried about his life span), he's SO active (hyper active alot) and is getting quite nippy. I saw him take a nab at a black nassarius snail and the snail fell to the bottom :-) I think he's also pecking away at my starfish! ugh. Luckily I only have a star and button polyp which he mostly ignores. He's JUST taken to the ocean nutrition pygmy angel 2 food. This IMO is one of the most beautiful fish to own, but like most pretty fish you have to put up with their behavior. Too bad I didn't get a nice calm one.

Another thing I regret getting are the zebra and blue leg hermits. They crawl around a little too much with their pointy little legs. If I had to do it over I would stick with one or two fighitng conches, a couple of TRUE NASSARIUS (not the bad fake black ones that I ended up with), and other various snails and only keep the scarlet reef hermits because they are less aggressive and less active. The mithrax I am iffy on. The small one is fine.. the larger one is not very polite.

The cleaner shrimp is one of the most fun. They are so unafraid of everything and doesn't seem to damage anything, although he's a greedy sucker when feeding.

[Jaten]

DOMINO FROM $?*%

I once bought a used 75 gal. complete with fish. This was my first dip into SW. It housed a beautiful majestic, green chromis, 2 pink skunks, and 3 domino damsels. One of those dominoes was the fish from $#*%!!! Anytime I put my hand in to clean the tank he would ambush me. Truly a vicious fish. Left huge red marks like mosquito bites all over my arm. I HATED having to put my hand in, and I was always really "jumpy" when I had to. Watching for that &%$# domino and trying to clean. One day he sneaked up on me, and bit hard. I jerked my hand out...let me pause to say this had been a diy tank and the fans, etc. in hood were not "aquarium stock"...anyway, my index finger went into the industrial strenghth fan. I ended up at the ER with a broken finger and in need of 3 stitches! The first thing I did when my finger was healed was remove ALL the rock and remove the domino. BEWARE THE DOMINO DAMSEL!

[chicki]

Too Funny!!LOL Jaten...did you tell them at the ER that a 2 " fish was responsible!!LOL
I need a domino...maybe I wouldn't have my hands in the tank so often!!:D

[jksmiley]

duplicate post

[jksmiley]

1 Mandarin.
He was healthy until a RIO went nuts and sent oil and electricity through the tank. The poor mandarin went nuts and committed suicide by forcing his way through a plastic mesh grill guard and processing himself in the filter pump. He was a favorite and one of the rare ones that ate live brine. (Actually was a SHE). The real damage was that the mandarin was my wifes favorite fish. After she got processed my wife won't look at the tank and keeps pressuring me to pull it apart and get rid of "that death trap" I HATE RIOS

[Jaten]

Chicki,
Well, I gave the ER an abbreviated version. I had red marks on my arm, and a broken index finger also in need of stitches. I had to tell them something, and I wasn't quick enough in my pain and frustration to be too creative. The abbreviated version....I didn't tell them that it was a 2" fish. I'm sure the dr. and nurse envisioned something more akin to Jaws and I didn't tell them otherwise.:strange:

..................$*&% domino:hammer:

[fish_who?]

Well I see many have had the same problems with fish as I have. Wish this post was here a couple of years ago.

My list:

maroon clown - would bite the f$#% our of your hand no matter how much you fed it.
Dominoe Damsel - now in my refegium. When maroon clown left to LFS, he took over.
Eel - don't know what type, but GF decided this was the first thing she wanted when we first set up the tank. Any smaller fish except for the damsels it ate. Now in refegium.
Flame angel - was fine for 1.5 yrs, but when I got clams and a GOB, it would not let them open.
Lemon peel - same as flame

I now have a sand sifting goby that does the same to the tank, but can't get rid of it. She will not let me. " It's too cute." I think it does do a great job on the sand.

[Old Yeller Tang]

Can't you just reach in and pull it out.:eek2: :eek1: :eek2: :eek1: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[reefsociety101]

I totally regret adding my damsels to a tank. They grow really fast and are so agressive to the other "peaceful" reef fishes. They aren that good lookign either.

[graysmurf]

it wasnt a fish, but i once bought a large crab. i still dont know what type it was but he was huge. about an inch and a half. well a few weeks later i bought ten snails and put them in. when i got home from work he had flipped all of them upside down and killed them all. i kinda lost my cool when i saw him eating them and grabbed him out of the tank and threw him out the window as far as i could thow.

[stgla]

Of course damsels! Dreadful murderers.

One in particular stands out. He was horribly tormented by another fish, all nipped and sick so I quarantined him, fed him, gave him lots of TLC and took his tormenter back to LFS. I nursed him back to 100% bright yellow health and he thanked me by taking over as the tank bully even worse than his predecessor.

So I made him a little clear plastic jail inside the tank and made him watch his tormentees swim about feely and get first helpings of food while he darted around angrily in the pokey. After a sentence of one week I gave him a day on the outside to see if he learned a lesson.... but no, back to the fish store.

[zimmy]

Mine was a small Strawberry Psuedochromis. Really pretty and fun to own. Until 1 year later. EVIL, MEAN, PHYSCOTIC MONSTER!!! Nothing was safe.

Makes you wonder about this species of animal. Imagine one the size of a shark!

zimmy
Oh let me not for get long ago about that super colorful glowing in my actinics Electric Blue Damsel. YYEEESSSHHH!:eek:
zimmy

[ReefGeekster]

Royal Gramma, killed four dwarf angels before I found out what/who was killing the angels.

[nematode]

I've got this pseudochromis with black body and a bright orange head. Forget the name. TOOOOOO aggressive. kills shrimp, and won't allow for any type of critters to survive in my tank ( bristle worms etc).

I actually like my fiji damsel. Now almost 8 years old. perhaps he has mellowed out in his old age.

I love my 8 line wrasse, but it too is very hard on the critter content.

Unfortunately, seems like a lot of the nice looking fish really don't work well with a reef tank.

[baron_vonklyff]

1. Basslets of any kind (except Swiss Guard): Viscious, Nasty, Ornery
2. Sailfin Tang : Viscious, Nasty, Ornery, Not that good looking
3. Tomato Clown : Viscious, Nasty, Ornery
4. Blue Sided Boxfish : ICh infestation from HELL. Caused me to empty my reef of fish (what were remaining) for 7 months, and I still have recurrances.
5. Coris wrasses : Rock moving devils, coral tippers, shrimp eaters
6. Catalina Gobies : Found out too late that they were cold water
7. Moorish Idol : Impossible to keep alive
8. And Many More....

[minireef75]

I can just picture these fish biting the sh8t out of you guys..lmao...nothing like Evil Pets bent on tasting human flesh....lmao..I'm sure I won't be laughing when (and if) this ever happens to me. Thanks for the laugh...I haven't laughed like that in a long time. Evil Clowns...lmao

[Runner]

Originally posted by griss
My mean human flesh eating Gold Band Maroon Clown.
I have a 4" maroon clown and, now, a 3" Clarkii clown in my tank. Thus far, I've kept an eye on the maroon (because of the reputation). He has never charged my hand, but I am careful around him.

Anyway, last night I was scrubbing the algae off the front glass. I was real careful to make sure the maroon was hiding on his side of the tank. I got to the Clarkii side of things, and WHAM! Out comes the little #@$! and takes a chunk out of my index finger. Not too bad a wound; however, I may need stitches from the nice gash I got on my wrist from the edge of the tank as I jumped back.

