definition of 'reef-safe', FYI

[Sk8r]

Reef-safe is one of the most 'relative' terms we use. Y'know that bit in "Pirates of the Caribbean" where the Pirate Code is described as "more like guidelines"?

Yep. That's reef-safe for you.

Reef-safe means in general it won't eat most of your corals. It doesn't say it won't eat your fish or release toxins that will kill your whole tank inside an hour.

One of the worst pieces of baggage we come into the marine hobby with, dragging it along like a 90 pound weight out of freshwater---is the whole concept of "community tank" versus "aggressive." The marine world, my friends, is dog-eat-dog. There ARE herbivorous fishes. The tang is a good example. It also eats crustaceans, gastropods, AND comes armed with a slashing blade on its tail to discourage its being lunch. Angels eat corals. Fortunately they have a habit of eating and moving, eating and moving on, resulting in a kind of helpful 'pruning' on the reef. But as any of you know who have ever had a five year old with scissors 'help' you with your 10 year old bonsai---this can only end badly if the 'move on' part is not possible.

Reef-safe doesn't mean, as a fish, it won't eat other fishes. Or just kill them because it's territorial. The gentle mandarin, which NEVER picks a fight, will kill an intruder of its own kind. So will the YWG. Or its pistol shrimp will kill the new YWG. Oops. You gotta read the fine print, my friends: marine fishes are ALL aggressive to something, and size is not a measure of how aggressive they are. In my way of looking at things, a lionfish isn't really aggressive: they just eat other fish that will fit in their mouth. They don't AGGRESS [lit. go fight] another fish. They eat it. The YWG, now, never eats anybody, not even snails [everyone's lunch]. But it will go BERSERK when faced with a mirror. What does that tell you, eh?

Triggers, now, ARE aggressive: divers tell stories of being chased by them. They expect the other fish to leave.

Puffers may take a piece out of another fish. They expect it to leave. Oops. Can't do that. Right?

So...if the label says "reef-safe", or the fish is "peaceful"...remember the pirate code. It's all sorta guidelines. That's why you ask on RC.

[acrodave]

yeah pinktail,niger,bluechin,crosshatch,sargassum trigger are "reefsafe" wont eat your corals but will abosutly eat shrimp and crabs and starfish. Groupers are the same way.

[Sk8r]

I think it's the titan trigger or the queen that divers have said came after them.

Grouper---sorta like the lion: if it fits the mouth, it's food. Peaceful, reefsafe, no interest in your corals, but carnivorous...a well-dispositioned, agreeable fish which views most other fish as, just simply, no-fuss, lunch.

The ocean is just a different, different place.

Oh, and then there are the cases of mistaken identity: the highly herbivorous rabbitfish [venomous, by the way] will not only eat anything algae, it eats shrimp, including cleaner shrimp, AND because its opal eyes operate as a filter to make green stand out, they really LOVE green things to eat. This can include hammer coral, candy cane coral, and especially frogspawn. I have not observed one with SPS like green bali slimer or a zooanthid buttons, but I'd be real suspicious....mine LOVED frogspawn: he'd spit 'em out, but only after he'd bitten 'em off. And he didn't learn.

[acrodave]

I think a lot of it is how much the fish eat in the wild grouper and other large fish will not eat a cleaner shrimp but put one in a tank and its gone. In the wild fish eat when they are hungry not when we feed them. So if they are full all the time no need to eat .

[S_Stoney_S]

if your diving when triggers are mating/spawning nearby you are looking at having it attack you until you make it out of its territory.

Not fun at all, they can really bite!!

[geraldwhite]

Check this out...

this titan takes a chunk out of this dude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw79crl8gu8

This is one big fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GSyt-iTPFM&NR=1

[kathainbowen]

Originally posted by Sk8r
I think it's the titan trigger or the queen that divers have said came after them.

... I had a blueline trigger that would intentionally play possum with whoever got saddled with the task of scrubbing down its tank in the LFS. It would dart behind a rock and pretend to hide, until you got close to that side of the tank. Then, it was like a completely different animal, coming after you to the point where you would think it would jump out of the water like a piranha out of some bad B horror movie.

Triggers are seriously much more aggressive than people give them credit.

An excellent post, as always, Sk8r, and definitely a topic that needed to be broached. Someone should probably gather all these FYIs in one, big post of links and sticky it to the top of the New to the Hobby Forum.... or you should just get your own website to back them up on, because you do often touch on important topics that all newbs should be aware of.... but that many other sources otherwise ignore.