The most difficult fish to catch in a reef tank...

Jake_the_reefer · Sep 17, 2019

MombasaLionfish said:
Good luck. What kind of damsel?

Just a blue damselfish. When my tank finished cycling I used him as a placeholder until I knew what i wanted in the tank

Mark Gray · Sep 17, 2019

So far for me it was a mantis shrimp, I know not a fish. He came in the live rock that was shipped from the south Pacific. Lived the week or so in rock wrapped in newspaper. And back then they recommend a 20 minute fresh water dip, to remove pests. Well he made it through that too. Tank was a 300 gallon, he lived through the cycle. And about a year and a half later I started losing fish. This all was 30 years ago at least maybe a little longer.

chopsuey84 · Sep 17, 2019

Definitely flame angels

Chewbacca · Sep 17, 2019

Barbershop goby fast little dude

Dave Cureton · Sep 18, 2019

Dave Cureton said:
The dagum anthias I can't get out of my tank to let it run fallow. I took out everything and the fish disappeared. Put everything back in and guess who shows up a couple of hours later. I really need to get that darn fish out of my tank....

I finally caught it!!! Had to remove all the rock work (again) and put the rock where it was hiding in a 5 gallon bucket to coax it out. Hallelujah!

ImNemo · Sep 19, 2019

A yellowtail damselfish. I had to remove all of my Fiji liverock to get him out. Meanest fish I've ever owned. He chased and nipped at everything in the tank. I didn't even feel guilty about flushing him.

NC122606 · Jun 3, 2020

Bump, this was a fun thread! I would love to hear more!!!

Jake_the_reefer · Jun 3, 2020

NC122606 said:
Bump, this was a fun thread! I would love to hear more!!!

Outside of fish the worst for me was a pair of peppermint shrimp in complex rockwork. I ended draining my tank to 10% and still it took me an hour to catch them. I ended up breaking apart my rockwork to get them

NC122606 · Jun 3, 2020

Jake_the_reefer said:
Outside of fish the worst for me was a pair of peppermint shrimp in complex rockwork. I ended draining my tank to 10% and still it took me an hour to catch them. I ended up breaking apart my rockwork to get them

Wow, I can imagine that took forever! I have a freshwater tank that I was changing from sand to gravel, I had a few shrimp and I had to almost drain the entire tank to get them. I can imagine how hard it would be to catch marine ones.