I am plotting to take the Clarkii to the LFS this weekend. And get something non-hazardous to humans. Like a blennie or royal gramma. :D

[peregine]

Arabian Pseudochromis !

Killed every new fish I put in within a week. Made a fish trap out of a 2 liter soda bottle, it worked ! He's now at the LFS looking for a new home.

Happy reefing. :)

[ReefGeekster]

Originally posted by peregine
Arabian Pseudochromis !

Killed every new fish I put in within a week. Made a fish trap out of a 2 liter soda bottle, it worked ! He's now at the LFS looking for a new home.

Happy reefing. :)



Pseudochromis are the worst of the worst for size. :hmm2:

[seqcgr]

Small clown trigger, came home from work to find my very large lion fish floating upside down with all his fins missing and my horned shark with its eyes missing. Very sad day.:(

[anthony0812]

this is when i first started with salt water being a idiot..ok..here is what i did:

Mandarin Goby in a 7 gallon

12" leapord shark in a 40 gallon..

YES YES..i am an idiot!:rolleyes:

[kev-dog1]

great thread, very entertaining and informative

I'm surprised no one has mentioned - Panther Grouper. Back in my early days, when I started with FO tank, I let the GF pick out the first few fish. "Look at this cute white one with spots and the wavy fins", she said. He quickly grew into an ugly, grey PIG!

Got to stick up for the damsel tho. I've got a Fiji damsel in a fish only with a Niger Trigger and Maroon clown, both of which are three - four times his size. He does a great job of cleaning up the small scraps of food, which is why I got him.

[Wolverine]

Yellow-tail and dominoe damsels to start the tank (currently slapping my wrists for cycling with fish).

Clown trigger
Volitans lion
I don't regret necessarily having these two fish, but I regret having them in a 50g tank, and then having to give them up because they got too big.

Then I found RC.

Dave

[seqcgr]

Funny thing is, after reading this thread I suddenly want a large maroon clownfish. I like em spunky!:lol:

[haley17]

My atlantic blue tang. Harrasses everything, hogs food, and bites. It has lived through a tank crash and two moves. I keep hearing that this is a delicate species, but I am convinced it will outlive me.

[sven]

Back in the dark ages of reef aquariums 20 years ago, I spent over $300 on a Sohal Tang. The fish was nice but became lunch for an anemone. It would top my list not because of the fish itself but because of the foolish waste of a life and my money. I could have set up a small tank for that much cash back then.

[ccd]

Oblique-lined dotttyback.

Gorgeous fish, means as hell. Kills everything. In jail.

Do girlfriends count?

[ccd]

Much the same as GF actually come to think about it.

[DT's_Reef]

Flashing tilefish. Most people probably have never seen one, but they are one of the most unique amazing fish in the hobby. They literally flash blue/pink/puple and various shades between quickly before your eyes. The change in color is very obvious.

He was about $100 and jumped out of my tank within a week.

Well, a few years later, I saw another one at my LFS. $80. However, I was prepared. I placed plastic grid (flourescent lighting grid?) over the holes in the top of my tank so he couldn't jump. Apparently there was a tiny gap between my heater and the hole above it and he managed to jump out one night. The cat alerted me to it. Luckily, he wasn't out of water long, and everything was fine. A few days later, I saw it poking its head out of the water, bumping against the grids covering the top of the tank, and repeating this many times. Within one day it managed to squeeze through one of the tiny spaces in the grid work and died.

Dwarf angels. They always end up picking on my corals.

Blue damsels. No explanation needed.

Whitley's boxfish (stupid purchase in my early reef days). Did the poison trick and killed all my fish including itself.

Darin

[fishinchick]

Hmmm I had a domino damsel that was teeny, maybe he was humbled by his size. He paired off and was makin like he wanted to spawn with my Percula Clown. They even cuddled in the anemone together.
I love my spazzy little chromis' too. I have four of them. They are cool, but panicky little fish.

The only fish I ever regret having is my Lawnmower blenny. He knocks stuff over all the time. He does a good job at cleaning up the tank so he stays for a while but dang he is a klutz.

Roland, this is a great thread!!!

[Critter!]

Sand Sifting Goby..... what a mess, tore up the tank. Moved my Open Brain away from his digging and he would take up a new excavation site right next to the Brain's new location coving it with substrate (safe word). Caught him yesterday afternoon in a trap (he swam right in and I dropped the door!). Rushed to the LFS and received a 50% credit. IMHO all of those long thin varieties of Gobies that Bob Fenner has identified as burrowing are likely to be problematic.

[Old Yeller Tang]

Thanks Adrienne!

I just thought it might help others be aware of buying certain fish without the risk tag on them. I know every fish is different and react toward species differently, like my marroon clown which has been a very good fish to me and I know others have dreaded theirs. I still have that nasty checkerboard wrasse in my tank that I give the evil eye to everytime I pass the tank. I still say to stay away from wrasses with pointy faces and grow over 4", unless it is the only wrasse in your tank. I prefer fairy wrasses, but this killer I have will not allow any in the tank. I did remove my bicolor blenny who was a pain too. Now it's in my 29g hex and troubling no one.:D If I can only rid the wrasse!

Roland

[BrianD]

What a freakin' stupid, waste-of-time thread. You are all a bunch of jerks.

Just kidding :) I didn't want to disappoint anyone who saw almost 100 responses and clicked here thinking it was a flame-fest :D

Anyhoo, back to the topic.....my major mistake, like others, was buying a pair of gold striped maroon clowns. They didn't bite me, but after I added them to my tank, I lost a coral beauty that I had for 3 years and a beautiful christmas wrassse :(. Those fish are the spawn of the devil.

Brian

[rpisces]

I have faced problems with the following fishes:

1. Hawkfish - When I introduced my new blue devil (Damsel) my hawkfish attacked it from below while they swam on the water surface. The damsel was attacked every now and then until its stomach portion got ecposed and died. That was 5 years ago and until now I have never buy the hawkfish again ( long nose hawkfish is OK).

2. Golden dwarf angel - This angel peck and eat away all my brain corals that it could access.

[Old Yeller Tang]

Rpisces,

I knew I'd get some good replies here! About your Golden Angel. A friend of mine just gave me his Golden Angel and I have it in a holding tank right now. I know angels can be notorious pickers as my Bicolor is the reason I no longer have green open brains in my tank anymore, but have you seen yours pick at clams and sps'? Also, do you have yours with other dwarf angels? I really like to add the Golden Angel to my main tank but want to take precautions because I do have clams and sps' as well as other dwarf angels. My lfs has their Golden Angel with other dwarfs for over a year w/o problems. I might just put it in my smaller tank just to be safe.

OYT

[rpisces]

OYT

The Golden Angel was a new addition. Therefore, it didn't come out every often but during the brief period of sneaking out it would peck and eat away the open brains first before being chased away by my Purple and Yellow Tangs and thus have not enough time to sample my other corals

I also have a Flame Angel and it is OK. The problems with any new addition is that before they have time to adjust and eat prepared foods they would sample their natural foods first!

[Newreeflady]

Royal Gramma...

:( I added a Royal Gramma to my tank, and my Purple tang did not like him. In hindsight from my FW days, fish of the same colors/patterns do not like each other. hence, Purple/yellow tang did not like Violet/yellow Royal Gramma. Long story short, poor Gramma:(

Angela.

