I have a 16 year old, pea sized scar on my hand from when I worked in my LFS. We had a clown trigger that nobody bought and it grew to despise me more with each day that passed. Eventually it succeeded in removing a reasonable sized chunk from the top of my knuckle. I'm pretty sure it spent all of its time plotting how to dispose of the idiot that kept putting his hand in the tank 🤣 keep up the good work. Every weekend starts with reef dork 👍
Same experience here! The fish hung on my finger and wouldn't let go before it was way over the surface of the water😮 I can still remember the initial shock when it got hold of me😅
@@christerpedersen8920 I remember the shock of realising it had properly clamped on. It always went for a nip which got more aggressive with time but when it actually got hold it shook and pulled back whilst I simultaneously sh*# myself and jerked back my hand. It actually spat a bit of fleshy skin back out as if to say "have some of that" 🤣
chromis aren't really meant to be schooling fish, only young ones shoal and adults prefer to be left alone in their own territories, single chromis usually tend to do very well on their own and are a lovely active fish that carefreely flies through all levels of the tank flashing their colours
Very true! In the wild, I notice each fish in a chromis colony usually do their own thing in the water column. The only time they’re ever synchronized is when they’re darting away into a coral head when a predator is near.
Hello Reef Dork, awesome video. We all can share an experience myself included when we impulse buy a fish and regret it later. Love your work, love the tank, and keep up the great work.
Never had an issue with green chromis. I have a school of 15 in my 450G. Had them for about a year now. Feed frozen once a day and nori 3 times a day. They do eat nori with the tangs.
😂 love the clown trigger at the end. One of my favourite fish. But I also like my clean up crew so I don't have one. Love your open and honest videos 👍🏻
In my experience Blue Velvet Damsels are the most aggressive fish I've owned. I bought one specifically to fight my Clarkii Clownfish that wouldnt stop bullying my 7 inch long arothron puffer, foot and a half Snowflake Eel, and 6 inch Niger Triggerfish. Luckily they only bullied each other and left everyone else alone afterwards
I've never regretted buying 8" harlequin tusk fish and a 4"clown triggerfish, I actually had them living together along with a powder blue tang and mandarin fish and collared butterflyfish, all was doing fabulous,
Recently picked up an Avast Marine Plank autofeeder, and while I don't have any fish that need to be fed on a super frequent basis like chromis or anthias, I can see it being an absolutely must-have piece of kit if you do have those kinds of fish. I have mine set up to drop the food right into my return pump which in turn shoots it all over the tank. Works like a charm, and can feed anything dry (flake, pellet, freeze-dry, or powder). Only fish I regret getting was a melanurus wrasse. Not because he wasn't a gorgeous fish or anything, but because my yellow coris wrasse bullied him relentlessly after introduction to the point of injury. I had read of people successfully keeping both so I hoped that would be the case with me, but wasn't to be and I got the melanurus out and returned quick as I could.
I think you should try chalk basslets as a good shoaling fish. They’re super peaceful. I added 2 and I wish I added more. They a shoal most of the time. Also Zebra Bar gobies are a really good peaceful shoaling fish!
My list would be any blotch anthias (too much feeding), Achilles tang (picky eater, only ate frozen algae), copperband butterfly (picked on my scoly), yasha goby (never came out) and diamond goby (dump sand all over)
Bi-color dwarf angel, I've had a clown Trigger that ate through cables but the bi-color hands down was the most agressive killer fish I've ever seen. It was absolutely merciless didn't care the size it would punch itself into the larger fish untill they bruised to death or nip smaller ones to pieces. I've kept pirhanas too but this was something else. Never again!
I have both a clown trigger and a harlequin tusk in my mixed reef (90% soft corals). They were both added last. The tusk is Indonesian and the trigger was raised from a 1” baby so shows much less aggression than if a larger specimen taken off the reef.
