how aggressive is the goldenheart trigger?

saltyESQ · #1 12/12/2007, 09:04 PM

also how large do they get?

I was thinking of adding one to my 210g with my queen and humu trigger.

ccampbell57 · #2 12/12/2007, 10:12 PM

I have heard that they are the same as a queen trigger. They get up to 60cm.

VERY BIG!`

FishyMel · #3 12/12/2007, 10:24 PM

A little less than a queen, but individuals vary. Both of them are very closely related, the Queen comes out of the atlantic-caribbean area while the ght comes out of the west african atlantic area. With this in mide I probably would reconsider putting one with a queen trigger, to closely related for my taste.

danorth · #4 12/12/2007, 10:27 PM

It isn't aggressive at all at this point (3.75"). Behaves socially like an undulated though, not mean, just secretive and low in the rocks. The oposite would be swimming laps across the tank with its fin out of the water like my queen and clown do.....nigers also.

Still no love for the pellet also.......even shrimp pellets. So it is thawed shrimp with minced garlic and shot of selcon for mine.

danorth · #5 12/12/2007, 10:59 PM

FishyMel, we may have an answer to the queen factor this weekend. Mine is coming back from a winter getaway. But the chair goes to the ght if push comes to shove.

saltyESQ · #6 12/13/2007, 12:36 AM

keep me posted please danorth..

danorth · #7 12/13/2007, 12:53 AM

Will do. I've only had the ght since last Tuesday so my observations are notably limited, but I've been through my fare share of triggers.

After seeing the 9" attached to the queen, you don't have room for error. If your queen is well mannered now, it may stay that way with the addition of the ght.

What size is the one in question?

saltyESQ · #8 12/13/2007, 02:13 PM

I have seen several at my lfs, but their colors haven't been the best. As of now, I am still looking. Do you think it is advisable to get one larger or smaller than the queen?

danorth · #9 12/13/2007, 02:55 PM

The color thing isn't the quality of the fish rather the mood of the fish. It has a real wide color range ability. Much like a queen can be white or dark or dark body/pale head.

For the size I would suggest the biggest one you can get if your queen is peaceful or a small one if it isn't and you have a bunch of rock where it can hide for cover. Honestly, I am thinking that the humu may be the pest to a new trigger. So after that thought, back to the big one.

thepudge · #10 12/13/2007, 04:59 PM

I had one for 2 weeks before I came home and found it had jumped out of the tank. Showed no aggression, and actually got picked on by my foxface a bit. I'd probably go larger.

clekchau · #11 12/13/2007, 09:44 PM

for those that indicate they are aggressive, post how long you owned one and the size and what was it aggressive towards.

i've been researching this for 4 months now including talking to 5 people who own them along with 5 or 6 retailers who have imported them and everyone says they are mild for a trigger, not anything like a queen trigger.

reefer334 · #12 12/14/2007, 12:45 AM

I got Dan's and mine at the same time mine is about 6 inches and is in with a 11 inch black trigger, 4 inch rectangle trigger,8 inch pinktail and a 8 inch Niger.He did not get any greef from these other triggers and stood up for himself.I did have a 3 inch red sea undulate trigger in there when I first got him and he attacked him,the undulate is now in the bigboy tank.I would also be worried about putting a queen trigger in with him.I would see what Dan says as he is coming to get his queen trigger from me this weekemd and adding the queen to the GHT tank.If I was going to have both in the same tank I would add the GHT first and then put the queen in.If you allready have the queen try letting a friend keep it for a while and then add him in after the GHT has settled in as I did for Dan.There an awesome fish goodluck,Chris

reefer334 · #13 12/14/2007, 12:48 AM

I agree I think it is mellower than a queen,but then again my 13 inch queen is pretty mellow.

The Fish Finder · #14 12/14/2007, 11:55 PM

Had mine for 2 years until i gave him away. Started out nice and docile as well as held his own. After a year he started to get more and more aggressive. Eventually one day he killed my two prized 7" Short big eyes. That's the day i decided to move him. Be worried they can become very aggressive. He was QTed in a 55g for two week's then lived in my 150G since until i got rid of him.

PS some ppl say it's feeding but i fed my fish two time's a day so he was always full

Vili_Shark · #15 12/15/2007, 04:09 AM

Its one of the more peaceful triggers I know.
But when it get agression from other fish it will defend itself unlike other fish which start swimming away and become fish food.