[DT's_Reef]

Hmmm.... my purple tang and gramma got (past tense, as my friend now has this tank and fish) along very well in a 55 gallon that only had a few chromis in addition. The purple had been in that tank for 8 years and ignored the gramma when I added it.

I think aggressiveness can vary a lot within a species.

Darin

[Fishguru]

yep, no problems with tangs and gramma, but the ole eel, now he decided he had a problem with him one day. But that was a quick solution to his problem, and then i was one less gramma -Guru

[Danables]

sand sifting goby and a firegoby two days later on the floor :( and that damn banded shrimp! only comes out at night i never get to see him

[Loggerhead]

Man, o man, glad I saw this thread while researching pseudochromis!

I do have a yellow stripe maroon clown, and oh yes, she is one mean little beastie, I really have to watch out for her.

I have two four stripe damsels and two yellow tail damsels. I used to have another yellow tail I called the general who was probably the meanest son of a gun around, so mean, that when I was cleaning the tank, he attacked the intake filter and got stuck in the drain tube, served him right. Since then, one of the four stripe damels has become the biggest of the small fish.

Everyone gives way when the maroon clown comes out to play, no one wants a piece of that.

My problem is, with such an aggresive tank, I have problems finding a fish that can hold its own without wiping out my cleanup crew of snails and crabs! I would like to get the damsels out of there and put in some other stuff, but I am still working on it.

[LauraR]

I inherited a tank full of damsels (came with the tank when I got it, used). That's bad enough, but two were a mated pair that had apparently spawned in the tank, and had three smaller offspring. This gang of hellspawn was so nasty that they pestered a 3.5" Fiji Blue Devil to death. The only thing they didn't kill was a 5" damsel.

Eventually, I had to take out all the decorations and catch all the hellspawn and "dispose" of them. LFS wanted NOTHING to do with these things. According to them, they are a type of damsel that no one sells anymore--gee I wonder WHY???!!! I didn't want to leave them in there for fear that they would spawn again and create MORE.

Compared to them, the two bullies I have now are pretty tame, although I can't wait for the lunare wrasse to grow up and beat the stuffing out of the damsel--

Send me your community outcasts, one thing I HAVE noticed is that these nasty fish are just about impossible to kill! And since I am fairly new at this, that is definately a good thing!

;)

[firechild]

I see the sand sifting goby is mentioned a few times with a couple of mentions for the gold head sleeper. Personally I love mine and I wouldn't remove him for any reason. He has caused his share of trouble but he is a great fish and I have heaps of worm trails, some big worms in the rocks and the mandarin is still going well.

However, a couple of damsels I have removed due to aggression but the worst mistake I ever made was a midnight angel. Nice looking fish and well behaved for a few months. Then he got the taste for corals. Ate an entire 5x3" Tubipora, some Cespitularia, Xenia and picked at SPS before I finally tore the tank apart to remove him (taking advantage of the situation and removing the 2 damsels and adding a couple of inches of sand).

[miniv]

The "Monefliouttayo walletfastathanucanblick" fish is always a killer.

You see it swimming in your LFS. You get interested but think "I should wait, think it over, do the research to make sure it is compatible with my other occupants". Just as you start walking out, you see another couple looking at YOUR fish - you make a beeline for the counter and say "I'll take that fish - the Impulse Takemehomenow!!!!"

2 days later, every one in the tank has ich, is beat up and the new fish has rearranged everything.

The things we do....

[DPidwerbecki]

I would have to say that my biggest fish mistakes includes:

1. Bicolor pseudochromis - lb for lb the meanest fish I've ever seen.

2. Clarke Clownfish - this was my wifes 17-year-old clown. I figured - it can't live too much longer - put it in my reef tank and it lived 3 more years. The thing dug up the sand bed, struck at my arm when I was cleaning the tank, chased and killed my sailfin tang (happened one day when I was at work), etc. But, it was my wifes pet for 17+ years so I had to put up with it. MEAN, MEAN, MEAN....

3. Algae blennie - it was a cool fish that did very well in my quaranteen tank but just could not adjust to the main reef tank - I think that it was the water flow rate. I couldn't get him out w/o breaking down the whole tank - not possible w/ all of the corals. I still feel bad about this one and my mistake.

That's about it.

Dave

[Mike_Noren]

Biggest mistakes: clowns.

Started out with three adult maroon clowns in a 55G. After a week there was one. The rabid little monster proceeded to kill everything else in the tank, relentlessly attacking e.g. a yellow tang and a puffer, and even me. After I had witnessed it becoming so intent of attacking me through the glass that it ignored the food I'd just put in, it went back to the LFS. I pity the fool who bought her.

Then I bought false perculas. Cheap, not as pretty but also nowhere near as nasty as the maroon. However, after they'd managed to terrorize two host anemones to death and one to the brink of death by either starving (to the point that they entered the stomach of the anemone to rip food out), or just stressing them by constantly nipping them, they too went back to the store. After they were gone I realized that, hey, host anemones are among the easiest and hardiest things one can keep, about as challenging as mushrooms.

I've kept various other damsels and had no problem with them, hell, my yellow tail damsels were even well-adjusted members of society, but I'll never try clowns again. That maroon was the most rabid animal I've ever owned, rift lake cichlids included. Imagine a 5" Mike Tyson on a bad PCP trip and you have my maroon clown.

Second biggest mistake was a wrasse I caught myself. I knew wrasses were specialized invertebrate predators, but how much damage can one cute little 2" wrasse do?

As it turned out: immense amounts. Within two days it'd killed _all_ fan- and peacock-worms, several shrimps and snails, an urchin(!) twice his size and completely annihilated all pods. Back he went.

[ErikS]

Maroon Clown - purchased at about 1/2" long, it's now 2" long and it's getting more vicious every day. Placed in a tank with jaws - I'd put my $$$ on the clown. I'm convinced it will never die, even Satan doesn't want it around.

Of course I should have known this after I saw one @ Discovery Cove in FL - hundreds of fish 15 - 20 times it's size around & not one of them going anywhere near the clown.

[Mike_Noren]

Originally posted by ErikS
Maroon Clown - purchased at about 1/2" long, it's now 2" long and it's getting more vicious every day.

You realize it's still just a baby? Max size: 7"...

[cyclist1]

We recently had to remove a 7" twin spot wrasse. He was such a cool fish, but he had different tastes in decorating than I did. He was always moving corals around. He also enjoyed the taste of our clams and snails. After he ate all of the snails and killed two or three clams, I hooked him. He has a new home.

We also had a pair of True Percula clowns that managed to chase about 5 fish out of the tank before we realized they were the problem. They also have a new home.

Andrew

[Grizzy]

Somewhat of a newbie here so this may sound like a dumb question. Those of you who have had your fish jump and carpet surf; what type of hood, if any, do you have? It seems like if you had a hood with a front and both sides, you could cover the back with some sort of egg crate or screen vertically. Is this no good?
I was hoping to house a firefish and a watchman diamond and continualy read about their tendancy to examine your carpet.

