Top Ten... Cutest Little Creature Added To Your Tank Only To Have It Turn Into A Homicidal Killer The Moment It Touched Water...

10) It was my first tank. A blue-ribbon eel was the first to go in, after a few damsels. I was brand new to the hobby and all my information was coming from the geniuses at {my local fish store}, who told me the eel wouldn’t bother any fish. So, I added two tangs and two A. perculas. In a matter of a week, the eel ate every single fish in the tank. Two days later, I came home to find my cat playing with what looked to be a large black shoe string. Turns out the eel, after eating everything in my tank, jumped from the smallest and only hole in the back of the canopy, fell to the ground, only to be mangled by my cat. I guess you could say its the food chain at its finest...
Jared fed of Fresno, CA

9) I always wanted a cute little Watchman goby for my tank. I finally picked up a nice tiny one at my local fish stores and got him settled in the tank. Soon, he was pecking away at the only SPS frags I have (which were given as a gift by a fellow reefer to help get me started), slowly forcing all the polyps into hiding. Well, turns out the LFS had the goby misidentified... it's a Clown Goby, known to peck at SPS. I never would have thought my happy little baby "watchman" was going to be the one to attack my SPS! He's too quick to trap, too! Editor’s note: You can siphon him right out of the coral with some 1” tubing.
joebecker of Thornton, CO

8) The stupid Pom Pom crab that I added to my nano tank decided to select one soft coral at a time, to pluck and carry around the tank until it died. First the Xenia, then the mushrooms, and now the zoanthids. Here's proof: Caught red-handed!
nauticac4 of Greenville, NC

7) One day I gave my girlfriend a chance to pick out a new fish for my reef tank… a Purple Pseudochromis. Within minutes of releasing the little guy he started harassing all the fish. Within a few days all the fish were dead. My girlfriend says, "It’s ok for him to have the whole tank to himself." Next came a few fruitless nights of trying to capture the little guy. And THEN the fish became paranoid and started digging caves under the rock work. One day he dug a little to deep and a rock slide happened. RIP little Purple Devil!!
kingfish83 of Maricopa, AZ

6) When I was new to the hobby, I had a 55-gallon tank with 2 Gold-Bar gobies, 1 flame hawk, 1 domino damsel and a blue damsel. Everything was nice enough until I saw the prettiest fish ever! I should have looked up the social skills attributed to a Harlequin Tusk Wrasse before I put him in the tank, because about 25 minutes later... all I had was the wrasse and a billion little pieces of other fish!
UH_OH_5_OH of Somewhere in IL

5) Around 1990 a local fish store started getting baby fish in on a regular basis. After having success with a 3/4" Blue angel, I got 2 blue Hippo tangs (1/2" each), for my "baby fish grow out tank". Long story short... my twin brother thought it would be cool to surprise me with a baby Panther grouper. When I got home he showed me the new little fish, and the Tangs were nowhere to be seen. After looking everywhere, even on the floor, I looked up to see the Grouper eat the Angel.
Sabalough of Canton, OH

4) A Longnose Butterfly fish began devouring all my precious featherdusters within seconds of being introduced to my 29g. 45 minutes of trying to catch him in that tiny space, which was merely 30’ x 12” wide, and one hour of arguing with the LFS owner about why he should have known better than to sell it to me after I’d taken the time to tell him about all my cherished livestock in the first place! He had the nerve to tell me “We don’t rent fish here!” It was all downhill after that incident, trust-wise.
melev of Ft Worth, TX

3) When I added my pair of clownfish, they were docile, cute, and would eat from my hand. I guess I have taught them that my flesh is now food. Because, now, both love to bite my hand or arm when I am doing any tank work. I have to have my fiancé keep them at bay with a pair of tongs so that I am not bitten and accidentally jerk my arm into the searing hot metal halide glass shield trying to avoid them.
Poorcollegereef of Clemson, SC

2) I added a little neon green Bubble Tip Anemone to my tank and within a week it had tripled in size. All of the sudden, I was missing three Anthias and a 4" Copperbanded butterfly. The Bubble Tip kept moving around until it got the last Anthias eaten…I got a picture of that one.
Reefdiver72 of Lancaster, OH

1) I bought a little Panther grouper. It was just too cute to pass up with its Dalmatian markings, big puppy dog eyes and clownfish wiggle. He/she was only about 1.5" long so I put it in a tank with some Catalina gobies that were about 1.25" thinking they would be fine. A couple days later…no gobies and one fat Panther grouper.
Psteeleb of Southlake, TX

Reefkeeping's next Top Ten for August: Top 10 Reef Related Acronyms That Don't Exist, But Should... Our thanks go out to 64Ivy for suggesting the next topic!

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