I have many I regret but on a brighter side the two I absolutely love are my sand sifting Goby, and my pajama cardinals. Probably the most peaceful and enjoyable fish I've ever owned. Although the Cardinals do require a bit more care when feeding they are still worth the slight inconvenience.
I think mine is probably my convict tang, it was fine for 3 yrs then just went mental, picking on my yellow tang relentlessly. I removed it, 18 months later they met again in my 3000 liter 13ft long tank, guess what, it went straight back to chasing the same yellow tang, ignored the other three! As the tank was big enough I just left them to get on with it, finally after a few months he seems to have calm down and it gives me a small smile when my sohal gives that convict a little slap :)
From my experience with Chromis, a great majority of them have uronema which is bacteria that eats fish from the inside-out and its quite difficult to get rid of in a display tank since it doesn’t have a fallow period. Not worth the risk despite their nice colors.
I’ve found that my chromis are pretty good in a group. I’ve had 4 for about 6 months, and they’re “model citizens”. My gramma makes them fear enough to not bully each other. I do also feed twice or thrice a day.
I've so far manage to avoid clownfish, anthias and blue green chromis (which I agree are stunning). I got the black bar chromis instead and LOVE them (but they don't shoal). I love my purple tang but lets see what happens when I introduce the powder blue hybrid I have in QT 😬
careful... Tangs DO NOT like tangs. Your best bet is to remove the purple tang for a month or so and readd them together with a 3rd tang. Even with the worst case scenario your tang wont have dominance in the tank so it wont fight to the death. The other tang wont threaten the purple, and even if they do get pissy, adding another tang will spread the aggression a little thinner. Just something to think about!
I got into this hobby wanting a clown trigger...still haven't got one. It would break my heart to see my jawfish go down like that. I've wanted Anthias for a while but now I'm thinking twice. Im thinking for movement and color contrast might be best off with a bunch of damsels. If they off each other at $5 a fish it's not the end of the world, like similarly aggressive freshwater cichlids, if you get enough of them they kind of don't bully each other as much as they do when they're kept in relatively small numbers. Idk. I got 55 gallons to work with and I'm looking for a good centerpiece species. I have 3 damsels, 2 clowns, 1 yellow eye kole tang, 1 melanarus wrasse, 1 royal gramma, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 spotted mandarin, and 3 pajama cardinals. So not a ton of room but if threw a half dozen different damsels in there it might be too much...
It's not a saltwater fish but my No.1 goes to Kribs. Those monsters are genuinely psychos. For saltwater... I don't have a reget buy yet for now. Maybe my Emerald Crab might go insane, since it's in a Macroalgae tank, yet it never touches them... It might start doing that though.
Lemon damsel. He's the only fish I have and he is so territorial. Whenever I do maintenance, he attacks my hand and arm. One time he got me between my fingers, and actually drew blood. He even goes after my cleaner shrimp. He is such a butt
I will only suggest someone buy “schooling” chromis if they have a reasonably sized aquarium and about 5 of them in a say 125 to disperse aggression and territory when they grew bigger. As adult they are not schooling fish and have their own territory
Cromis...bougt a few...a few times...but i have 3 and all newbies are killed... Powder bleu, died ...ick and infection spread. Copperband ,1st died fast , 2nd lived until holliday time ..got killed because a pieces of plastic came in the water from livefood given by the person taking care of my tank. 3rd died after 8 months....i love them but im done buying them 🙄
My lovely hawk fish :/ he loves to chomp on my cuc from time to time. He will always have a place in the tank until he moves on :) then I’ll be able to have crabs and shrimp again
To me fish is nothing but trouble. Since i wanted a reef tank, i keep my fish to the minimum. I would keep the fish in a separate fish tank if i really desire them.
