Vicious toadfish

[ONESPEED]

I really thot they swallowed fish whole. Didn't know they could bight like a porcupine. I handled many in a past aquarium business. I wonder if they fish was IDed correctly?

 

[DocIndyDiver]

Maybe it was an old toadfish with cataracts?

 

[charlesml3]

I did 10 days of diving in Palau about a year and a half ago. We saw sharks on just about every dive. Now you'd think that we'd be wary of the sharks and consider them the most dangerous thing out there. Nope, not even close.

These guys were far more dangerous:

Mustache Trigger Fish. These things dig a hole in the sand and viciously protect a cone of water above it. You can swim beside it all you want, but don't pass over it. They'll attack you and bite anything they can get to. Tip of your ear, tank bands, fins...

I have a chunk out of one of my fins from those guys. If one attacks you have to keep your fins between the two of you and constantly kick at him. It'll take a while, but he'll eventually give up.

-Charles

 

[DeaDLocK]

Mustache Trigger Fish. These things dig a hole in the sand and viciously protect a cone of water above it. You can swim beside it all you want, but don't pass over it. They'll attack you and bite anything they can get to.

Those things are far more commonly known as Titan Triggerfish, and those holes they dig house eggs, hence their ferocity during nesting season.

On my last dive, a Nemo went straight for my eye, shielded only by the glass in between me and it. Gave a sizeable little knock on the mask too, for something so small.

I win.

 

[OnceLoyal]

Watch our for damsels protecting eggs. Good thing they are so small. I had something tiny bight me in Coz last time, protecting eggs.

Funny you should say that. I just had a damsel freak on me 2 days ago... This little sh@t got right in my face, hit my maks grabbed my glove and shook it like a bulldog. I was laughing so hard that I flooded my mask bad. He wouldn't stop hitting me. My buddy tried to grab a pic, but of course the darn bat died
I am sure a todfish could gie quite good nip..

 

[Missdirected]

I admire you guys for admitting a little bitty innocent fish kicked your butts It takes a strong character to admit that. :yelclap: I'd certainly never admit to a garabaldi attack that never happened a couple of years ago :tongue:

 

[potato cod]

Watch our for damsels protecting eggs. Good thing they are so small. I had something tiny bight me in Coz last time, protecting eggs.

I love these fiesty little fish, although they did almost lead to an underwater incident between me and my husband.

Last January when we were diving in the Keys, my husband kept turning around and giving me the "what?" signal on a dive, to which I just shook my head, not knowing why he thought I needed something. By the third time he was really irritated until he realized I was too far away to touch him and I wasn't looking at him at all.

Turns out he got a little too close to some damsel eggs and and a fish was biting his shoulder, but through the thick wetsuit it just felt like tapping.

 

[Andy077]

This hardly rates as an "incident," but I am still laughing as I type, so I thought I would share. Today one of my instructors came back from a dive and his finger was gushing blood. I got it cleaned up and bandaged (it was not too deep, but there was a lot of blood) and I asked him how it happened. This is how he relayed it to me (in somewhat broken English):

He was leading his student on a tour after completing skills when he spotted a toadfish hiding under a rock. Since his student was slightly behind him he decided to point to the toadfish and looked back to signal the student to come get a peek. Before he could turn back around to where he was pointing, the toadfish bit onto his finger and refused to let go. Being very surprised he yanked the toadfish out of the hole via his finger and proceeded to shake it until the toadfish let go. Apparently the student found it quite amusing (as did I).

Neither the instructor nor the toadfish were seriously injured, but I guess the moral of the story is that it is not polite to point, especially if you are not going to watch where you are pointing.

Toadfish:

also see my photo album for video of toadfish in action