Tell me about your picasso trigger.

[Nuhtty]

Suddenly Ive had a surge of interest in this fish.

Problem is, I am a huge softie coral fan as well.

Does anyone keep a trigger with any shrooms, polyps, zoos, etc?

Probably a pipe dream, but would still like to see what people say.

[imgrtful]

i have all sorts of shrooms and zoos with my humahuma.he actually is best friends with a yellow tang and will eat nori off of the clip.he is a really cool fish.

[rd_salt]

I think they are the characters of the aquarium hobby. If there is a funnier fish please let me know. They also look like something out of the Beatles " Yellow Submarine ".

They seem to crave attention. I heard a story many years ago of a picasso wanting to be held and pet by it's owner.

[hcahan]

I've been keeping a very small Huma Huma (1-2 inch)with zoos, shroms, xenia and a BTA. No problems yet but I've heard as they grow this may change. I love the little guy. He comes out to take food right from my hand also will play tug-of- war with my perc over a silverside. It's very funny to watch. He does that trigger thing where he spits sand all over and prunes the algea as he does it. Watch out for attacks on snails however.

[Nuhtty]

Sounds like no one has had trouble with other fish??

I am setting up a 65g tank and want a picasso. I will be stocking with shrooms, star polyps, xenia and possibly zoos.

[spamin76]

I know of people on the board that have tried and failed but I know others that have succeeded. I would try something like zooanthids or zenia - I suspect the fish might find these unpalatable and leave them alone - and if things go wrong, all you have lost is a few frags... no biggie there.

[billpa]

Originally posted by rd_salt
I think they are the characters of the aquarium hobby. If there is a funnier fish please let me know.

Porky Puffer...equally charismatic fish.

[spamin76]

Pinktails are just as personable and a bit safer with inverts. Blue throats even more - but some people don't like the way they look - I don't know why - I love them.

[jokermgp]

My Huma Huma LOVES bannanas. He's also one of the mellowest fish I've ever had. I had shrooms in the tank with him at one time and he never even looked at 'em. He does nibble at the rock work, though.

Oh, and if my nori clip falls to the bottom of the tank, he'll pick it up and play with it. What a great fish!

Cheers...Michael

[yoDavid]

i set up a 65 gallon tank about 8 months ago and have probaly about 100 pounds of live rock and 2inch sand bed,about 15times and hour turnover rate, i use a wet dry and a ASM G3 (should be way overpowered for a 65 gallontank). anyways i have a picasso wich i think is about 7-8inches big, i'd classify him as a true adult now. and he actually grew pretty fast due to being alone in the tank. and i think hes less stressed being alone also. (i see it like one human in a one bedroom apartment is going to be less stressed then 2 humans in a 2 bedroom apartment that dont know each other prior to moving in) (I had him in a 55 before alone where he also grew fast) probaly like 2 inches in a year , but i fed him live shrimp from my local bait store, and even with the ASMg3 couldnt get good ideal water conditions so i recently switched to dead foods from the grocery store. My cyanobacteria;s gone away now, buti;m still waiting for coraline algea to grow though.

anyways, i used to have a bunch of mushrooms and star polyps in my 55 and he never touched them. however i started out my 65 gallon with about 40 snails and 40 blue legged hermits, and now i have problay 35 crabs and 0 snails left. In fact the crabs dont even seem to be alarmed by the trigger anymore, they dont dip into their shells if hes right next to them looking at them, i think they know he cant get them.

and some might say 100 pounds of live rock doesnt leave enough space, but i think that as long as theres one alleyway for swimming (which he only ever uses the same one) my trigger would prefer a large amount of rockwork, i started out with about 50 pounds but i just recently added 50-60 more a couple days ago and he seems to be much more confident and less "on display" then before. Since before i had like one big cave, where he couldnt realy truly be hidden, now he has several cozy caves. He also never used all the space he had before, he usualy stayed around the rocks or just swam in front of the rocks which is still available.

With the addition of the new rock I'm going to try to introduce some peppermint shrimp, I know i was feeding him live shrimp before but i hope he realizes the difference, as he used to live with 2 in the 55 and 2 cleaners also. (i need them to keep my aptaisia in check) so i can add new mushrooms.

on that note , anybody recommend a good amount of watts per gallon for mushrooms?