my regret is my designer clowns.. 🙄 savages, maul me. bully all my fish bar my Mandarin (he's like a stealth fish) 🤷♂️ swear they are the cause of the random deaths too
AWESOME VIDEO!! Can anyone help me?? I purchased a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp 5 days ago, and added them to my tank. I saw the goby swimming around for about a hour and that was it in the beginning. But here I am day 5 and I’ve not seen either one. Is this normal behaviour? None have jumped out of my tank at all as I check ten times a day :). Any help is MUCH appreciated as I was told these guys are chilled out/cool fish to watch. I don’t see anything at all dead in my tank either
@@ReefDork I’m choked man. My small pistol shrimp I just got on Sunday killed my lieutenant small tang and my royal gramma :(. My other small tang and 2 baby clown fish are hiding up in the back right hand corner of my tank now. Should I tear my whole tank down to some how find the pistol shrimp, or let it play out and leave it be? And by the way the yellow goby I bought with the shrimp hasn’t come out at all yet. I haven’t seen the shrimp either but I have heard a snapping noise last night and twice today. And now 2 fish are dead with a slice in the tangs belly. And a slice ontop of the royal grammas head
@@Scott-cy6zv I've never heard of a pistol shrimp doing that - post pictures of the dead fish on a forum and ask someone what they think might have happened
@@ReefDork yeah I was told by the store bud that by having the small pistol shrimp him and the yellow watchman would pair up and be a team. My last one dived outta the tank on me. I love the goby but in order to get it outta the tank I’d have to tear it all down. I feel like throwing in the towel. I was just getting ready to set up a new 75 gallon I bought next week but hesitant to do it now :(. I appreciate your knowledge and reply’s bud. Your channel is fabulous and I always look forward to your videos. Maybe you can do one on gobies and pistol shrimp lol
I have the same pair I haven't seen my pistol shrimp in about a year but what I do hear are him busting bubble bullet blast and seeing his molts every couple of weeks he's so big he's on his own no watchmen goby lol he was so small now not so much. He's in there he's just moving substrate doing what pistol shrimp do
My eibli has killed at least a dozen fish including stuff 5 times the size. My brain refused to even consider it was the eibli angel causing the problems for years. I don't regret, now I have a murder tank with a 15 year old sergeant major damsel and a clown tang.
Which fish do you regret the most and why?!
Those little spotted boxfish release deadly poison in the water if they get spooked. I lost an entire tank to those SOBs.
Porqupine pufferfish he took bites out my stonefish and chased everything that moved
Clownfish. Definitely clownfish. Meanest fish I've ever encountered.
My sixline wrasse killed 4 cleaner wrasses. Just caught him a couple of days ago and got a new cleaner wrasse. Everything good now 😊
Neon Dottyback. It tried to kill my clownfish.
I have a 16 year old, pea sized scar on my hand from when I worked in my LFS. We had a clown trigger that nobody bought and it grew to despise me more with each day that passed. Eventually it succeeded in removing a reasonable sized chunk from the top of my knuckle. I'm pretty sure it spent all of its time plotting how to dispose of the idiot that kept putting his hand in the tank 🤣 keep up the good work. Every weekend starts with reef dork 👍
Same experience here! The fish hung on my finger and wouldn't let go before it was way over the surface of the water😮 I can still remember the initial shock when it got hold of me😅
@@christerpedersen8920 I remember the shock of realising it had properly clamped on. It always went for a nip which got more aggressive with time but when it actually got hold it shook and pulled back whilst I simultaneously sh*# myself and jerked back my hand. It actually spat a bit of fleshy skin back out as if to say "have some of that" 🤣
@@mattflood4225 haha, had a good laugh reading this😂 The things you experience keeping fish, never imagined loosing bits of flesh to them😂
chromis aren't really meant to be schooling fish, only young ones shoal and adults prefer to be left alone in their own territories, single chromis usually tend to do very well on their own and are a lovely active fish that carefreely flies through all levels of the tank flashing their colours
Very true! In the wild, I notice each fish in a chromis colony usually do their own thing in the water column. The only time they’re ever synchronized is when they’re darting away into a coral head when a predator is near.
Hello Reef Dork, awesome video. We all can share an experience myself included when we impulse buy a fish and regret it later. Love your work, love the tank, and keep up the great work.
