NEWBIE REEF ? w/ Triggerfish

[dmanshep]

hello,

1st things first you guys rock on the reef info, nice forum..

my question is this I looked at 2 different triggerfish today at the LFS that are aparently compatible with my reef. I really bad want a trigger fish however I want to make sure I won't be sorry in the long run.. I have a 90 gal reef with 150 or so lbs of live rock and a yellow tang, a volitan lion fish, 2 tomato clowns and a mandarine goby.. umm brittle star and a couple of small eels.. can someone tell me their experiance(s) with the types of fish? I know everyone freaks when you say trigger and reef together but I think that there may be a species of trigger that'll work


thanks in advance,,,,

[Leopardshark]

Well, it depends of the kind of trigger you want, as there are some "pacific" species and some assasins ones.
As a general rule triggers and reefs are not compatible, but each species have their own habits. I have a blue line trigger and a niger, it´s a fact that i can´t introduce any kind of feather duster, any starfish, echinoderm or shrimp, but i actually have some polips, mushrooms and an open brain coral and a turbo snail which would have been a nice dessert for my blueline trigger if it´s shell wasn´t so hard.
People tells me that one day, my triggers will eat my polips and corals, but i don´t think so, since i feed them very well, that and my daily prayers are my hope to have some reef safe triggers.
I would think that nigers are the only reef safe triggers, but I would definitely add a clown and a blue line to a tank with jsut few corals. I would never introduce a Picasso or a undulated or a queen trigger to a reef.
My experience says yes, go ahead. Hope this helps.
Marco

[hcs3]

[welcome]

adding any trigger to a reef will limit the animals you can keep in the tank. depending on the trigger species, crabs, snails, starfish, corals, shrip, etc., cannot be kept. if you wish to keep a trigger, i would recommend you research it thoroughly. however, IMO, i would not add any trigger to my reef.

FWIW, i think your 90g has just about reached it's maxed fish load. adding a trigger into a tank with a yellow tang in a 90g will make the tank cramped. both are active swimmers. also, the lionfish may get it's fins nipped at b y the trigger. i think your tank would be best off if you forget about the trigger and look for something smaller and less active.

HTH

henry

[FMarini]

Hi:
if I may.....
your choice of fish has already limited your futur choice of tankmates. Once you add a volitans lions to this tank, you have just prevented the additon of any moving invert of crab, and any fish which can fit into this lions mouth.
So you now have a reeftank which can have almost no other small fish.
Triggers....
so heres how i look at them.1) planktonic feeding triggers-mouths face up-niger, blue cheek, pinktailed, these are fairly reef-safe will leave most small fish alone but will be moving inverts
coral crushers-mouth face forward.clown, huma,picasso etc. Forget any of these in a reef tank, they will snack on everything.
So please define for us what you consider a reeftank, do you have lots of corals SPS, LPS, or just a few mushrooms.
last point the voitans lion will hide most o the time when exposed to lots of high intensity lighting, these are fairly dusk/dawn hunters.
frank

[Marty M]

My Niger bites; but only in self defense. He'll take a big bite out of the Desjardinii if it hassles him. So the potential is definitely there. It is otherwise very peaceful. It doesn't have any interest in crabs, shrimp, snails, or corals. Pink tail triggers, and Bluechins are also supposed to be fairly passive. Each individual will have it's own habits though. I wish I had considered the Pink Tail more. I really like the Niger but he'll be bigger than my cat in another year; at the rate he is growing. It's definitely too large for a 90. The Pink tail may be too large also. They grow to 13",Niger to 20", and Bluechin to 8". They are very cool fish, so you are not going to want to give it up when it outgrows your tank.