Aggressive fish you've had to remove...

[mcbaes72]

After doing a quick search, thought I'd do a thread to see the types of fish we're had to remove from our display tanks. I think it would not only be interesting to list the species of fish, but to hear stories of their aggressiveness and hope others can learn from not making the same mistakes.

To start, I just removed my Sohal Tang over the weekend. Didn't take long to catch him, baited him w/ algae sheets at the surface and caught him on my third try. Anyway, had the Sohal for about three months and he did nothing but harass, chase and occasionally nip at my other fish. I have a Hippo Tang and a Domino that's a little bit bigger (maybe an inch or two), but he became dominant and pretty much a jerk after the first two days in the tank (my tank was a year old when he was first added). The Sohal hasn't caused any serious damage to any of my other fish, luckily. When I returned him, my LFS told me that he recently got another Sohal Tang back from a customer because it bit nearly all of the fins off of another fish.

Anyway, my tank is so much more peaceful and enjoyable to look at. Other than the rare chase from my now dominant Hippo Tang towards other fish or my Domino and BT Trigger challenging each other, the tankmates seem to be less stressed and swimming the whole area of the tank more often.

What fish have you had to remove for aggressiveness? Was any other fish hurt or worse? Feel free to share your stories.

 

[noahm]

neon dottyback. fine with who is already there, but will pick apart anything new that isn't bigger and meaner. Killed my watchman goby. He is gone as soon as I catch him.

 

[falconut]

Purple Pseudo. It was about 5 years ago, but he was the meanest fish I've ever had. He ripped apart the firefish in a few hours. It's tail was ripped up so bad that it died the next day. He then turned to my Blue Devil Damsels, so out he went. The Damsels eventually went too, but they were not nearly as aggressive as he was. Beware those Pseudos. Small but do pack a punch.

 

[Chi6488]

Family went camping ft desoto with tampa bay right behind trailer. Son caught two small pinfish and I did not have the heart to tell him he could not keep it. Well the tripled in size and were mean to other fish.

Too smart for me to use the net. I had to buy small little hooks and bait with shrimp. Finally I was able to hook them and sent them to the trash.

 

[TeePee]

I had to remove a blue neon goby believe it or not. He wasn't aggresive to other fish, but he wreaked havoc with my 7" derasa clam. He was picking at the clam's mantle constantly. It got to the point where the clam was closed more than he was open in an effort to ward off the attacks! Had to rip my whole tank apart, but it was well worth it. I've had that clam for years and just didn't want to lose him.

 

[Shane Hoffman]

I had a coral beauty that was a model citizen for 6 months.....then he lost it one day and fought anything that came to his half of the aquarium....Thats right he claimed 1/2 of a 150 gallon tank all to himself....would attack with great aggression anything that came over there...and kill anything new added. I removed him ...that is of course after removing 150lbs of rock to get to him.

 

[mdntrdr]

Tomto clown

Now that he's out maroon clown has become resident jerk.

He's proving much harder to catch, but I'll get him!

 

[billdogg]

where do i start???? damsels? yup royal gramma? yup purple pseudo? yup green brittle star? yup the list goes on and on

 

[Patroklos]

Green Brittle Star? What was it aggressive too?

 

[Eric the half-bee]

Niger trigger. He harrased and caused the demise of 4 other triggers over a 3 month period.

 

[olemiss reb]

lunar wrasse, this fish was the devils spawn. Easy to catch though.

 

[Sk8r]

Red flasher wrasse: killed a rainford goby.
Tiger shrimp (companion shrimp to yellow watchman goby): killed 2 firefish, the yellow watchman, and a scissortail goby.

 

[danceswithfish]

blue damsel. Pure evil lol

 

[Luck_of_the_Dra]

I had a mystery wrasse that decided that it liked shrimp... Pistol and large blood shrimp.

 

[Eric45]

I've got a flame angel that has decided he really likes the two open brains I had. One is gone and the other is on its way. He's history soon.

 

[fasteddie99]

Green Brittle Star? What was it aggressive too?

Yup! I had a "green" brittle star for a week. It ate both of my cleaner shrimp and was hard on corals when he crawled over them. Took him right back.

As far as fish goes I removed a Domino Damsel because he was a real D-bag. He constantly harrassed all other tank inhabitents and thus caused them to stay hidden in the LR. Once he was removed they all started staying out again. They all ate in peace for once.

BTW, I did like most others had to do...Took out ALL the live rock until I finally caught him. :mad2:

 

[david pinder]

six line wrasse killed everything I added that wasnt an inch longer than him, He harrassed fish 4 times his size. Took me months to get him out of my 350, he didnt last a day in the 600, he should have behaved where he was, now hes the lunch.

 

[kyrin01]

not technically a fish, but i had a rather large arrow crab that stopped eating bristle worms and started killing my Anthias and Chromis. Moved him to his own 10g.

 

[KbauerCTU]

Niger trigger. He harrased and caused the demise of 4 other triggers over a 3 month period.

Similar experience...Killed my puffer fish back when I was doing a fish only tank.

Ripped him out and took him to the LFS. :fish1:

 

[Captain]

Lunar wrasse my 240 wasn't big enuf for him.