Never had an issue with green chromis. I have a school of 15 in my 450G. Had them for about a year now. Feed frozen once a day and nori 3 times a day. They do eat nori with the tangs.
😂 love the clown trigger at the end. One of my favourite fish. But I also like my clean up crew so I don't have one.
Love your open and honest videos 👍🏻
The clown triggerfish is my favourite of all since I first saw one for £64 in 1978 !
Wouldn’t dare add one to my reef tank of course
In my experience Blue Velvet Damsels are the most aggressive fish I've owned. I bought one specifically to fight my Clarkii Clownfish that wouldnt stop bullying my 7 inch long arothron puffer, foot and a half Snowflake Eel, and 6 inch Niger Triggerfish. Luckily they only bullied each other and left everyone else alone afterwards
I've never regretted buying 8" harlequin tusk fish and a 4"clown triggerfish, I actually had them living together along with a powder blue tang and mandarin fish and collared butterflyfish, all was doing fabulous,
The ending...clown triggerfish...🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏👏👏. More like a scene from "Cujo" LOL!
Recently picked up an Avast Marine Plank autofeeder, and while I don't have any fish that need to be fed on a super frequent basis like chromis or anthias, I can see it being an absolutely must-have piece of kit if you do have those kinds of fish. I have mine set up to drop the food right into my return pump which in turn shoots it all over the tank. Works like a charm, and can feed anything dry (flake, pellet, freeze-dry, or powder).
Only fish I regret getting was a melanurus wrasse. Not because he wasn't a gorgeous fish or anything, but because my yellow coris wrasse bullied him relentlessly after introduction to the point of injury. I had read of people successfully keeping both so I hoped that would be the case with me, but wasn't to be and I got the melanurus out and returned quick as I could.
I think you should try chalk basslets as a good shoaling fish. They’re super peaceful. I added 2 and I wish I added more. They a shoal most of the time. Also Zebra Bar gobies are a really good peaceful shoaling fish!
Yeah purple tangs are my favorite too. I think they look absolutely amazing (sorry you had to remove yours)
My list would be any blotch anthias (too much feeding), Achilles tang (picky eater, only ate frozen algae), copperband butterfly (picked on my scoly), yasha goby (never came out) and diamond goby (dump sand all over)
🤣Not laughing at you, laughing with you. Well done, honest, which benefits us all.
Bi-color dwarf angel, I've had a clown Trigger that ate through cables but the bi-color hands down was the most agressive killer fish I've ever seen. It was absolutely merciless didn't care the size it would punch itself into the larger fish untill they bruised to death or nip smaller ones to pieces. I've kept pirhanas too but this was something else. Never again!
I have both a clown trigger and a harlequin tusk in my mixed reef (90% soft corals). They were both added last. The tusk is Indonesian and the trigger was raised from a 1” baby so shows much less aggression than if a larger specimen taken off the reef.
I have many I regret but on a brighter side the two I absolutely love are my sand sifting Goby, and my pajama cardinals. Probably the most peaceful and enjoyable fish I've ever owned. Although the Cardinals do require a bit more care when feeding they are still worth the slight inconvenience.
Stunning video. Love the sence of humor and the great info provided. Keep doing the great videos :)
I think mine is probably my convict tang, it was fine for 3 yrs then just went mental, picking on my yellow tang relentlessly. I removed it, 18 months later they met again in my 3000 liter 13ft long tank, guess what, it went straight back to chasing the same yellow tang, ignored the other three! As the tank was big enough I just left them to get on with it, finally after a few months he seems to have calm down and it gives me a small smile when my sohal gives that convict a little slap :)
Been traveling for for too long! Glad to be back watching the videos, hope ya didnt miss me too much :P
Welcome back!
Clown triggers are one of the most docile easy going triggers
From my experience with Chromis, a great majority of them have uronema which is bacteria that eats fish from the inside-out and its quite difficult to get rid of in a display tank since it doesn’t have a fallow period. Not worth the risk despite their nice colors.
