Reef safe triggers?

[odoprelude]

I was reading an article in Aquarium Fish Magazine about reef safe triggers...? Never heard of any of those.. Anyone have any thoughts on triggers in a reef tank? Would love to keep one but hate the thought of what it would do to my present (few) and future corals... :D

[odoprelude]

anyone?

[MalHavoc]

There are a few species of trigger fish that are "reef safe". The pinktail triggerfish is one, as is the niger triggerfish. The niger triggerfish will nip at sponges and tunicates, but seems to leave corals alone. The bluechin trigger will also ignore most corals, but the larger ones will eat ornamental shrimp. Likewise for the sargassium and crosshatch trigger.

I'm getting this from Marine Fishes, a book by Scott W. Michael. Might be worthwhile to pick up a copy so you can go to the LFS armed with information.

[technoshaman]

I am in the same boat you are. I lover triggers but the only ones I've found to be even remotley safe are the sargassum and blue throat triggers. Heard a lot of good things about the blue throat it being primarily a plankton feeder but with triggers nothing is certain. I have also heard some reports of success with hawaiian pink tail triggers. Do a search here I know I've seen this conversation many times over the past few months.

[Old Yeller Tang]

I hear better successes with the Bluchin, Sargassum, and Crosshatch. If I did it all over again, I would pick the Bluchin as it doesn't grow as large as the other triggers. I had a Pinktail that did fine in my reef, but did eat my shrimps after a couple of months. It never messed with my snails or hermits and was a peaceful fish around the others. Just during feeding times, it would chomp away and accidently nip the fins of nearby fish.

[Wolverine]

The Xanthichthys triggers are the most reef safe; this is mainly those that OYT mentioned.
Pinktails (Melichthys vidua) are also usually reefsafe.
A more mellow niger trigger can be, but they are also hit and miss, and I have been burned by this before. It's better to test them out in a smaller tank before you put them into the main display.

I wouldn't risk the others in a reef tank.

One thing to keep in mind is the definition of the term "reef safe". There have been some pretty good conversations on the topic here. My thought is that they are safe with corals, anemones, etc. However, they may still eat hermit crabs, snails, shrimp, and such.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dc/index.htm

Dave