What terror fish do wish you never got?

Aspiring Tank Guru · Feb 8, 2017

I am still working out the kinks in this hobby, but when I first started, due to my inexperience and the not-so-good advice of my LFS, I got a Picasso triggerfish for my 55 gallon. Big mistake and had to give him back. He tried to bite my flame angel's face off and ate 4 others. Notwithstanding the fact that he tried to bite me every time I tried to clean the tank so I had to have my girlfriend be my watch dog. He was so destructive so quickly I didn't even have time to name him. He was just "the trigger." What terrors have you had to deal with?

Salty1962 · Feb 9, 2017

Mystery Wrasse, started off nice and then turned into a terror!

sawdonkey · Feb 9, 2017

Aspiring Tank Guru said:
I am still working out the kinks in this hobby, but when I first started, due to my inexperience and the not-so-good advice of my LFS, I got a Picasso triggerfish for my 55 gallon. Big mistake and had to give him back. He tried to bite my flame angel's face off and ate 4 others. Notwithstanding the fact that he tried to bite me every time I tried to clean the tank so I had to have my girlfriend be my watch dog. He was so destructive so quickly I didn't even have time to name him. He was just "the trigger." What terrors have you had to deal with?

Ha! I've had my Picssso, Gary, since 2003. He can be pretty aggressive to new fish, but is generally pretty passive to his tank mates. Although he, along with my lemon peel angel, has killed a couple of new additions over the years. Never bites me though. My niger trigger on the other hand, tries to bite almost every time my hand is in the tank.

My biggest terror fish was a grouper (the red ones with the purple spots) I put in a 55 gallon tank before I had any idea what I was doing. LFS at the time told me it was fine. He would eat about five cubes of frozen in one sitting. I began cutting the food into smaller pieces so the other fish could get some. He wasn't getting enough, so he ate my clownfish whole. He went back to the LFS shortly thereafter.

Here's Gary (by far my all time favorite and longest lasting fish):

Ryan Espinoza · Feb 9, 2017

My first terror was a 5 inch tomato clown. It would go after me every time my hand hit the water, drawing blood several times. Traded him back to the lfs.

scardall · Feb 9, 2017

This Fish ate those grand Paly's (All of them)

Jeremy C. · Feb 9, 2017

8 inch engineer goby, ripped the bottom jaw off of my watchman and bit my neon dottyback clean in half. Bought him as a little guy but he turned into a menace after about a year and a half.

mort · Feb 9, 2017

Cinnamon clown that was in an 8x2ft coral tray. It had a nem at one end and still attacked my if I was doing something at the other.

Waters · Feb 9, 2017

Either my Tusk, who turned evil and attacked any new fish. Other than that, any of the 7 species of Dwarf Angels I have tried to keep in a reef tank :(

thabizness · Feb 9, 2017

A maroon clown fish. She is a mean bully like Deebo and likes to make holes in the sand bed all over the tank. If I could trap her I would but she's smart. I almost wish she would carpet surf but I keep my tank covered. :mad:

ahiggins · Feb 9, 2017

I have a beautiful 4" snowflake clown that is the biggest jerk. she bites me every time I put my hand into her tank.

Water Dog · Feb 9, 2017

6 line wrasse... the devil. Fortunately as I was testing water parameters, he went carpet surfing and I was able to give him back to the LFS. Very fortunate that I didn't have to tear apart my tank to get him out.

ca1ore · Feb 9, 2017

Only 2 in 30 years: Sohal tang (as close to evil as a fish can get) and a 3" three stripe damsel. Former was easy to remove because he liked to attack the net; latter I had to hook.

Scurvy · Feb 9, 2017

My two Saphire Damsels.... 1st two fish I got. They've been good with all my other fish accept anything else I try putting in that's blue. They also kick the snot out of each other every so often and one of them winds up in a quarantine box to heal. I really should stop saving them.

Martyd · Feb 9, 2017

Aspiring Tank Guru said:
I am still working out the kinks in this hobby, but when I first started, due to my inexperience and the not-so-good advice of my LFS, I got a Picasso triggerfish for my 55 gallon. Big mistake and had to give him back. He tried to bite my flame angel's face off and ate 4 others. Notwithstanding the fact that he tried to bite me every time I tried to clean the tank so I had to have my girlfriend be my watch dog. He was so destructive so quickly I didn't even have time to name him. He was just "the trigger." What terrors have you had to deal with?

Peppermint Hogfish. He'll be gone when my 150 is set up.

lauderdalestunner · Feb 9, 2017

X2 Tomato Clown, it owned 45gal of my 90gal tank. Not a single fish on his side of the tank. What a pain to brake down all the live rock to catch him. Didn't have much for corals at the time thank goodness.

PJS · Feb 9, 2017

The last bully fish I had was El Diablo Bartlett, the terrorist before that was Osama Coral Banded. Osama was easy to catch, El Diablo not so easy, he wasn't falling for the fish trap game. I had to remove every piece of live rock out of the 125 and it took four arms in the tank to get him, not a good afternoon/night.

taintstick · Feb 9, 2017

This guy here, out of nowhere after having him for over a year, made my tank cloudy for a week straight. Before that, I got a mini school of bright Anthias and he killed stressed and killed each one... after the cloudiness, I had it, and had to catch the sucker!

That's right, free .99 fish catcher! Hah
But then, by the time I got him out, he taught my blue damsel how to make the tank ugly. So he started doing the same exact thing!! Luckily, Aquafina came to my rescue!

Now, I decided to stay with just my Mandarine Goby and another damsel, just cause he hasn't made me mad yet haha.

germs101 · Feb 9, 2017

mort said:
Cinnamon clown that was in an 8x2ft coral tray. It had a nem at one end and still attacked my if I was doing something at the other.

We rehomed our Cinnamon into the dwarf lionfish tank. It was too hard to clean the 265 gallon and avoid her attach simultaneously! Plus, the other clown was almost missing all his fins by that time. It's been almost 6 months, and he almost has grown them all back.

Ryan Espinoza · Feb 9, 2017

taintstick said:
This guy here, out of nowhere after having him for over a year, made my tank cloudy for a week straight. Before that, I got a mini school of bright Anthias and he killed stressed and killed each one... after the cloudiness, I had it, and had to catch the sucker!

That's right, free .99 fish catcher! Hah
But then, by the time I got him out, he taught my blue damsel how to make the tank ugly. So he started doing the same exact thing!! Luckily, Aquafina came to my rescue!

Now, I decided to stay with just my Mandarine Goby and another damsel, just cause he hasn't made me mad yet haha.

I hope my neon dottyback doesn't do that. I have him in a passive tank. Fingers crossed.