You forgot to mention damsels! Oh my god! These little fish have some amazing colors but talk about temper once they get old.😮 Good video.
I’ve found that my chromis are pretty good in a group. I’ve had 4 for about 6 months, and they’re “model citizens”. My gramma makes them fear enough to not bully each other. I do also feed twice or thrice a day.
I've so far manage to avoid clownfish, anthias and blue green chromis (which I agree are stunning). I got the black bar chromis instead and LOVE them (but they don't shoal).
I love my purple tang but lets see what happens when I introduce the powder blue hybrid I have in QT 😬
careful... Tangs DO NOT like tangs. Your best bet is to remove the purple tang for a month or so and readd them together with a 3rd tang. Even with the worst case scenario your tang wont have dominance in the tank so it wont fight to the death. The other tang wont threaten the purple, and even if they do get pissy, adding another tang will spread the aggression a little thinner. Just something to think about!
You are so on point about the bluegreen chromis LOL
if you want school fish that doesnt need lot of food and passive try cardinal fish, specially banggai cardinal and pajamas
I got into this hobby wanting a clown trigger...still haven't got one. It would break my heart to see my jawfish go down like that. I've wanted Anthias for a while but now I'm thinking twice. Im thinking for movement and color contrast might be best off with a bunch of damsels. If they off each other at $5 a fish it's not the end of the world, like similarly aggressive freshwater cichlids, if you get enough of them they kind of don't bully each other as much as they do when they're kept in relatively small numbers. Idk. I got 55 gallons to work with and I'm looking for a good centerpiece species. I have 3 damsels, 2 clowns, 1 yellow eye kole tang, 1 melanarus wrasse, 1 royal gramma, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 spotted mandarin, and 3 pajama cardinals. So not a ton of room but if threw a half dozen different damsels in there it might be too much...
great Vid... best ! I cried with laughter on a Friday night after a couple beers cheers!
😁
The end 🤣🤣🤣
Great video Alex! 😀👍👍
Interesting, my purple tang gets along with everyone in the aquarium so as always results may vary.
Purple tangs behavior tends more to the aggressive side in smaller tanks.
Definitely regret buying a box fish TwT
Add Singapore angel to that list. Virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get to feed,except for corals of course.
Domino Damsel. That guy destroyed my tank
I have 2 - I will pay someone to catch for me! Kills everything I put in
It's not a saltwater fish but my No.1 goes to Kribs.
Those monsters are genuinely psychos.
For saltwater... I don't have a reget buy yet for now.
Maybe my Emerald Crab might go insane, since it's in a Macroalgae tank, yet it never touches them... It might start doing that though.
What about the alternative options instead of these fish?
Lemon damsel. He's the only fish I have and he is so territorial. Whenever I do maintenance, he attacks my hand and arm. One time he got me between my fingers, and actually drew blood. He even goes after my cleaner shrimp. He is such a butt
ive had no problem with Chromis so far just a bit of nipping thats all but mine is a fish only tank so i can afford to feed a bit extra
lol... wait till you get a porcupine puffer... then it will probably be number 1 on the list displacing the tusk.
Lmao, this is me 100%. Oh this fish says reef safe with caution, perfect I’ll take it. Two days later I’m bringing it back
I will only suggest someone buy “schooling” chromis if they have a reasonably sized aquarium and about 5 of them in a say 125 to disperse aggression and territory when they grew bigger. As adult they are not schooling fish and have their own territory
Cromis...bougt a few...a few times...but i have 3 and all newbies are killed...
Powder bleu, died ...ick and infection spread.
Copperband ,1st died fast , 2nd lived until holliday time ..got killed because a pieces of plastic came in the water from livefood given by the person taking care of my tank.
3rd died after 8 months....i love them but im done buying them 🙄
0:03 What kind of fish is that!!