I guess that in the long run it will become more agressive, same as a tusk fish, I have a 5 years tusk fish, and whoever say this is not agressive fish is invited to see the dude.

saltyESQ · #16 12/15/2007, 02:58 PM

my queen jumped the 2nd day I purchased here, I found her completely dried up on the floor in the morning. I touched her fin and I saw the smallest movement of her side fin, so I threw her back in the tank. She immediately sunk to the bottom and then I noticed gill movement. Within 5 minutes she was swimming around the tank. Within 5 hours she was also completely covered in ich. After giving her a couple days to recover, I put her in qt and did hypo and I have had her for 2+ years.

My queen must have been on the floor for hours because she moved across the room and there was no water on the floor. Also, if this happens to you, MAKE SURE SHE IS DEAD. Mine looked like a dried out dead fish and was still alive , although probably only by a few minutes.

saltyESQ · #17 12/15/2007, 03:00 PM

my queen is only aggressive at feeding time. She doesn't attack anyone, just takes all the food she can to the detriment of all the other fish. She even does this when her belly is completely round.

thepudge · #18 12/15/2007, 03:24 PM

Yeah I know jumpers can make pretty miraculous recoveries, but when my trigger jumped it was definitely dead. I put it back in the tank for a couple of hours and even tried fish-CPR, but it never moved

Vili_Shark · #19 12/15/2007, 05:26 PM

What ish CPR did ya try?

Queen is by far the most agressive trigger I ever experience...
My friend had a 12" Queen that ate about any fish you'd put it with, it arrived after tearing a Clown Trigger of the same size that was living together for quite sometime, then there was a long list of victims incld larger Odonus niger, much larger Lutjanus sebae, now the Queen found a new home on its own.

danorth · #20 12/15/2007, 07:40 PM

Well, so far the queen and the ght don't even look at each other let alone care about the physical similarities. The ght still isn't a fish to swim all over the tank as mentioned earlier, but it has no problem with the queen swimming around and vise versa. It has also only been about 5 hours, but the queen didn't forget this tank and was instantly back around like before.

So far so good.

danorth · #21 12/19/2007, 11:11 AM

Just to update. Last Friday the ght wasn't wanting to eat and still hid in the rocks. Then the queen went back into my tank on Saturday, and though there was no outward aggression towards the ght, the ght stayed for the most part in hiding. I did notice the queen being much more aggressive than before I had taken it out a few weeks ago towards my big clown trigger and tusk. The clown wasn't as outward and the tusk would hide. Then the tail started getting bit some on the tusk from the queen. So Monday I took the queen out. The ght didn't eat Saturday before the queen, Sunday or Monday. Tuesday/last night it was midnight and I took a flashlight to see if I could see it and it was going into the skimmer intake. I pulled it out and it swam down kind of funny and just fell. I took it out to try and do something different but it didn't make it. I had moved it into a bucket of tank water but gave it a 2 minute fw dip first. Bucket and air stone I should add. So this morning it was dead. Not a fin touched or spot on it. Sucks to report a loss like this, but want to keep it honest. The ght seems a slow fish to come around and should not be around other aggressive fish. I can only think that the purple tang was a stress factor as well as it would always try to take the shrimp from it at feeding time. But it never chased it or swat at it. So I really don't know what did it. Again, my other fish are spotless and behaving normal, clown instantly returned to normal after the removal of the queen as did the tusk.

saltyESQ · #22 12/20/2007, 01:58 AM

sorry to hear about that. did you think the ght was especially timid or unhealthy before? is the hiding behavior normal?

danorth · #23 12/20/2007, 02:45 AM

I'm not sure. It was timid, and smaller than the others, but didn't run away. I know I had done a water change and had moved its rock cover, so perhaps that didn't help as I've read can be an issue with tangs. So at this point, I'll just add it to my experiences, though I can't by any means say I understand this kind of fish. I will just have to learn to be content more with what I've got and get that clown trigger bigger into the 8 and 9 inch mark. Doesn't seem like many people have a 10"+ clown at home. But regardless, go for a large ght so it isn't the small guy. 200 lbs of lr in a 135 didn't make the difference this time. But enough about this loss, starting to get ****ed. At least I got some good pictures of it.

thepudge · #24 12/20/2007, 08:24 AM

Geez DA, sorry to hear that. Want to form a support group?