What is the Meanest Fish You’ve Owned?

[squidarcher]

My pistol shrimp! Had a blackout going on, and on the last day he got hungry and killed my clowns one after another now it’s just him and my YWG in that tank. However, it’s a different story at work! We have two NASTY sailfin tangs. One big one has killed an annularis angel, almost got the toadfish and a couple puffers! Also hates the blue line grouper. The smaller one has gotten a multicolor angel, cardinals, and more.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Damsels of the genus Dascyllus seem incredibly mean. I have several Dascyllus reticulatus, they are much, much worse than Chrysiptera (azure damselfish). Besides being very aggressive they are bigger and much stronger than Chrysiptera.

Sometimes Dascyllus like to throw over surprisingly big stones with corals attached if they don't like where you placed them. They also may pull off freshly glued corals as soon as you turn around. Really incredible!

Dascyllus - never again!

 

[McPuff]

@Miami Reef this is my choice for meanest fish per gram (however you want to measure size). Crazy aggressive!

The other fish in mind is the notorious Undulated Triggerfish. Beautiful and shy (seemingly) but will kill just about anything else around it.

 

[ChaosAquaculture]

we have some pretty evil guard clowns - kali

 

[rlman41299]

I've had 2 mean fish in the tank before but they are now re homed. A talbot's damselfish and a lamarck's angelfish. I can never put my hand inside the tank for they will swipe at it no matter what.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Not saltwater, but tiger barbs are striped balls of hate

 

[Michael Adam]

Neon Dottyback

 

[Bruce Burnett]

This is a tough one!
Yellowtail Damselfish - If I could have hit him with the laser I would have fried him in the tank.
Nowadays it's the seemingly helpful Aiptasia Filefish that has grown to mammoth proportions and is undoubtedly a mutant species with nothing but death and destruction on the brain.

My file fish did not last a week before he started going after corals. Even though I seen it eating aiptasia at lfs he did not touch them in my tank

 

[Victory652]

By far my meanest fish is my Tomatoe Maroon Clownfish. Will bite my hand when it's in the tank haha but it's also my favorite because it's the most active in my tank. It host my toadstool which is fun haha

 

[blazn]

As you can tell from reading thru this post, some species, such as damsels, seem to inherently be mean, while other species seem to only have individuals that end up mean (sounds like humans!). For me, nothing worse than having a fish terrorize or constantly chase other fish around, just adding stress to the environment I created to reduce stress, so I always try to avoid aggressive species. The "meanest" fish I've ever had was a yellow tang, many years ago. It was the boss of the tank and would chase every other fish around. Since I hated that, I've never added a yellow tang since, but had been contemplating getting one recently up until the Hawaii ban shut that down. I've had no issues with purple tangs. I've read multiple people indicating that they've had issues with royal grammas, which surprises me, as I always tend to have one and they've never been aggressive, in fact some have been too passive at times and wouldn't stand their ground with their peers.

 

[Tempura and Teriyaki]

Long nose hawkfish. He crushes Neon gobies for breakfast.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

No other fish or crab got to live in this tank,

And from the "Who bit you in your tank" thread, ( https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/who-bit-you-in-your-tank.828543/ )

This guy caught me pretty good. Was in the middle of feeding him and got distracted while still holding a shrimp in my hand and my hand in the tank. Since he was already in a feeding frenzy he didn't care if I was looking or not. Chomp Chomp;Inpain;Facepalm

 

[Rmckoy]

Blue velvet damsel and tomato clown

 

[dennis romano]

Hippo tang. he was so cute when I bought him when he was quarter size. When he got to four inches, he went psychotic. In one week, he killed a harlequin tusk, harlequin bass, queen angel and blue face angel. All fish were bigger than him.

 

[kados]

Hippo tang. he was so cute when I bought him when he was quarter size. When he got to four inches, he went psychotic. In one week, he killed a harlequin tusk, harlequin bass, queen angel and blue face angel. All fish were bigger than him.

My Hippo is a bully as well. More than holds own in a predator tank.

 

[Singspot]

Meanest was my Niger Trigger. It was in tank with others for 1 year with no issues. But one day he suddenly turned angry and started biting my large bird wrasse, yellow-tail corris ... and I moved him in QT - he was picking up 1 inch rocks and throwing ... I had to give him away to LFS ...

 

[Singspot]

Hippo tang. he was so cute when I bought him when he was quarter size. When he got to four inches, he went psychotic. In one week, he killed a harlequin tusk, harlequin bass, queen angel and blue face angel. All fish were bigger than him.

How did he kill HT, Queen and Blueface?

 

[mermaid_life]

my meanest was a 6-line in my first tank - i gave him back to the LFS. However, the 6-line in my current tank is not a problem (yet). My clowns at one point tried to kill a tailspot blenny but now they're fine. Both were BRUTAL. I don;t know what to think.

Currently I'm dealing with scopas on tomini aggression.

 

[Singspot]

Isn't it true that in every tank (almost) there is a "King of the hill" ..? and its best to let fishes that can't hurt too much be the king ... and not a Zebrasoma or HT or triggers that can gore other fishes?

I have found that when I remove one bad guy another becomes bad ..

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Fourstriped Damsel (Dascyllus aruanus), killed a bluegreen chromis, and a Coral Beauty. Was the first salt water fish I had. Was in a tank given to me by a friend getting out of the hobby.
After that I isolated it whenever I added a new fish. It seems it has finally gotten used to aquamates.