Thanks,
Grizzy

[acropora]

I hate to say this but I regret adding a Harlequin Tusk to my reef tank. It is a favorite,but it eats emerald crabs and of course peppermint shrimp.It has been there for several years,but those dam aips just creep up on you.I have a nice supply of them ,that I would like to use my peppermint shrimp on.They have eradicated all aiptasia in my sump,where they live. I will try a pearlscale first,but I don't want to get off topic. In a 220 FO tank,I once purchased a beautiful Broom tail wrasse which bullied triggers and to my disbelieve ate a 10" snowflake eel.Going further back,I purchased a 12" Picasso trigger,boy was it beautiful,but you know the rest of the story. Anthony

[hawk]

1. Angels - Can't seem to keep them alive.

2. Tangs - too big for my 60 gal tank, plus I don't want anything that won't live on flake and frozen brine.

I have a flame hawk, bi-color blennie, and a Purple Stripe Pseudochromis. Theu all seem to get along. The Pseudochromis used to think he was tough stuff till he tried he found out the blennie and hawk can take care of themself's just fine. Sill looking for a 4th fish that will work well with the three I have.:thumbsup:

[ErikS]

You realize it's still just a baby? Max size: 7"...

Yep, that's the really scary part IMHO

As I said, I should have known....but noooooooo....

[jms]

Purple lobster. This guy is like the devil incarnate.

Say goodbye to your shrimp and they are tough to catch. Trying my 2nd type of trap and still no luck AND of course he made his nest right in the middle of the bottom of my reef.

[Leopardshark]

And another vote for GSM clown, man I hate that SOB, I don´t know how I´m gonna take him outta my tank but I don´t want him in it another day!!!:mad: :mad:

[Shooter9er]

I have three, maroon clown, red lipped blennie, and a purple psuedochromis. The red lipped blennie was by far the worst as far as I am concerned. He would attack me anytime I even got close to the water. My mater pair of marron clowns raised hell in the tank with every member in it. It was no wonder all my fish had nipped tails. He would occaisonaly attack me as well. Last but not least my purple psuedo, 70 gal tank, half of its his. He won't allow anyone to the whole left side. Talk about territorial.

The blennie and clowns have been removed, now if I can just catch the other bastard.

Kyle

[Old Yeller Tang]

Just a little update. I finally caught my checkerboard wrasse after almost a year trying.:D I used a fish trap that took 3 weeks to work. I was just about to remove the ugly contraption before I gave it one more try. Well, the patience finally paid off. Now I can finally add a nice fairy wrasse to my tank.

[technoshaman]

Interesting thread. Since it got bumped I'll add my input since no one else has mentioned them. Coral Catfish - Plotinus species, I saw them at about 1.5" at the LFS and seemed to remember them being reef safe and 4" max size. Well they are sort of reef safe till they grow to a whopping 10-12 inches (mine are about 5" now) and they not only loose their cute stripes they also outgrow their cute wiggly schooling behavior and become large enough that they will start eating ornamental shrimp. Did I mention they pack venomous spines worse than most lionfish? I do not want to foist them off on someone else though and feel that it's my responsibility to take care of them so they are in my evolving agressive type reef tank sans shrimp. I have always loved catfish but if I ever try saltwater again I'll look at maybe acclimating an adult A. Seemani or something.

[BonsaiNut]

Originally posted by Loggerhead
Everyone gives way when the maroon clown comes out to play, no one wants a piece of that.


OMG so true, so true. Someone started a thread on the anemone board about the meanest clownfish and everyone is SCREAMING about maroon clowns. I have had maroon clowns try to attack me through the aquarium glass! They are pugnacious little beasts.

[sammystingray]

strawberry gramma (pseudochromis porphyreus)...the meanest little fish that ever swam in the ocean.:mad2:

[Saliki]

Lunare Wrasse....tore up my tank many years ago!
Yellow Fin Damsels...they turn the ugliest black color ive ever seen.
Chainlink eels- had 3 of em....they got out EVERY time...even with the lid blocked down....arrrg:eek2:

[CaptainCoral]

I must be lucky, I've got mated GSM's and hav'nt been bit yet. (knock on wood)

Oh...My biggest mistake is turning my 75 gallon Zebra Morey tank into a reef. I really like this guy so I'll put up with this until he croaks...He LOVES to eats peppermint shrimp and emerald crabs.
(You guessed it, Aiptasia and valonia problems)

[Bushman]

Engineer Goby....thing's gotten huge and is destructive to my rockwork.

[intekhab]

Strawberry/Purple Pseudochromis:mad2:

I still wake up in the middle of the night, drink a cold glass of water and thank God I got rid of that beast!

not joking either... :p

[RanMan2255]

flame hawk
After 2 cleaner shrimp 1 peppermint shrimp and who knows how many blue legs. But I hate to tear it all apart to go after him.

[bmcelhinn]

Grouper. He looked good at the lfs. I always wanted him whenever I saw him. I finally got him and the more I saw him, the more he looked just like something you would catch out of a lake, like a trout. He had a bad attitude also so I gave him away.

[Muppetdog]

A Bridled Goby is by far the Worst I ever had. Stirs up the DSB, and attacks anything that strays to lower half of the tank.
I also had to remove a bicolor pseudochromis, mean little guys.

[laguna]

Well right now I regret putting in the combo of yellow watchman goby and its pistol shrimp...what a mess.. I have a reef rack with internal circulation which provide flow from the bottom up. My send bed is 3-4". The pistol shrimp can not stop moving all my sand bed around, then when it piles up enough its get blown up by the little jet streams comming from the reef rack. Its like a snow storm....I think in the near future I am turning everything around just to get him out of there...

[budhaboy]

My Engineer Goby. He was an inch long when I got him, sales person said he didnt get big, looked it up in the books I had- info stated that he grew approx. 4-5 inches BULL HOCKEY!!!! that little bugger is 13.5 inches long now and I have never been able to keep shrimp. I still like him though.

[iceman16238]

I regret putting a powder blue in my 75gal. Mostly regret that i forgot to fill my tank with water:eek1: .

[SeaMermaid]

6 Line Wrasse and Blue Tang. I found the Wrasses betting the S%^#@&%!&!!!!!!! out of my Black Clown the other night. I finially turned of the lights to stop the Wrasse. The next morning one of my clowns was missing. Never to be found again. :mad2:

[Steve Hicks]

Spotfin/Cuban Hogfish (Bodianus pulchellus).

Caught in the act devouring red legged hermits. Suspected of eating blue legs as well.

[Fizz71]

It's not a "fish" but I once owned a Sea Apple...Got stuck to a powerhead and wiped out my entire 75g tank. The only fish that survived was the yellow tail damsel I had used to cycle 2 years before. A couple of inverts also lived because they had the sense to bury themselves in the substrate.

That was also the LAST time I listened to a LPS person without researching the hell out of a purchase first. And before I get a "duh" from someone....it was pre-internet popularity too, so the resources weren't readily available.

--Fizz

[pAtTy]

Niger Trigger in a tank with a peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, and fire shrimp. What the $#@& was I thinking?!? :rolleye1:

[RJ_22]

My big 5" tomato clown. He has a temper everytime that I do not feed him on his time schedual. Tries to bite me through the tank, hates crabs, the devil damsel that's in the tank, and my little 18 month old niece and nephew.He even bags his head on the power head,I guess to draw blood from his own head.But I still love him,he's been through a tank crash, and a move.Tough little bastard.

[traveller7]

Trio of Yellow Head Jawfish. Cute has worn off.

[flyhigh123]

one more vote for the Maroon Clowny...
also, i've had 3 firefish go surfing... no mas

[pigmy_angel]

Purple Tang

Killes at least five fish (three clowns a wrasse and on other) caught him at 4:00 in the morning and took him back to the store

[NuTNT]

I was told by the LFS the amount they would nip at coral was minamal. To my dismay it was just selective of the corals it nipped at contiunously. Still trying to catch him.

