meanest fish I ever knew...

[Sk8r]

Now some would think this would be sharks...lions...oh my!

I've kept a piranha...a shy and retiring fish by comparison.

But the meanest fish I ever tried to deal with was a dottyback. He attacked every fish I owned, attacked me, hid like a bandit, and was one of the hardest fish I've ever had to get out of my tank.

Runner-up: one of those black damsels with the electric blue V-stripe. Ran everything ragged. It certainly made the chromis stay in school.

Second runner-up: a female perc clown. I moved her anemone and for the next three years she bit my hand every time I tried to work in the tank. Repeatedly...until I sold her and her mate to a breeder. That fish could carry a grudge like nobody's business.

Seems to me it would be amusing to hear other people's grudge matches...

 

[Bdimas]

I have a false perc and it is VERY aggressive. It bites me repeatedly when my hands are in my tank. It even holds on and shakes.
One day my wife proped up a fallen coral and when she pulled her hand out of the water the false perc jumped out and tried to bite her but landed on the floor instead. Im guessing it flew a couple feet! But stupid me told her to put him back in the tank instead of putting him in the sump.

 

[Sk8r]

Grin. Now THAT is one onery fish!

My piranha used to cower at the other end of the tank when I adjusted the filter.

Clowns just don't take no guff.

 

[SDguy]

Hey Sk8r, just curious...what species of pseudo?

 

[Sk8r]

As I recall---and this is 10 years ago---it was yellow. How's that for an id?
When I heard they were related to the wolf eel, I was by no means surprised.

 

[Bebo77]

damsels.. i had 3 in my old 60 gallon.. the bit me every time i put my tank in the tank...

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

I have an Arc eye Hawkfish [actually in a tank at work right now until I get my 75 ready] He never bit me, but he terrorized my Damsel and pretty much ruled the tank...I want him to be the last one in my 75, hope he will behave a little better

 

[ulua56]

Desjardini Sailfin Tang, thinks he rules the world !!!!!!!!:uzi:

 

[maddyfish]

I have a 6 1/2" black unidentified damsel. It bites me, it bites and moves rocks, it bites heaters, and it bites filters. And he has pretty big, and very sharp teeth. He has drawn blood on several occasions. He is currently banished to a 20 long tank with no rock, or decorations.

 

[cardgenius]

I would have to go with my false perc also. She does a tailwhip and headbutts me everytime I put my hand in.

The first time she draws blood, she's gone!!!!

 

[Sk8r]

Do you realize, by count, we have just about voted innocent lil' Nemo the meanest fish in the ocean?

 

[Ironsheikh]

black domino damsels & hawaiian snowflakes are very mean fish,
piranahs are "thug fish" only tough when they are in gangs, Ive read online almost all sites agree THE MEANEST fishes are Queen Trigger and Pseudochromis Steeni (red head and fangs w/ black body). The dotty backs basslets book shows one sticking its fangs out at the camera man right before it attacks him
Ive seen on tv that Bull Sharks have the most testosterone of any animal (or shark cant remember)on the planet--ever seen the clip on animal planet when they chased one w/ a boat then it got mad and turned around and it attacked for 1 minute straight.

 

[Manderin]

omg r u kidding me, i just had a velvet blue damsel and a dottyback , and i had to sell them bot back to the store!, they are so vicious with the other fish, I HATE them, well maybe just the one i had because he wouldn't let my clowns get any food, and cause he bit me

 

[Frostyeel]

I had an orchid dottyback in my 20g that beat up the damsels in the tank, so much that my dad just threw it in the 180g. It is doing fine now but isn't so tough when there's a blue line trigger and klunzinger's wrasse patrolling the water.

 

[ACBlinky]

The LFS where I used to work had an undulated trigger around 8-9" long. She was housed in a 110g FOWLR display and terrorized anything they tried to keep in the same tank - big lionfish, a dragon eel, BIG damsels, a trigger... eventually she was banished to the sump of a multi-tank system, and had about 100g to herself until she was sold. Feeding her was an adventure - she'd try to splash anyone who came into the back room while simultaneously biting them. She was gorgeous, but easily one of the meanest fish I've known.

 

[witfull]

Sohal Tang~

Serial killer, even made me bleed on several occations.

 

[Ironsheikh]

frosty --you have a pic of klunzinger's wrasse ? I was thinking about getting one

 

[whatcaneyedo]

My tomato clown bites my volitan lionfish's fins and other extremities. The lionfish tries to eat him and he bites right back before darting into the anemone. It bites me when my hand is too near the anemone. It bites chucks out of pumping xenia, waving hand coral, and a pink leather coral I have as well.

 

[sneeyatch]

along with the dottybacks, i think that black striped yellow chromis is the nastiest thing ever. they sell them in damsle tanks and they look really cool. they turn an ugly doo doo brown, grow devil horns, fangs, etc and attack anything.

 

[Kahuna Tuna]

There are two fish that stand out and they were both triggers. The first was an undulated and this was just a mad dog fish. He would snap at anything that went into his tank, killed several fish, other triggers. He was absolutely the most aggro fish I have ever encountered. Somebody eventually bought him and I hope they were looking for the meanest fish ever as their pet.

The other was a queen trigger that was both hostile and huge. It was fine with tankmates when it was small but the larger it got the larger the attitude became and pretty soon this fish was in a very large tank by itself.