Advice on new Trigger

[Long Time Beginner]

I had an ich outbreak that wiped my tank out a few months back, then got sent away on travel for my job for 6 weeks. Now I'm back and after a good cleaning and several water changes, I bought a Picasso trigger for my previously fishless 54g tank (with 15g sump). The fish is still small (2-3 inches) and I know he will need a larger home in time. I have a 150g tank in the works; I'm just waiting for my contractor to finish the room it is going to be in!

I have had my trigger for three days now and so far, so good. He is active, eats like a pig, and his coloring looks good. I have several questions though, so if you've had a Picasso trigger before, please help me out!

1) How can I identify the sex of this fish? I would like to know mostly so that I'm not incorrectly referring to it as "he" or "she" and because I'm curious.

2) Can this fish be mated in a home aquarium? If so, anyone have any experience or online references on how to do it?

3) What is a good diet for this fish? So far, I've been feeding frozen krill soaked with garlic and Zoe. Is that good as a staple? Also, I was told that triggers should eat seafood with the shell still on when they get older; how big should the trigger be before I start with the shellfish?

4) Can I have tankmates in with him while he is still in the 54g? If so, what are good tankmates?

5) Should I worry about putting my hands in the tank to do cleanings or rearrange rocks? Will he bite me? Any good ways to avoid this?

6) The fish makes a mess when he eats and my cleanup crew is virtually nonexistant (maybe 2-3 tiny hermits and snails wandering around). Should I just buy a mess of cheap hermits and accept that they are going to get eaten over time, or is there something else I can/should do?

7) Any other advice on keeping this fish happy and healthy?

[Billybeau1]

Your trigger is a Carnivore. He needs a diet of meaty foods, shrimp, krill, clams etc. He or she will also need shells or something to grind down his teeth.

Mine will bite the end of my finger if I'm not careful. Just shoosh him away. You are the boss.

My trigger gets a variety of foods including plankton, mysis, brine shrimp, veggies, bloodworms and an occasional beefheat. He loves beefheart.

Dont know about sexing the fish and I highly doubt they can be mated in a home aquarium.

You can see in my signature which fish I keep with my trigger.

Since you only have a 55, maybe a dwarf angel would be ok. And a small wrasse.

[I like Triggers]

i have had my humu for over a year now...

they are not sexually dimorphic... so a DNA test is the only way to know. i feed my humu who is about 4.5" long shrimp mainly, but i also feed scallops, calamari, different types of squid, clams in halfshells.

my humu is quite aggressive, i have kept him alone in my 80 for about 3 months now almost, because he kills most tankmates. i have a 225 in wall that is cycling and will be it's new home. recently i added a mappa puffer at about 5.5" and a 6.5" niger trigger. they all get along great.

with triggers its a really good idea to keep damsels as well. when triggers make a mess during feeding, damsels eat the small particles and help keep it cleaner.

[I like Triggers]

by the way, i dont know if triggers have spawned in captivity before... being that they are not sexually dimorphic, they are hard to pair. they would need a very large tank.

[Long Time Beginner]

Thanks for replies. I guess I'll just pick up a few different frozen meats and see what my trigger likes.

I actually like the damsel idea; I've always thought there were a lot of pretty damsels but didn't keep them because they would pick on other tankmates. I suppose that a trigger would be fine though.

It's too bad there isn't a way to tell the sex of the fish. I guess I'll never know...

[spamin76]

1) How can I identify the sex of this fish? I would like to know mostly so that I'm not incorrectly referring to it as "he" or "she" and because I'm curious.

No - the only real way to identify gender on most trigger species is through genetic testing. If you want to get a blood sample and shell out a few hundred bucks...


2) Can this fish be mated in a home aquarium? If so, anyone have any experience or online references on how to do it?


It has never been succesfully done... but it doesn't mean it's impossible. Probably not in a 150 though.


3) What is a good diet for this fish? So far, I've been feeding frozen krill soaked with garlic and Zoe. Is that good as a staple? Also, I was told that triggers should eat seafood with the shell still on when they get older; how big should the trigger be before I start with the shellfish?

Raw shrimp, scallops, krill, plankton, real crab meat, and algae are all good choices. In the wild these guys don't eat just one thing. If you look at stomach analyses from these fish it ends up looking something like

29% crabs and shrimp
12% urchins
15% algae
and then 5-7% of all sorts of different little things(I could get you the exact break down but I am lazy at the moment)

Suffice to say, they do not eat just one thing - if they can fit it in their mouth they might very well eat it. Many triggers have a widely diversified diet, and the more diverse you can keep it, the better the fish will fare.

4) Can I have tankmates in with him while he is still in the 54g? If so, what are good tankmates?


