What is the biggest fish you've ever owned?

Dcal · Feb 16, 2021

What is the largest fish in mass or length that you've owned in your fish keeping career? Fresh or salt

Edit: Pictures!!!!

Mine is my ~ 18 inch snowflake

JumboShrimp · Feb 17, 2021

Does a near-miss count?
I ignorantly bought a Unicorn Tang. I had it about a month and it did nothing but grow right before my eyes! I did my after-the-fact research and saw someone with an outdoor tank— something like 1,200 gallons or more— and he was complaining the tank was too small for the Unicorn. I took it back to the LFS. Lol!

Tony616 · Feb 17, 2021

12-14 inch blonde naso

Viking_Reefing · Feb 17, 2021

Not salt but fresh, a 65ish cm Asian arowana.
I did have a nile perch but that thing unfortunately died of a bacterial infection before it got to any impressive size.

Reverend Turtle · Feb 17, 2021

By mass a 10" Guinea Fowl puffer. By length a 30" banded snake eel.

N.Sreefer · Feb 17, 2021

Had a 36 inch long common pleco that outgrew my 150gal before it became a reef tank. Scary fish to get out of the tank.

dimitrinivo · Feb 17, 2021

for me it was a 5" longnose hawkfish, I'm still young in my reefing career so this will be beat very soon

Lowell Lemon · Feb 17, 2021

Nurse Shark about 3'. Would eat 12" trout like in one swallow. Shipped it back to Florida for release. Last homed in 1000 gallon plus tank of one of my customers. He got tired of feeding the trout and the expense. We called him Sam Bob for some reason.

redfishreef96 · Feb 17, 2021

20" Redfish. My wife is a local middle school teacher, four years ago the FWC gave her Redfish fingerlings for a project. Most died, some made it through first year and ended up at local conservancy with a huge saltwater floor tank. One fish was the runt and nobody would take him. My wife's students named the fish Clifford the Big Redfish. The problem became my wife signed paperwork with the FWC that the fish either had to be kept alive or euthanized. This was because the fish had been genetically tagged for the program and was not to be released within the native Redfish population. When no one would take the fish, I told my wife to bring it home. I had never done a saltwater aquarium. I began doing my research and this was my starting point into reefing. My wife didn't realize the monster she unleashed. Before she knew it, the redfish lead me into corals/reef fish and multiple aquariums. I recently was able to find a local aquarium enthusiast to take over care of Clifford, since I will not be getting any systems large enough to house a fish that can growth 40"+. Check out the recent video of Clifford being fed at his new home.

Zionas · Feb 17, 2021

How long did you have yours for and was it fully grown when purchased?

Dw79 · Feb 17, 2021

Had a Snakehead about 20 years ago that was about 14 inches or so.

Cabinetman · Feb 17, 2021

My sohal. It was every bit of 14”. I gave it to my buddy with a 500 gallon tank. When we got it in the cooler I got the bright idea to try to reach in and pic it up to take a pic to show how big it was. Big mistake. Did it ever slice my finger wide open with one quick whack. Blood was Litterally squirting out.

McPuff · Feb 18, 2021

jaxteller007 said:
Right now our Lt Tang, Lt Dan. Not sure how many inches long he is but im guessing 7 or 8. Definitely a wide body though lol.

Same for me, Lt Tang. I call mine whale pig. He's 8-9" and close to 2" wide. Beef! The Naso isn't too far behind anymore, nor is the foxface. I did have a red snakehead back in the 90s that got to about 15" before I rehomed it. Super cool fish.

Cabinetman said:
My sohal. It was every bit of 14”. I gave it to my buddy with a 500 gallon tank. When we got it in the cooler I got the bright idea to try to reach in and pic it up to take a pic to show how big it was. Big mistake. Did it ever slice my finger wide open with one quick whack. Blood was Litterally squirting out.

Oh man, I remember talking to you on the phone about this. Did you have to go to the hospital for quite a while because of it?

jaxteller007 · Feb 18, 2021

McPuff said:
Same for me, Lt Tang. I call mine whale pig. He's 8-9" and close to 2" wide. Beef! The Naso isn't too far behind anymore, nor is the foxface. I did have a red snakehead back in the 90s that got to about 15" before I rehomed it. Super cool fish.

Oh man, I remember talking to you on the phone about this. Did you have to go to the hospital for quite a while because of it?

Our Lt dwarfs our foxface now.

revhtree · Feb 18, 2021

Probably a Naso Tang about 10". I'm a sucker for nice big fat fish!

StlSalt · Feb 18, 2021

18" Red Tail catfish when they were all the craze in Freshwater.

Rmckoy · Feb 18, 2021

15” long snowflake eel .
he was re homed to the lfs after we caught him eating juv yellow belly tang

next is a 7” niger trigger

current large fish would be my mata tang and foxface both around 5”

Tonycass12 · Feb 18, 2021

I wish I still had photos, years back I used to care for aquariums at a restaurant in Se Michigan. We had about 5k gallons worth of aquariums our largest one was an archway you could walk under. We had French angels the size of large serving platters and vlamingi and unicorn tangs over 2'. Everyone's favorite was a grouper named Bob that was almost 2 ft. When we dove the tanks to scrub algae Bob would always come hang out until he got a little belly rub. Had to watch out for the tangs and rabbit fish though I got my fair share of cuts from the barbs on the tails of the tangs and stings from the rabbit fish.

All lost when corporate decided last minute to have us pull all the fish so the fake coral could be re done. With no time to set up a large enough holding area and no time to let the new systems cycle we started moving them into stock tanks and watched them all die over the following few days. Had to start over with small fish after that.