Aggressive fish you've had to remove...

[mcbaes72]

Maybe Damsels are labeled "beginner fish" because they're inexpensive and quite hardy. But yeah, LFS should tell those just getting into the hobby about their aggressive behavior, too.

Anyway, had to remove my Maroon Clown last night and banish her to sump prison. I finally found out that it was the MC (not my hermit crabs who I initially thought) that was attacking and eating the legs of my Sand-sifting Starfish. Three of its legs are half-eaten and the other two are damaged as well. I hope it survives and recovers somehow. Only had her for a few months since last Aug, started out docile and was even hand-feeding her. Never attacked me, but geez...when she picked up the starfish and shook it 'til it dropped, I knew it was time for her to go.

 

[shaunt]

How long should you wait before you let the aggression towards a new fish settle down? Its been two days so far and my kole tang is getting harrassed by a cream angel.

 

[mmm67]

I had problems with the hippo tang it kicked the crap out of my other fish

 

[camlov2]

bi-color dottyback. I couldn't catch him, it wasn't until he jumped into the back of the biocube that I could get him out.

 

[langtudatinh01]

after remove all of my rocks and corals. i had removed the sixline wrasse and traded for a chromis. the fish was good for the first 6 months. then it turned into a devil that will not leave my clownfish alone. the clowns were so afraid of him lately that one jumped into the overflow box today. i had enough of the fish so......now, the chromis and clowns are all happy and swimming together.

 

[oct2274]

Misbar clowns. They were fine till they started spawning, then got aggressive towards many fish in the tank. Put them in the sump for a few months were they continued to spawn and feed the tank. My roommate felt sorry for them in the sump so I finally moved them back to the display tank. They must have learned their lesson because they never bothered anyone after that!

Here they are the first time they spawned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chems3gfIdY

 

[DaVinci]

Hardwicke's Wrasse. What a pain!

 

[slumlord]

My coral beauty has decided he's not a fan of my lunar wrasse.

 

[pbmatthews]

This is a great thread. I had to tear down my whole 125g tank to get two tomatoes that attacked me every time I got near the tank. Unfortunately I didn't take out the three stripe damsel at the time and am not regretting it. He has killed four fish so far; a powder blue, false perc, blonde naso and a purple firefish.

I can't seem to catch him, he is too smart and quick. I can catch everything but him. Any suggestions...........other than another tear down???!!!

 

[solitude127]

I wish I could catch my Six Line. He's one mean SOB.

 

[mcbaes72]

This is a great thread. I had to tear down my whole 125g tank to get two tomatoes that attacked me every time I got near the tank. Unfortunately I didn't take out the three stripe damsel at the time and am not regretting it. He has killed four fish so far; a powder blue, false perc, blonde naso and a purple firefish.

I can't seem to catch him, he is too smart and quick. I can catch everything but him. Any suggestions...........other than another tear down???!!!

How I caught my mean Sohal Tang (last year) was by holding an algae sheet at the top of the water with the net underneath. It took only a few tries to get him since he loved the algae. But in your case, maybe try a frozen cube of brine/mysis shrimp, that'd be hard to resist.

 

[Idle Moor]

Angel from Hell. My lemonpeel has gone apesh-- crazy on the three royal grammas I put in two days ago. They are pretty much all missing their tails now and I'm still trying to trap the angel out. I don't like it. No sir, not one bit. He was fine with grammas I'd had in there previously.

 

[Idle Moor]

Hahahahahaha. Got him. He's trapped behind egg crate in a corner of the tank. Smarter than the average fish (barely). Now what?

I figure I'll let him cool his "heels" for a couple weeks in piscine prison until he loses his territory and social standing ("he wears the cone of shame!"), and the grammas grow their tails back and learn their way around. I'll observe his behavior when the grammas come into his line of sight to see if he's still out for blood. If I let him out and he goes ballistic again I'm not sure I'll be able to trap him using the same method.

The grammas were peeking out and moving around a bit less than 20 min after the perp was behind bars. The Navarchus was showing a little aggression, but more of a show me some respect nature rather than I want to kill you now type of behavior.

 

[Uncle Salty 05]

V-tail grouper.
Meanest SOB I ever had, and as fast as lightning.

 

[maroun.c]

Never had to remove any fish luckily so far.
A friend of mine had to remove:
4 Hyppo tangs as they started to munch on his SPS.
Powder blue also mumched heavily on some LPs
Doctor wrass after one year+ in the tank started hitting on clams all of a sudden.

another friend also removed a couple of hyppos after they hit on SPS
and a powder blue hitting on SPS which was the first time.

 

[ritter6788]

Flame angel and blue hippo chewing on my open brains, sixline wrasse tortured my mandarin, 2 three stripe damsels tortured everything.

 

[hktoez]

+1 sixline wrasse. It picks on the only fish smaller than itself in my tank, my firefish.

 

[reelfishy]

Herald's Angel... Aggression was towards corals mostly though.

 

[psychostieg]

sohol Tang!!!!! I have seen mean fish, but this one takes the cake!! It grew from 3" long and barely eating when I got'em...... Now..... Only 5 months later (yeh..5)... It is 8 inches long and thicker than the 3/4" acrylic that my tank is made of. And I am here to to tell you..... That sohol is the single meanest fish I have ever witnessed!!! It is not only mean, but likes to slice things with it's spine at nearly the speed of light!...... Please... Before buying this fish, go th the zoo and see how massive these tangs grow.... Not to mention most all of the saltwater specimens we all keep..... Once I saw how huge and mean they become in nature, I developed a different kind of respect when considering what to add to my tank.... In case you all are wondering.... It is the Columbus Zoo... If given the oportunity, go see the massive artificial reef and see all of these fish we've all kept in our home aquaria...... I was shocked to see what mammoth potential these fish have waiting inside them..... Just waiting to out grow and out eat whatever physically possible!! I saw a sailfin tang who had at least 1.5-2 inches of space between it's eyes.... That is one thick fish!!.... I am just mentioning this because I spent nearly 20 years in the hobby before ever considering this. Our retailers are wonderful at getting us to know the beauty of the fish..... But there is a deficiency when it comes to knowing and seeing these creatures as wild animals.... Every time you have to boot one out of your tank, it's a reminder that we are keeping wild animals and not little pet store animals in our tanks. I'm not trying to get down on everyone.. Just attempting to share what I felt when I went to the zoo and saw my "pets" in somethn close to their natural habitat........ Definitely a worthwhile experience in my opinion.

 

[NoobtoSalt]

Ok so this is no tang but I had to grab a purple psuedochromis out of my sons 29 gallon biocube last night. I added two false percs to it last night and the psuedochromis kept attacking them the whole time. It didn't take long to catch and it's now in my 75 gallon main tank. I should have thought about droping it in the sump but oh well..lol

Within a few mins of it being in the bigger tank it was being picked on by my bi-color anthias. I haven't seen the fish all day today so who knows what's going to happen. Little fish means tearing the whole tank apart and that's just not going to happen.