Fish or Inverts That You Would Never Have Again?

[Haggisman14]

Thin stripe hermit crabs. Look cool and peaceful when they're small, but those suckers get big quick, and are aggressive. I"ve seen my biggest once chow down on some Acans and Zoas for no reason. It seems that if you keep them fed (I try and feed LRS Reef Frenzy at least once a week) it keeps him at bay. Biggest problem is my boys love seeing them in the tank...ugh!

Never again!

 

[Captain Quint]

I'll never own an Aiptasia Eating Filefish again. I had a beautiful Gold Striped Maroon that had outlined blue around the gold. Long story short, I witnessed the filefish attack her and took a huge bite out of her side. I was able to put her in a hospital tank and got her healed up, but she was never the same.

 

[Rcpilot]

Thin stripe hermit crabs. Look cool and peaceful when they're small, but those suckers get big quick, and are aggressive. I"ve seen my biggest once chow down on some Acans and Zoas for no reason. It seems that if you keep them fed (I try and feed LRS Reef Frenzy at least once a week) it keeps him at bay. Biggest problem is my boys love seeing them in the tank...ugh!

Never again!

I'm probably crazy, but I'd really like to have a tank with ZERO crabs. I hate the little buggers.... all of 'em.

If I do some more reading, I'll bet there's more than a few people who have compiled a CUC that will keep the tank clean without crabs of any kind.

 

[Rcpilot]

I'll never own an Aiptasia Eating Filefish again. I had a beautiful Gold Striped Maroon that had outlined blue around the gold. Long story short, I witnessed the filefish attack her and took a huge bite out of her side. I was able to put her in a hospital tank and got her healed up, but she was never the same.

Ouch! So sorry that happened to your clown.

Gives me more motivation .... all the more reason to make sure all the live or dry rock gets cleaned, treated, cycled, cured and inspected for pests BEFORE it goes into my DT. That goes for new corals and fish/inverts as welll. QT tanks aren't always easy or convenient to have around, but I'll always have one.

 

[Mr. Limpid]

Second that! They were so cool looking, grew really nicely and spawned regularly. Still they were acan murders. Broke my hearth to return them. Got kuekenthali shrimp now. Eat aptaisia aswell and no problems with coral yet.

I third peppermint shrimp at my mushrooms, I saw them drag it behind a rock. I wish I had them now, my trigger would love to meet them.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Any mithrax crab that looks big. Got a big one and small one. Big one was about the size of a silver dollar. So pretty dang big. Small one is the size of a quarter. Big guy grabbed my GSP frag (golf ball size) with a claw and tried to drag it back to his cave to eat. Did the same thing with a nassarius snail. Banished him to the sump for a week and then took him back to the LFS

Second would be a Blue Spotted Toby Puffer (probably goes for the Valentini as well). Beautiful fish with a fantastic personality. Love to watch it...until it started eating my acans. Figured, no biggie, I just won't keep acans anymore, the fish is worth it. Then it went after my zoas and blastos. Took him out and traded him in to the LFS.

 

[LadAShark]

Hermit crabs
Nassarius snails (if I have a choice, I’ll go conch any day)
Triggerfish in general (though I have two)
Dwarf angels
Pistol shrimp
Crabs in general actually, horseshoe crab excluded, as it is not a crab, but it is a pretty cute and pretty effective sand stirrer (don’t shoot me for this one).
Groupers and lionfish: too much risk to have it potentially gulp down a tankmate.
Clownfish: cute as heck, unless or maybe until they start to get aggressive. Much more aggressive than their size would imply.
Green spotted puffers: I’ve had these guys demolish a toadstool despite in theory the toadstool being unpalatable and also despite being well fed.

 

[Britott]

Yellow box fish, wiped out my tank and it nearly made me quit the hobby, was so heartbroken

 

[Grsfish]

Butterfly fish. Foxface. (Picks on corals). Urchins. (Good at algae removal but move corals around too much)

 

[TheKyle]

Hermit crabs
Nassarius snails (if I have a choice, I’ll go conch any day)...