It can be tricky to put a picasso trigger with any tank mates and becomes harder with age. I would say put any other fish in their at your own risk. But I would wait until the 150 before putting anything else in.


5) Should I worry about putting my hands in the tank to do cleanings or rearrange rocks? Will he bite me? Any good ways to avoid this?


Yes - he will bite you - I have been bitten by every trigger I have ever owned. He is curious, and most triggers forage constantly - this means sampling anything he can... this includes you.

Honestly though, I had an 8" rectangulus and even his bite did not hurt. If he is small you will feel a pinch - you know that you have been bitten, but it does not really hurt.

To prevent it as much as possible, always keep an eye on the fish when you are working in the tank - they won't bite you if you shoo them away. If you really need to get something done, chase him into the rock work. He will hang out there for a while and chasing him will not scare the fish too badly.

6) The fish makes a mess when he eats and my cleanup crew is virtually nonexistant (maybe 2-3 tiny hermits and snails wandering around). Should I just buy a mess of cheap hermits and accept that they are going to get eaten over time, or is there something else I can/should do?


I have found that large hermits do the best job and manage to avoid the fish' appetite until the trigger gets very very large.


7) Any other advice on keeping this fish happy and healthy?

Just give him a diverse diet, don't over feed, and make sure the water stays clean. Triggers are durable fish, and are not hard to take care of with a good skimmer, regular waterchangers, and a good diet. Just beware that he can become aggressive with little notice, even if previously peaceful. It's hard to add fish to a tank that a trigger has already taken up residence in.

Other than that, good luck!

[Monkeyfish]

Just a word on tank-mates. I currently have a 3.5 inch Humu Humu in a 75 with a 3" yellow tang, 2" rabbitfish and 3 2"damsels. Everyone gets along except for occasional squabbles between the rabbit and tang. The rabbitfish was actually the last fish introduced. All of these fish will be going into a 180 next summer.

That's not to say that the trigger might one day become homicidal, but I'm willing to take the risk. I believe your odds of successfully finding the trigger "friends" will be influenced by the fish's personality, how well he's fed (if food is easily accessible then there's less competition and therefore less aggression) and if you add the trigger last.

[Long Time Beginner]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I think that for my 54g, I'm going to get a bunch of hermits and a few damsels.

I don't want to keep the trigger in there by himself even though the tank is a bit small for a couple reasons. First, I'd like to have a little more activity in the tank, since it's in my living room. Second, I don't want the trigger to get too used to living alone. Damsels seem like they'd be okay because they're tough yet small enough that they won't add much strain to the bioload. Plus, if the trigger eats them, at least they're cheap

Once I get my 150g up and cycled, I'll add some other big fish then move the trigger over last. I think that seems like a decent plan.

[I like Triggers]

make sure you get tough damsels. last week i added 4 damsels to my 80g where my humu lives. he killed all 4. 1sergeant major, 2 half moons, and one golden domino. it all depends on his mood.

[55gSW]

When you add the damsels, rearrange the rockwork so the trigger won't immediately attack and kill the damsels. You might want to consider giving him something to distract him too....like add a couple of live ghost shrimp. Triggers just love to hunt them down!! Or give him a opened raw clam. Fill him up really well and he will be less likely to want to move around alot (ie: chasing).

[Monkeyfish]

I agree with the above. If possible rearrange the rockwork just prior to adding the damsels. After the trigger has been fed, turn off the tank lights and add the damsels (after proper acclimation of course ).

I actually have some of the more peaceful damsels (yellow-bellied and yellowtails), but who your fish will tolerate will depend on your fish's personality.

[spamin76]

If that doesn't work, try to take the trigger out and quarantine him for a few days before re-adding him. This way, he will be going into a "new tank" and not his old stomping grounds.

[Long Time Beginner]

I added two damsels and four hermit crabs this weekend. So far, so good; my trigger hasn't eaten any of them!

I'm not entirely sure what type of damsel I bought. The LFS had a number of blue devils, yellow tails, and domino damsels. They also had two of a type I hadn't seen before, so I bought those. The front half is black, with the dividing line running diagonally from the top, front of the fish to the bottom below the tail. The back half is mostly white but has a light blue dusting running along its spine to the tail. I've been looking for a picture online but haven't found anything similar yet.

[Monkeyfish]

Sounds interesting... could you post a pic?

[Long Time Beginner]

Originally posted by Monkeyfish
Sounds interesting... could you post a pic?

I wish I could! My digital camera takes like a full second from the time you push the button to the time it takes the picture. In that amount of time, the fish swim away. I tried for a while last night to get a decent picture of my trigger but all I got were a few blurry ones. My damsels are even tougher because they spend most of their time darting in and out of the rockwork.