[NuTNT]

I was told by the LFS the amount they would nip at coral was minamal. To my dismay it was just selective of the corals it nipped at contiunously. Still trying to catch him.

[laxing22]

Lunar wase and Pokadot grouper

[mredman]

In my early days of reefing, I took lots of chances:

1. The purple pseudochromis has more meanness per gram than any other fish.

2. Arrow crabs are not such a good idea, except that it ate the purple pseudochromis.

3. Diadema urchins because they mow down the coralline algae.

4. Greenbird wrasses will wipe out your shrimp population.

I also had some good luck:

1. My maroon clown ate from my hand and never attacked me or any other reef inhabitant.

2. The coral beauty was always reef safe.

3. Never had a mean yellow tang.

[O'Man]

Lunar wrasse . . . shrimp eater.

Blue spot jawfish . . . Great fish, but they can even jump through egg crate just so they can do the stiff-thing on the carpet.

I like my spawning black perculas, but the flesh eating female makes putting your hand in the tank a real bummer.

[the_anti_honda]

strawberry/ magenta/ purple (dottyback) Pseudochromis: attacks every thing.

[bulldog12]

Red Lizardfish --- Very MEAN fish.

[xclan]

Lunare Wrasse,
I still have him in my tank....he killed a baby maroon clown..is attacking my Diamond back sleeper goby{orange spotted}. ate a few starfish. has claimed at least 50 snails. and a few shrimp. :((
I have to get rid of him becaus i cant keep my 150 clean without snails.
However my wife loves him and doesnt want me to get rid of him grrrrrrrrrrrrr


Almost forgot i had 3 porcupine puffers one time...man were they viscious ... got rid of em all.

[xfactor]

You know if someone took what everyone has said to heart I don't think they could buy a single fish ;P.

I got a Blue Hippo that I love, even though 'The Beast' hogs all the food, even eats it out of other fishes mouths.

[ScarFish]

Jesus!!!!!!!!!

I think that pretty much takes care of just about all that's left ::)

[JENnKerry]

Probably my yellow/purple striped pseudo. He's terrorized my YWG, and my damsel if you can imagine that. There's also other fish that I would love to get that I can't because of him, including cleaner shrimps. But despite it all he's very beautiful

[Old Yeller Tang]

Seems to me the fish most people have problems with are definitely the Lunare Wrasse and Dottybacks as well as some Clownfish.

[stlrams88]

occelaris clown, i got him and didnt research whatkind of anemone they need. having a 20g i think a carpet is put of the question

[Ben Wilson]

The yellow terror of a tang. My yellow tang won't let any medium sized fish be introduded. It killed a purple tang, a ccb, and tried to kill a flame angel. Im waiting for him to die but it will probably be the only yellow tang to live to 25.
____________
Ben

[ddenham]

six line wrasse---before his arrival I had TONS of bristle worms, pods...now Nothing!

[diablodragon]

mistakes i made:
hermit crabs
Damsel

Mistakes made at work:
sea apple
empor angel ( gave velvet to all the other fish)
flower pot coral

[mabblizzard]

haven't you people ever heard of gloves=no fish bitting

[aLittletank]

Originally posted by nazgul
Started off nice. Very pretty fish. Lot's O color.

He found a foundness of Elegance - just about killed my Elegance so I tried to catch him/her. No luck, no traps, no hooks, and no jars. Ended up tearing the whole rockwork apart to get him.

Since removed and reloacted. Never again.


same fish, different coral (SPS), same ordeal to include tank teardown. :mad2:

Allen

[BryanJ]

Well I guess I am not alone in the no more wrasses and tangs club. Like someone said earlier about the jawfish I have 3 chromis and the cute has warn off.

[Fishtales]

Dam Damsels :mad:

[greg hans]

Bought a lobster,Very colorfull purple.Ate all my crabs and
also ate 2 shrimp.Never came out of hiding and did all his
damage at night.Bad thing to put in a tank.

[Doan]

Hmmmm... Gotta get in on this.. and I have to say my PBT. I like him and all but he will not eat anything but algea on a clip. So I have to constantly have garlic and or selcon soaking prior to feeding him and it makes my house smell like a frippin pizza shop and it is a pain to have to spend 20 min a day just on feeding. Also it's an on again off again battle with ich... always seems to have a spot or two no matter what. Also is the most skittish fish I have ever seen.. or not seen hence the problem. Everyone sees him and says OMG what a pretty fish then if you get within 3 feet of the tank he hightales it into the rockwork. So he's not really destructive or anything just a royal PITA..that I can't even see see half the time. It's very annoying :)

Gotta say though my Mandarine goby is my favorite fish.. he's always out and about and even though he won't eat prepared foods he always swims up to the tank when I walk up to it and says hey.. It was a pain but now that the ref is up and turning out pods it was well worth it I really like him :)

Doan

[giantxtc]

hawkfish....hawkfish....hawkfish!

chased all the fish around the tank and constantly only perched on the sensitive corals.Had to wait a year until I moved the tank to get him out.

[ErikS]

haven't you people ever heard of gloves=no fish bitting
Personally I think the only gloves that would slow down a maroon clown would be chain mail & they probably wouldn't be reef safe.

[Foster]

This is a great thread.....

My worst purchase was a Pseudochromis (looked just like a strawberry Dottyback but was dull green with chrome eyes) Just got into reefkeeping and was a impulse by....I figured how much damage can this little guy do........as soon as I let him go in my 100 gallon reef.... he ate the face off 3 cleaner shrimps! yikes. it too me a month to trap him with a bottle, but I finally did!

2 lessons - Dont listen to LFS ...and NEVER put a dottyback in a reef!

...also .... I paid $29- for this fish, he was in great shape (well feed) but got a 1/8" tear on one of his fins while he was freaking out in the bottle. The store refused to buy him back because of the little tear on his fin....but would take hime for free! If I didnt care about fish I would of smashed him on the counter! :lol:

oh well

[ssheipel]

Loving this thread.

Had a Flame Hawkfish for ages and he behaved. Liked to be handfed, never bothered the coral or other fishes.

I picked up a mated pair of flame shrimp one day -- the female carrying a vibrant blue coloured sac of eggs on her underneath.

After a careful acclimatization, I released the two shrimp into the tank. The Flame Hawk in a flash came out of nowhere and gulped BOTH of them into his mouth and then settled on a rock with a great look of confusion in those every expressive hawkfish eyes. He had long white shrimp feelers sticking out of his gills and his mouth for ages.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt and figure it was the conditioning of whatever I put in the tank was lunch...


Sigh.

[sammythebu11]

Originally posted by narvaezjc
Blue devil damsel.

I have 2 but only one annoys my Long Horne Cow Fish. I am afraid one day I will find everyone dead after the cow fish said enough, and releases his poison.

Have to agree with this one, one blue devil damsel terrorized the other one I had in the tank to the point of having it cornered on one corner of the tank and when I removed the terrorized one it started terrorizing the dottyback, I removed the Blue Devil and the tank is in peace now.

[lacie143]

Originally posted by creativesmurf
I noticed there is a lot of negativity on the damsels, which is probably justified. However, I did my research before purchasing and my first fish was a small blue green chromis and he's a very nice fish.

blue green chromis do not count as damsels.... they are chromis

[gavin123]

bicolor dottyback-broke my shrimp in half and chased my yellow coris all over the tank.

luckly I caught him in one day with a bottle trap, within 10 mins he jumped right in.

domino damsel-had about 3 fish under his belt, 2 damsels and a sleeper goby.

tiger tail cucumber-he recently exploaded his guts all over my tank, but luckly there was no problems. he had a full recovery and now keeps my sand perfectly clean.

