Trigger Compatability?

[Anemone]

Hello - another trigger thread:rolleyes: ,

I'm developing an aggressive reef tank - not by choice, but by the fact that I once picked up a beautiful tang - a Sohal! Nastiest fish I've ever had. Since I like to broaden my experiences in the saltwater hobby, I decided this might be the opportunity to keep a more aggressive tank.

I added a 14" snowflake eel to the tank, and it is doing well (my first eel). I find that I'd like one more fish to finish off this tank, and my thoughts are turning toward either a niger or bluethroat trigger.

Tank Stats:

80 gallon tank with about 70-80 lbs of live rock and a 6" DSB. Rock is arranged so there is quite a bit of free water swimming space. Tank has a 5 gallon refugium that feeds into a 5 gallon surge tank. Surge flows about every 40 seconds into one side of the tank. A seaswirl (powered by a Sen 900) occupies the opposite corner from the surge. So, there's pretty good periodic water flow in this tank.

Inhabitants:

Sohal tang - about 3-4 inches
Snowflake eel - 14"
Banggai pair - may be moved to another tank
Ocellaris pair (female 1 1/2 - 2", male about 1")
Springer's pseudochromis - 2"

Right now, the sohal is the king (queen?) of the tank (obviously). It ignores the banggais, but periodically chases the clowns back into their adopted frogspawn coral. The male clown once made the mistake of nipping at the sohal when it came too close to the clowns' coral - the sohal chased the clown around the tank for a good five minutes - into, out of, and through the rocks.

Now that I'm done with the preamble, my question is whether you think a 3-4" trigger would be able to hold its own with the sohal?

Thanks for you opinions,
Kevin

[FMarini]

Kevin:
Are you leaning towards one type of trigger or another?
I ask becuz you can get triggers like Rhinecanthus sp. assais, humas, picassos, etc, or Balistapus undulated triggers which will kick booty once they get established in your tank (which might be a bad thing after they beat on the tang), or you can get mellow non agressive triggers like Xanthichthys sp. blue cheeks, niger, pinktails, etc. Which are more predicatable triggers and may or may not fight back.
One concern i would have is that your sohal won't let any new fish do well in the tank. Which way are your leaning?
frank

[Anemone]

Frank,

I was trying to lean toward the less-aggressive triggers. I've been kind of moving toward a more-aggressive reef, but a not a full-on, really agressive fish tank - always trying to keep my reef options open.

One concern i would have is that your sohal won't let any new fish do well in the tank.

That is my fear, and the reason I was asking. Never been in this place (fish-wise) so was looking for experience or guidance.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Mad Scientist]

I'm not an expert (they can fill you on which species of trigger will give you the best chance of "fitting in"), but, my experience with triggers is that there is a good deal of variation in temperment not only between species, but, between individuals. With an 80gallon tank, the safest move would be not to introduce one. Just my viewpoint.

[Wolverine]

I would think that your best chance in this case long-term would be in the Rhinecanthus genus, or maybe a more aggressive niger. I think if you go less aggressive, it's going to be beaten severely by the sohal. If you go more aggressive (queen, clown), it'll waste the sohal once it's established.

But I do agree with Frank that you could run into trouble with anything being killed as soon as it's in the tank.

Dave