Niger trigger

[Olive]

Dont want to alarm anyone, but I once watched as a niger trigger swim up to a small clown and proceed to pluck its eye out. Reef safe? They dont seem to go after the corals, but the rock under them is fair game. Dog Face puffers are also killers, my parents have a fish only aggressive with all the aboved mentioned (excluding the box fish, on my insistance they not get one). Keep a good eye on him, a good test is to drop in a small feeder goldfish or guppy (depending on his size) and watch what happens. How big is he now?
Oh, Your husband should know by now that you are always right!
Yes, right away dear...

Well, I thought about it a long time, but it had to be hubbie's idea.........he decided I was "right" after all, and we took him back. He never did anything to make us do it, but we were just being careful.


We really, really miss him. It is for the better though.

 

[Landlocked]

you know why they are called trigger fish right?  OK, I don't either, but I think it is because they jut around the tank alot.

Hmm ... I am almost 100% positive that triggers are called triggers because of their dorsal and anal fins. When frightened triggers (in nature) will dart into a cave, or some such hiding place, and extend their "trigger" fins thus locking them into the hiding spot until the threat passes.

If anyone knows different, please correct me.

You're right. They got their name because they have the unique ability to "lock" their front dorsal fin upright. They will swim into a crevice, lock this, and you cannot get them out without tearing them to shreds. This is meant as a way to defend themselves against predators, but they shouldn't do it in a fishtank.

 

[Navarre]

Hi everyone,
Im completely new to this forum and only found my way here thruogh searching for info on google.

This is a relatively old post and after reading the thread i see that the Niger has been returned but I just wish to say that i have 2 trigers in my reef tank and both have never harmed any of my fish, corals or inverts.

I have a male Bluethroat Trigger and a Niger trigger. The BLue Throat has been in the tank for nearly a year now and ever since day 1 he has lived in the same cave as my 3 bloodshrimps and never looked on them as food at all. I have since upgraded my tank and wanted to try a niger trigger as my blue throat has been such a model citizen. Im happy to say that my blue thraot and nige have never agrgued and the niger also have never taken any interest in the livestock in tha tank whatsoever.

I realise that no 2 fish in the same species are identical and of course, there will be triggers that are lebelled reef safe that may well not be so innocent but i did feel that i needed to put in this post to show people that keeping Nigers and Bluethroats in a reef environment can be achieved.

Cheers for now.

Navarre

 

[leanne]

It's nice to hear others' experiences - it proves all the scare stories can be overplayed (not that they are lies though). I have a mandarin psychadelic gobie that I was critiscised for getting as I was told he wouldn't eat brine shrimp and only eats copeopods ao would starve to death. Contrary to this he actually hand feeds and has eaten the shrimp since the copeopods "ran out".

Thanks for sharing you tank experience with us - I'm new too so I am enjoying hearing everyones views.

 

[Navarre]

I could not agree more with you Leanne.
What will work for me might not work for another person. No 2 fish are the same, we merely take a cross reference of the speceis as a whole and take what seems to be the norm for each one. There will be of course fish that have not "read the rule book" so to speak so all i can say is to do as much reasearch as possible, it doesnt mean you wont get a "badapple "fish but at least you will have enough knowledge to know that you arent to blame for a poor purchase etc.

My first trigger, a male Bluecheek. Very timid and his best buddies are my bloodshrimps. they used ot share the same cave in the old tank.

Greedy little critter and loves cyclopeze of all things! go figure! ) Mind you, in the wild these are among the smallest of triggers and aremainly plankton feeders.


And my Miger trigger, he is slightly smaller than the bluecheek but is far more bold. This feeds readily on live mussel, krill, cyclopeze and cockle.

I would post a piccy but i cant seem to find anyway to attach an image in this forum?
Perhaps i can post em in a different forum? this forum is new to me so i dont know my way around yet

 

[leanne]

If you want somewhere to post piccies I have a piccie posting web site - it's where people can post pics for my horsey forum and link to them. There's full instructions on how to post your pics on there.

The address is:

Arborwood horse forum - for posting images to link to

 

[Navarre]

OK here are a few piccys...
This is my male Bluethroat Trigger. Totally reef safe as in the wild this species is a planktonic feeder. Before i upgraded my tank it shared a cave with its buddies the bloodshrimps

This is my Niger. this is also a planktonic feeder. Its less nervous than my bluethroat but is again very safe with my inverts. (sorry for piccy but he wont stand still!

And this is both of em livin in harmony

 

[spanair]

Very nice triggers Navarre

 

[Navarre]

Thanks Spanair,
I have always liked triggers but i love my reef first! For a long time i felt that the 2 were not compatable until i saw first hand for myself a Bluecheek in a reef tank. It was a female trigger but it was still beautiful to watch. I then did alot of research on them and decided to keep one myself. I must admit, the first new nights were worrying as it took to the same cave as my blooshrimp (i adhore my bloodshrimps ) but it soon became aparrant that it was truely no threat.
It was some time later that i discovered that the Niger is also reefsafe but that this time my tank was simply too small to house another trigger.
The moment i upgraded my tank i got the Niger. To be honest, in a few years from now its likely that th eniger will be too large for this tank (100 gallons) but i shall look to rehouse it at that time.

Im now looking for an Emperor tang (purple tang) to handle the macro algea growth i am getting at the moment. My algea blenny doesnt touch it and its smothering my starpolyps