[Leopardshark]

I had an arc eye hawkfish once, he ate 2 clowns, about 4 gobies and 3 shrimps until I realized it was him who was doing all that damage.
Tried to take him out of the tank for about a year in which he grew a lot. All my attempts to take him out were a failure until I fished him with a very small shrimp bait.
Marco

[brahm]

I don't reget any individual fish.. just the quanity of fish I put in the tank. Right now I have..

4 Bangiis
1 sailfin
5 Barnicle Blennies
1 Dusky Jawfish
1 Occelaris
1 Striped Eye Goby
1 Clown Goby
1 Watchman Goby
2 Mandarins
1 Blue Green Chromis

WAY TO MANY FISH.. Granted the the bangii's and the Sailfin are like 75% of the fish mass in the tank which is why i'm currently getting rid of them (DAMN YOU PHOSPHATES!!!)

[brahm]

Originally posted by stlrams88
occelaris clown, i got him and didnt research whatkind of anemone they need. having a 20g i think a carpet is put of the question

chance are it will host in a bta mine did.

[gab24m3]

Bought a tank with two damsels(3 stripe, neon) and a niger trigger felt sorry for the poor trigger. Tried to catch damsels with a net, hah that didn't work had to breakdown the tank just to pull them out.

DAMSELS = DEVILFISH

[Julio]

GOBIDON!! I HATE this fish with a passion, it took out one of my best looking stags.

[Rurouni Kenshin]

Damsels!!!!!!!! i hate mine!!!!!!!!! especially the domino that hosts my Rbta that makes me so mad!!!!!

[jango]

bi-color blenny ate sps,he could knock giant mexican turbos off the glass,he wasn't big either.i went to take apart the tank to get him out found him lying on the floor,carpet surfin
fairy wrasse,had him for three weeks jumped
pink skunk,had him for six months my favorite fish he killed his mate about a month later found out he liked to surf also

all these fish jumped within a month,i think i need some egg crate on the back of my hood,now i only have a lonely fire fish

[TANGBOY5000]

Rescued Domino damsel from LFS. Beat all to he*l by tank mates, I figured I would rescue him. Tripled in size within 2 months, took over the tank.

[sdmike]

Originally posted by BrianD Just kidding :) I didn't want to disappoint anyone who saw almost 100 responses and clicked here thinking it was a flame-fest :D

Brian

I'm amazed that there HASN'T been any flaming yet!

I guess we're all laughing at ourselves too much for that...

I haven't had an issues outside a somewhat aggressive Freckled Hawk. He's upsetting the sensibilities in my tank, and MAY be the culprit behind my dead Cleaner Shrimp.

M

[frosstman]

Coral beauty. Turned out to be a nipper and spread ich. Bad mistake.

[frosstman]

Coral beauty. Turned out to be a nipper and spread ich. Bad mistake.

[frosstman]

Coral beauty. Turned out to be a nipper and spread ich. Bad mistake.

[Cid606]

Green Wolf Eel He would attack a horse if he had the chance.

[reef-freaky]

Good to see that other people have gone through the same pain as myself.
1) Lunare wrasse, #1 hated fish ever introduced into my tank. This thing trashed my tank, harrassed all of my fish, ate everything and I had to tear the tank down to catch
2) Half-black angel, another bad one, ate a bubble coral, candy cane and was working on my brain before I finally caught him
3) Blue devil damsel, won't ever do that again

[Scuba Dog]

mollys , taking up space..they wont just die lol

[Scuba Dog]

mollys , taking up space..they wont just die lol

[spamin76]

I have seen Lunare wrasse come up a bunch in this thread - but I honestly my terror fish is my Yellow tang - he steals silversided and urchin pieces right out of the mouth of my Odonus niger, he chases my lunare wrasse and thwacks him with his tail scalpals, he has torn chuncks out of the fins of my clark's clown, and he chases my humuhumu. I got him as a second hand tang from a reef buddy breaking down his tank. I named my tang Gimpy because he has always been missing half of his tail, and he has apparently suffered damage to his top fin which actually looks scarred. But despite the unhealed wounds suffered over his life, this tang is a murderous, meat eating, possessed devil fish - I though my trigger, being about twice the size and girth of the tang, would eat him - but instead he cowers in the corner when gimpy comes out and about. Honestly I have never even considered taking him out of the tank - my other fish are tough enough to deal with the tang abuse - and honestly my silverside eating cripple tang is just too funny to watch to even think about getting rid of -

[adrinal]

:eek1:

[adrinal]

Dragon wrasse (8" adult). Very cool fish. Great colors (and I personally thing the adult form is better than juv.) My Y-tang was in love w him and folowed him everywhere (to its dislike im sure). But, as time went on He pretty much came out to eat in the morning, and increasingly not every day. Then after getting his shrimp or cube or whatever he would flip under the sand till he was hungry again. Thing is that with such a monster in the tank I really couldn't get corals or many other fish. Sorry, but if I am going to have a pretty much species tank, I want something I can see.

[Graf-X]

Pink skunk - too agressive

[reefdood]

Two spot wrasse. Beautiful as a juvi., mean and ugly as an adult. I did manage to capture him though, in a fully loaded 90 gal reef. ;)

My one A. Lineatus was mean enough but I refused to part with him.

[tanker]

Clown Trigger. Bought him when he was only 2.5 inches. Always cleaned inside of glass by hand (before magnet scapers). He grew to be about 5-6inches. One day while cleaning inside of glass he decided my finger was food. Took a bite out of finger. Had to get stitches. I almost had filet of trigger that night!! Gave him away week after.

[Neowind]

Juvenile Koran Angelfish:

One of my favorite fish ever but one of the worst decisions is my Juvenile Koran Angelfish. I thought this fish would be Reef Safe but it wasn't. This was the most beautiful fish I have ever had but it ate my corals.

Yellowtail Blue Damselfish:

Mean as crap and hard to catch once they are in.

[fishinchick]

Yeah it's an angelfish. Most of the popular websites online tell you that you shouldnt keep them in reefs.

R.I.F. ;)

I can't believe this thread is still going Roland!

[saltaholic]

I have a purple chromis and he is digging everywhere!! 70% of the time the tank is cloudy because of him. I also worry that he will cause something to shift and crash there goes the glass. Although I think that is unlikely. I am trying to net him using food. Have been close to sucess but am waiting for the perfect time so that I dont ruin the method. The problem also is that it is no stupid fish!!

[mandarin26]

neon velvet damsel... got him when he was a cute baby and then he got big on me.... and I mean BIG! and mean... ended up giving him back to the fish store (they wouldn't take him back) he now lives in their live rock bed unfed and still alive... he's been there for almost a year... ugly... very ugly but alive.... and about 4 inches long....

[Leopardshark]

Arc eye hawk fish.
This one was a nightmare, simply put.

[Bugger]

I hated having to feed my juv empoir angel.
It's a full time job for crying out load!!!!@

[Bugger]

Okey come on back I don't mean to **** on anybody. sweety honey your in a forest your in a forest with Heather Locklear. and your naked but good naked okey that's horrible.
ummm bahh

[Bugger]

Heather be thy Name

[RyanPaDe]

I had 4 damsels in my tank from when i was a newbie and cycling. I trained all of them to eat out of my hand. Then got them used to eating with the net near bye. Then got them used to being scooped up and sent to the LFS!! I hope someone else can have luck with this.