Yellow box fish
My lovely hawk fish :/ he loves to chomp on my cuc from time to time. He will always have a place in the tank until he moves on :) then I’ll be able to have crabs and shrimp again
Wrong taking only a Chromis group.
Take a swarm of more than 30 and no bullying happens.
Same may apply to other swarm fishes too, like Anthias.
I had a clown trigger but it got eaten by my cleaner shrimp sadly
To me fish is nothing but trouble. Since i wanted a reef tank, i keep my fish to the minimum. I would keep the fish in a separate fish tank if i really desire them.
my regret is my designer clowns.. 🙄
savages, maul me. bully all my fish bar my Mandarin (he's like a stealth fish) 🤷♂️
swear they are the cause of the random deaths too
You're adding a clown triggerfish ??
I think it’s funny that you call this hobby relaxing 😎 coral death, algie, red slime and so on and so on sometimes I hate this hobby 😊
😅
@@ReefDork do love this hobby. But sometimes you just wanner sell the dam thing🤪
Love Picasso triggerfish but sadly will never own one 😞
Titan Trigger more aggressive than Clown.
A damn Damsel.
May I have a hug?
Of course you can Mike
great now I cant sleep at night
AWESOME VIDEO!! Can anyone help me?? I purchased a yellow watchman goby and a pistol shrimp 5 days ago, and added them to my tank. I saw the goby swimming around for about a hour and that was it in the beginning. But here I am day 5 and I’ve not seen either one. Is this normal behaviour? None have jumped out of my tank at all as I check ten times a day :). Any help is MUCH appreciated as I was told these guys are chilled out/cool fish to watch. I don’t see anything at all dead in my tank either
Happens all the time - in a few weeks you'll probably hear a clicking sound at night that will tell you your pistil shrimp is still alive and well.
@@ReefDork I’m choked man. My small pistol shrimp I just got on Sunday killed my lieutenant small tang and my royal gramma :(. My other small tang and 2 baby clown fish are hiding up in the back right hand corner of my tank now. Should I tear my whole tank down to some how find the pistol shrimp, or let it play out and leave it be? And by the way the yellow goby I bought with the shrimp hasn’t come out at all yet. I haven’t seen the shrimp either but I have heard a snapping noise last night and twice today. And now 2 fish are dead with a slice in the tangs belly. And a slice ontop of the royal grammas head
@@Scott-cy6zv I've never heard of a pistol shrimp doing that - post pictures of the dead fish on a forum and ask someone what they think might have happened
@@ReefDork yeah I was told by the store bud that by having the small pistol shrimp him and the yellow watchman would pair up and be a team. My last one dived outta the tank on me. I love the goby but in order to get it outta the tank I’d have to tear it all down. I feel like throwing in the towel. I was just getting ready to set up a new 75 gallon I bought next week but hesitant to do it now :(. I appreciate your knowledge and reply’s bud. Your channel is fabulous and I always look forward to your videos. Maybe you can do one on gobies and pistol shrimp lol
I have the same pair I haven't seen my pistol shrimp in about a year but what I do hear are him busting bubble bullet blast and seeing his molts every couple of weeks he's so big he's on his own no watchmen goby lol he was so small now not so much. He's in there he's just moving substrate doing what pistol shrimp do
Also what fish store do you normally go to for fish, corals, supplies, etc?
Reefkeeper Windsor and The Ocean Project are the ones I'm in most. Online I try to use Kraken Corals who are the friendliest of the bunch.
First
parrotfishes devastate reef systems in the wild… 🤷🏾🤦🏽♂️
Last one was juxt like ex wife on pay day pmsl
Boring Blue Chromis... there can be only 1.
sounds like you had these problems because your tank is too small. These fish belong in the sea. Nothing wrong with them at all.
My eibli has killed at least a dozen fish including stuff 5 times the size. My brain refused to even consider it was the eibli angel causing the problems for years.
I don't regret, now I have a murder tank with a 15 year old sergeant major damsel and a clown tang.