Also would you say that a fish looks better in dim lighting or verybright lighting?
Im contemplating whether to get 4, 95 watt vho's or just 2(which would be better for the shrooms probaly be more importantly is how the trigger will look.

on my 55 i had him with 260 watts of Powercompacts which i think was way to bright for optimum color looking goodness on the fish, so now i use the same lighting on my 65 but i just use have the bulbs for 130 watts. however i think power compacts realy suck for color, and vho's are much better so , im wondering. will alota vho be better?

[spamin76]

Originally posted by yoDavid

With the addition of the new rock I'm going to try to introduce some peppermint shrimp, I know i was feeding him live shrimp before but i hope he realizes the difference, as he used to live with 2 in the 55 and 2 cleaners also. (i need them to keep my aptaisia in check) so i can add new mushrooms.

on that note , anybody recommend a good amount of watts per gallon for mushrooms?

Also would you say that a fish looks better in dim lighting or verybright lighting?
Im contemplating whether to get 4, 95 watt vho's or just 2(which would be better for the shrooms probaly be more importantly is how the trigger will look.

Watts per gallon is a worthless measure = a watt is a unit of power, not light. Basically higher wattage use more power and do not necessarily put out more light. A 250 watt MH puts out more lux and probably a higer par than 250 watts of NO, HO, VHO, or PC.

Personally I keep mushrooms under 2 65 watt pcs and they do ok, though growth is minimal. 2 96 watts pcs should do decently, but your best bet is to get 3-4 VHOS. Most mushrooms look their best under VHOs particularly when you have 1:1 ordinary white bulbs to actinic bulbs.

Yeah, PCs suck for color...pc actinics are horrible.
In terms of the fish's appearance, brightness of the light is pretty meaningless - actually brighter light will sometimes increase skin pigmentation and make the fish look better. You have to think the fish lives in an environment way brighter than we can acchieve even with many halides. The real concern should be color quality of the light. If you want the fish to look the best I would use VHOs - with a 1:1 standard to actinic ratio - the actinics are what is really going to show the color of the fish(and yes pc has aweful actinics). The actinics are going to make the stripe between the eyes show up best and should help with the green toward the tail.

A 65 is probably a bit small for a picasso - especially one that large - is it a 36" tank? Most picassos get around 10" or possibly more - the tank is barely 3 times as long as the fish. Picassos are so active - once they get full grown you almost need a 6' tank like a 125 to keep them in.

Be nice to your humu - he deserves it!!

[spamin76]

Originally posted by jokermgp
My Huma Huma LOVES bannanas. He's also one of the mellowest fish I've ever had. I had shrooms in the tank with him at one time and he never even looked at 'em. He does nibble at the rock work, though.
Cheers...Michael

With bananas and shrooms? How can he be anything but mellow?

[Nuhtty]

yoDavid

I would love to see pics of the tank. I, too am setting up a 65g and would love to see how you aquascaped it.

Thanks!

[dbulick]

I had a Humu in my 55, and 125 for about 2 years, untill I had to take him out for excessive attacks on my Dogface.

He got up to about 5 inches and never once bothered the shrooms or xenia I had in the tank. They can however been very agressive to slow moving fish, and will decimate any invert.

[Zoom]

I have a clown trigger with Mushrooms, ricordia, softies, frogspawn,Macro algae and shrimps no problem .

[Nuhtty]

I have a 65 and have been considering keeping a picasso in there. Starting him out as a baby and letting him have free run of the tank.

This tank will be completely reef-ready as far as lighting, water movement, deltec skimmer, starboard barebottom, etc.

I dont have the time or energy to devote to a full reef at this point.

What is the bioload of just this one fish? I am sure my skimmer will be able to handle it! After all, for the price it better vacuum the carpet, too.

[zemuron114]

i've seen ful grown bluethroats in hawaii .. they are absolutely stunning... i watched them for a while and lost my scuba group! haha i would prefer one of these probably.. but thatis just me. I've also seen humas in the wild they seem to be active and aggressive..

good luck!

[Bailey2]

I have a picasso, porc puffer and a hippo tang in a 90 gallon FOWLR. They are very entertaining to watch - they get all excited whenever someone walks by the tank. The porc & picasso will take food from your hand!!