[fished]

Powder Blue Tang - not that I regret the fish, in itself it is great but I cannot introduce any other fish ... So far the only fish who stood up to him was my Passer Angel. Now the two are "Buddies" and do everything together, including stopping by my cleaner shrimp for some grooming. Unfortunately, I want to add other fish and these two have terrorized anything I have tried so far.... grrrrrr. Surprisingly, the corals I have put in have been left alone, hope it stays that way ...

[fcatano]

can we turn around this thread for best fishes for reef tanks? Anyone.

[adrinal]

nah, thats another post :)

[kenny77]

Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish. he get stress out just by looking at him, but now that he get use to people walking around the tank, i ran out of live brine shrimp and that almost all he eat. and no LFS had some for 4 day, the poor guy was starving so i try to feed him with some mysis but he wasnt eating enought so now the poor guy that is suceptible to ich mora than average fish, got ich and the other fish too. but but thank god the other fish even when they have some signs of ich they are doing great. but the yellow Longnose i really dont know if he is going to make it

[Navyblue]

This thread is older than I am here :), but a good thread nonetheless.

Purple tang: big bully.

My pair of ocellaris clown: my first fishes, too common and uninteresting (nothing wrong actually), and I still have them till today.

Yellow belly blue damsel: I didn't put him in, one fine day when I got home I was "surprised" by my mom by an extra fish I found in my tank (unquarantined and unacclimated) and I found both my firefish on the floor, dried. Off he goes into banishment.

[michaelmcl47]

My yellow tang,
Hes a mean fish but,hes always part of the family now.Always keeps me in stitches from time to time with his antics.I just can't place in any other fish cause he kills them overnight.

[AcroSteve]

A pair of yellow clown gobies. Constantly laying eggs in my sps.

[xian]

Here's a few failures

Bicolor and Lemon peel angels: neither ever really got on well with my hippo tang stopped eating and died in a week.

Fourline red sea cleaner wrasse: Fine for a few days then died mysteriously. (Tried this twice DOH!)

Here's one I haven't seen, here, yet: Sally lightfoot crab Confirmed kills neon goby, firefish, ocellaris clown

Sixline wrasse: confirmed kill on a royal gramma and almost on an ocellaris. Healthy fish, but mean, died in a power outtage

Lessons I learned the easy way

No damsels in the reef

No pseudochromis ( I did keep a P. diadema in a 20 gal with an ocellaris clown at school no problems)

[imholte]

I had a couple of yt damsels that I couldn't get out of my tank. The solution, carpet anemone. No more damsels. But also no more coral beauty, no more gramma. But my clarkiis were happy having the tank all to themselves.

[Johnsteph10]

xian -- man, have you lost a lot of fish!

[phishlet]

bi-color blenny for sure

[Navyblue]

Originally posted by phishlet
bi-color blenny for sure

Phislet,

What's wrong with bicolor blenny? I had one in my quarantine tank and its 4 weeks quarantine is due this coming Sunday.

[G-man17]

Royal Gramma

Beautiful color, lots of fun to watch and feed. But, a mean SOB. It ripped of the front jaw of a goby that I had in the tank. Also it attacks the stick I use to stir the sand bed. It is such an aggressive eater that it tries to eat right out of the pipet that I use to feed.

Just to give you guys a better idea.... I've got a 10" red devil in one of my freshwater tanks that has left me plenty of teeth marks. If I could put the gramma in the same tank as him, the red devil would go down in no time.

[elaw62]

eibli angel. a really beautiful fish that leaves most corals alone but really enjoyed his lunch of my new brain coral. i don't think i'll try them again and i have a sneaky feeling that any clams are out of the question as long as he or she is in the tank. :(

[elaw62]

bumpity bump

[adrinal]

You sure thats a RG?
My Bicolor Bleeny beat the stuffing out of my RG. He hides in a rock with no fins now.

edit: to be fair the RG does put on quite a show of agression... kinda like a Chriss Rock pretending to get the kung-fu on.

[Navyblue]

Is bicolour blenny that tough? Mine in the quarantine tank looks rather meek to me and preety much ignores a 4 stripes damsel only half its length.

Hope that my clown pair can stand up to it.

[the_anti_honda]

ditto on the bi-color blenny. stupid thing nipped on all the sps in the tank not just some but all.

[adrinal]

I'm more into corals than fish...
My experience has been.

Put the BCB with the RG in a 20 G. The RG starts with the posturing but the BCB would "win". Still no real dmg... often.

My 75g reef has a LMB and a Fire Fish. I moved the RG and BCB to the reef.

First time I see the RG after the switch he has no tail. But he gets his own little hole and small area... months later I switch all the rocks around and the next morning he is missing all the fins... Now, though the RG and LMB have never been seen interacting... I suppose it could have been him or some other force... but I have atributed the abuse to the LMB.

The BCB and the FF and the RG are all around the same mass; the LMB is at least 50% larger than the rest. The BCB often attacks the LMB and wins, but to no dmg. The LMB clearly does not fear the BCB ... but he doesn't fight back much either.

Both the LMB and BCB are extreamly cool in my book. Wait till you see the BCB sticking his butt in every hole to find the right home.

I am not a clown fan, but I doubt that the BCB will have much luck out agressing them if they (it) has its territory already.

Once again I am no fish expert, this is just my one singular experience with this fish.

edit:

The only coral (and I have all types) that have been nipped (and only by the LMB) was one with hair algea.

edit, edit:

I am not sure that the clown and bleeny really share the same feeding habbits. FF are real wimps IME. but the FF is a column feeder.
The RG and BCB have almost the same feeding habbits (competition (sp)). And though the BCB eats some bits of algea from time to time, I doubt he would even bother the LMB except for the fact that the LMB simply does not care about territory at all!!! The pig head! Infact, he doesn't care that I pet him evertime its ric feeding time.

[Navyblue]

Thanks Adrinal,

My o. clown pair seems rather meek recently, they hosted a leather coral and I;ve never seen their reaction towards intruder, may be I'll have a problem, but once they has bullied a pair blue streaked damsels.

The reason I chose BCB is because of different feeding habit and shapes so to minimise aggression, hopefully it works.

[kenny77]

i know that this is a post about wish fish a regret to put in my tank. and i have seen many people that saying that the regret putting damsel.

i love damsel and if it wanst because my girlfriend bring home a anthias i will be putting damsel again. they are reef save, they have a great attitude, they eat at the firt moment you put them in your tank. they wont get ich. as far as i have seen. they wont jump out of your tank and they dont contribute to a big bioload. then why you hate them?because they are smarter than human and it is almost to catch them. com one it is not that hard. you can even catch them with your hand. of course at 4am when they are sleeping:P

[Dell'Oro]

Japonicus Gold Tang - looked nowhere near as nice in my tank as he did in the store, introduced something that killed off every fish in my tank except my bicolour angel (go figure).

Copperband Butterflyfish - just too timid, got put off eating despite minimal aggression from the other inhabitants, very depressing to watch him go very quickly downhill then disappear before I could catch him.

Great thread!

[pauline]

I think it's my spider crab. He prob killed my mandarin and sailfin blenny. To think something so cute is carnivorous!!

[xian]

Kenny:

I think that people don't like damsels because they don't play well with others.