Could you elaborate on the issues with Nassarius snails? Haven’t heard a lot of complaints and was thinking about adding some of these.

 

[TheKyle]

For me it’s lubbocks wrasse. Was fine until it gained some size. Now it terrorizes my solar wrasse to the point it will only come out at night to hunt pods and my McCoskers wrasse is missing and presumed dead. Oddly it gets along fine with the blue sided fairy wrasse which looks most similar.

 

[Humblefish]

Flameback Angel. Beautiful fish, but mean as hell. And nipped at corals too! After I rehomed him, I was told he went on a killing spree.

 

[JaaxReef]

Yellow Candy Hogfish. He was fine with all my fish except my red line wrasse. Took three days in the tank until he decided he owned the place put a bullseye on him and kicked the hell out of him. Literally bit chunks out of my wrasse and drew blood. I was able to catch it and get rid of it but it was too late for my wrasse... Never again. [emoji17]

 

[Rcpilot]

Yellow Candy Hogfish. He was fine with all my fish except my red line wrasse. Took three days in the tank until he decided he owned the place put a bullseye on him and kicked the hell out of him. Literally bit chunks out of my wrasse and drew blood. I was able to catch it and get rid of it but it was too late for my wrasse... Never again. [emoji17]

WOW - Murder on Jaax Reef! That had to be irritating.

 

[lion king]

I would never do an angler again; these guys have an awfully high mortality rate. Even when cared for diligently they don't live that long in captivity. while I did enjoy the ones I've had, there's definitely more work that goes into them, than the reward you get out of them. Most lfs kill them mostly right away, then the smart ones don't bring them in anymore. Most people get bored with them and stop caring for them. Really for the most part, people don't or won't set up a proper environment and care for them properly. These are fish that should be left in the ocean, get a silicone model and stick it in the bottom of the tank, most people will never know the difference.

 

[Reefpuck]

Gonna reiterate what's already been mentioned... flame angel is my biggest regret. Nips at sps (despite being well fed), but more importantly beats up half the fish in my tank.

Beautiful fish but not worth it imo. Just added a red dragonet goby and will be adding some sort of wrasse in the near future... to get my red fish fix.

 

[LadAShark]

Could you elaborate on the issues with Nassarius snails? Haven’t heard a lot of complaints and was thinking about adding some of these.

They’re just not as active as conches from what I have seen. And conches partially fulfill the same purpose and are more well guarded vs hermit crabs and tank inhabitants.

They’re not a bad choice, but they’re not a great choice.

 

[KJAG]

Sixlines, Peppermint Shrimp

 

[LMDAVE]

Pistol shrimp 3".
Not a Randalls (they are supposed to be wonderful), but never again my problem.

My tank has been running for 7 months and I have a pistol shrimp in there that I have never seen, not even a glimpse (hitchhiker from a piece of live rock). Only his single snap several times a day. Just curious, what happened with yours that made it a pest? I don't seem to have any problem with mine, but I dont have a clue how big he is.

 

[KJAG]

In the remote past, 15 years ago, I have a Sixline pair and Mandarin pair in a 420. All four fishes (Sixline and Mandarin) coexisted for at least 1 year, and were spawning regularly in my tank. One day the Sixline pair attacked the female Mandarin. The attack last about 15 second and happened right in front of my eyes. Over so quickly that I cannot do anything about it. The wrasse took one pass each, one go for the R eye and the other one go for the L eye of the female Mandarin. After that they completely ignored the blinded Mandarin, and her mate. She starved and become emaciated. There was no hope of recovery, I euthanized her after 2 weeks. I was lucky enough to caught the two Sixline and traded them in for another female Mandarin.

It is all instinct, but it seem to be instinct from Satan-Spawned fish for me. I vowed never put another Sixline wrasse into my tank again, even for free.

I’ll raise you a notch and say you couldn’t pay me to ever put one in a tank again.