The only ones I even consider are yellow tail blues because they seem to be pretty docile and I don't put them in reefs because if they start beating on someone else they are a pain to catch.


Johnsteph:

Tell me about it. Most of it is just bad luck. My water quality is good, I quarantine, use a uv sterilizer, have two cleaner shrimp in the tank and I've lost very few corals. Took me a while to catch on to the SLFC so he may have had other victims. The only fish that were not eating were angels and I'll never try another.

I've also had my Hippo tang and my watchman goby for over a year and a half with no problems, so I don't kill everything =\

[MrJenkins]

Carpet surfers (out of about a two inch opening between the glass top and the back of the tank):
flasher wrasse
neon goby
not one, but TWO blue spotted jawfish @ $65 each
six line wrasse

Just plain bad choices:
coris wrasse - ate all the snails
yellow goatfish - don't ask
harlequin sweetlips - failure to thrive
tasselfile - failure to thrive
purple firefish, red firefish, all disappeared
four diamond gobies - disappeared
two signal gobies - failure to thrive
two true perculas - got ich and died
four scooter blennies - died
yasha hashi goby - disappeared
two rabbitfish - one died, the other was killed by a sailfin tang
and more that I'm sure I've blocked from my memory!

[MrJenkins]

Oh yeah,
bicolor angel and rock angel - both died
blueface angel - died

[biomekanic]

thought the sealed top, have got to admire their determination:

flasher wrasses: 5 me: 0
golden dwarf moray: 1, me: 0

never again.

I replaced a breeding pair of orchid dottybacks (psuedochromis fridmani) with the flashers, my wife still pats me on the head when I beat it against the wall and go "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

[xian]

I think Mrjenkins has the same luck I have

How many others have fish up and disappear with no good reason?

[Glindac]

Howdy Mr. Roland, great thread!

Clown Goby, I hate him, he is cool but is killing my SPS slowly, not just one, he likes them all. Catching him is a joke, he is quick and hides well. I am trying everything to get him out, next I will break out the wet/dry shop vac :)

[juststartingout]

Originally posted by MrJenkins

yasha hashi goby - disappeared


We placed a tiger pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman gobie in the tank at the same time thinking it would be "cute" to see them hang out together.

Only seen the ywg for 2 days, then disappeared without a trace. As for the pistol shrimp, we never see more than it's antenna. It has quite a burrow under our LR, I'm waiting to see a LR avalanche soon. Thinking of trying another YWG.

[MrJenkins]

And my list goes on: (got past my senior moment of blockage)

Dwarf Lion, Fu Manchu Lion, Volitan Lion - all did well for 6 mo- 1 yr then went belly up
Orange shoulder tang (didn't have an orange patch tho, it was a dark gray patch but according to the LFS it was definitely an orange shoulder and that gray would turn orange, yeah right, with a $85 price tag!) - bully, bully, bully!
Citron goby - mysteriously kicked the bucket after a couple of years
green clown goby - citron goby killed him
ranfordi gobies (3) - too timid to come out an eat so they died
hectors goby - disappeared

I'm sure more will come to me as I relive the past!

[MrJenkins]

Yep, they're coming back slowly but painfully :(
Chevron tang - did well for a few months then died (another expensive bugger)
Singapore angel - never would eat
Flame angel - tank bully that had to be removed
Dragon wrasse - too many avalanches!

Might as well have taken all the money spent on these and created a huge bonfire instead of buying fish! Would have ended up with the same results~

[threeheaddog]

undulated trigger.

or are they too dangerous to even sell?

how come no one has mentioned this troubled beast?

it is the #1 evil fish you know...

any fish evil-er?

[petedoc]

My snowflake eel started out nice, but became a huge beast eating every attempt at any sort of crab and shimp. I also ate so voraciously that every other fish was becoming timid and weak. Glad to have him out, and credit at my LFS.

[Brandino007]

My domino damsel man I hate that thing it has killed about 4 of my fish. I am hopeing to get rid of him soon.


P.S.
DON'T GET ONE

[Brandino007]

My domino damsel man I hate that thing it has killed about 4 of my fish. I am hoping to get rid of him soon.


P.S.
DON'T GET ONE

[falconut]

Purple Pseudo, just a nasty fish. Ate the back fins right off my fire fish until it died.

Not a fish but camel shrimp! I liked them so I got 4, then I tried corals. I added a leather and found them stripping the skin off. I had to remove all the rock to get them out. The leather has completely healed and no more camel shrimp!

[joeychitwood]

Though my Hawkfish had a great "personality" and was a real camera hog, it ate every pod in my tank. I tried every trick in the book to catch it and remove it, but the the fish was too smart to fall for any of them. I finally gave it away when I tore that tank down due to a hair algae crash.

http://images.mdlindquist.com/Hawk.jpg

[MiataRacer06]

I'll second the sally lightfoot crab, mine was trying to catch my Royal Gramma before I sent him back to the store.

Of course, my RG eventually got eaten by the bubble tip anemone.

I have two yellow tail damsels, a flame angel, a scooter blenny, and a tank bred clown. The clown has jumped out twice trying to chase my hand out of the tank, but I just pick her up and toss her back in.

So far, the damsels don't seem too bad, they ignore the blenny, don't go close to the clown's anemone, and run away from the flame angel.

[LPSgirl]

I thought I carefully selected the 6 fish I wanted for my 75G tank. A mated pair of Perculas, a Purple firefish, a Comet, a Bangaii and then lastly a Kole Tang. I knew he had to be the last fish because of the reputation of killing off anything added after him.

Over the last 6 months he has reached an understanding with all his neighbors except the firefish. He chases him back into his hole every minute of every waking hour. Then hovers there for good measure for a few seconds.

Now to add insult to injury the stupid Tang has potty trained himself!! I kid you not, no matter where he is roaming around eating in the tank, he makes sure when it is his time to go (and believe me he “goes� a lot!!), he heads over to the top of the firefish’s hole and does his business right there on top!! As if saying “Here take that you puny fraidycat!�.

He is just a baby still, maybe 2 ½ inches, but he is back to fish store - as soon as I can figure out how to catch him.

[Jutta]

A pair of blue faced tilefish.
Had them for a week, then one jumped in afternoon, his buddy jumped the same night

[reefer2005]

ANY DAMSEL!!

[Saltz Creep]

Diadema dottyback---super aggressive.
Red Stoplight Cardinal---hides all the time. I rarely see it.

[Wayupnorth]

Not a fish but my green carpet anemone. It has gotten huge at about 15" across and my 2 large sebae clownfish host in it. The only trouble is any small fish that I put in becomes dinner.
A nasty bicolor dottyback that I wish the anemone would eat but has somehow figured out how to chase gobies and small fish right into the damn thing. I watched it do it to a rainford gobie and a purple firefish gobie.

[Leopardshark]

LPSgirl, that´s a funny story!!!
LOL!!!

[ShellBell]

Originally posted by mantisagogo
Great thread!

2) Maroon clown - I like mine, but people should know what they're getting into. The problem is you buy a sweet wiggly juvenile/male that looks at you lovingly in the LFS who gradually turns into "big bad momma fish" Wouldn't trade her and her mate for anything, but people should know what they are in for

I totally agree. I love my "big momma" and her little mate, but if I had to do it all over again I don't think I would have them. They are beautiful fish with lots of personality but they are mean and territorial. They are lucky they are so darn cute.