Can you keep triggerfish together

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For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Putting Multiple Triggerfish Together. Thread starter Joeballz Start date Jan 21, Joeballz New Reefer Manhattan Reefs.

Location South Setauket, NY. I would perfer people who own triggers or have had experiences with them to answer this. Triggers are my favorite fish. Does anyone in here have multiple triggers in the same tank? Even though triggerfish have small jaws, their powerful jaw muscles and teeth can cause considerable tissue wounds when they decide to take a bite.

Triggerfish have also been implicated in biting and damaging glass aquarium heaters and both flexible and rigid tubing. Although heater biting is a relatively rare event, it is a good idea to protect that piece of equipment by placing it in a sump. Frequently check any airline tubing in the aquarium to see whether it needs to be replaced. Triggerfish quickly learn to solve simple problems. They will also spit water out of the aquarium. Triggerfish in the wild often engage in a behavior called hydraulic jetting.

Triggerfish also use hydraulic jetting to flip over protected prey items like spiny sea urchins. In the aquarium they learn to associate the surface of the water, not the tank bottom, with food. So instead of spitting water at the substrate they blow it at the water's surface.

Although interesting, this behavior can cause severe problems if your top is not totally covered and you have electrical outlets near the tank. One of the most important criteria for keeping healthy triggerfish is to feed them often—at least three and preferably five small meals a day. In order to maintain their color and health, they should be fed a varied diet, complete with fresh or frozen clams, urchins, freeze-dried seaweed sheets, frozen or steamed spinach leaf, and freeze-dried krill soaked in Selcon, or a comparable amino-acid.

It is important to feed triggerfish several times a day, as they will rapidly lose weight if fed sparingly. Although many aquarists like to hand-feed their triggerfish, you should be aware that triggerfish, especially larger specimens, can inflict painful injuries with their strong jaws and teeth. When first introduced to the aquarium some triggerfish species can be quite shy and may hide whenever you approach their tank.

But it will not take long before they become bold aquarium inhabitants. So what about invertebrates? Is it really possible to keep triggers with animals they may perceive as prey?

The answer is yes and no. It is very important that you choose your triggerfish species and invertebrate tankmates very carefully. Many triggerfish have highly varied diets that include many different types of invertebrates, as well as plant material and small fish.

Take a look at a dietary study on the commonly kept rectangular triggerfish Rhinecanthus rectangulus. This study lists the following in R. There are a lot of animals in that list that many reef aquarists would prefer to have flourish in their tanks.

But note that there were no corals listed. That does not mean that all triggers are not a threat to corals. Triggerfish are very opportunistic, and some larger species have been known to bite off coral branches to get at crabs or echinoderms that are hiding within a coral colony.

Those species would indeed be unwelcome in your small-polyped stony coral tank. There are also food habit studies that have listed the tips of stony corals in trigger stomachs. The best triggerfish for the reef aquarium belong to the genera Melichthys, Odonus, and Xanthichthys. Of those three genera, the latter is the very best for the reef aquarium—this includes the bluechin X.

The niger triggerfish Odonus niger is more likely to hunt down motile invertebrates and may occasionally eat sessile invertebrates like sponges. The triggers in the genus Melichthys—including the Indian M. While those species usually do well with corals, they may occasionally decide to dispatch a crustacean here or there, especially if the latter are introduced after the trigger is already in the tank.

They have slightly smaller mouths not well suited for destroying aquarium equipment, including heater tubes! On the rare occasion that a Triggerfish does become infected with a parasite such as Cryptocaryon irritans saltwater ick they recover with just a bit of TLC on the part or the aquarist.

It should nevertheless be a fairly good indication of the inherent hardiness of the family as a whole. Having said this, there are Trigger species that while still hardy by most standards, would not fare so well under such treatment. Some Triggers always end up alone, or traded back to the fish store, regardless of the extent to which they tolerate tank mates when young, so the aspiring trigger keeper needs to keep this in mind when selecting the species to be kept.

Others will live out their lives in a community setting with few problems provided enough space is provided, some stocking order rules are honored, and tank mates are chosen with some care. A few will even live in a reef setting. In any case, tall narrow tanks should be avoided, as these are very active animals, and need as much swimming space as can be provided. A hexagonal tank is a very poor choice for a trigger unless it happens to be a very large one.

As is the case with many families, a wide gamut of adult sizes, growth rates and temperaments makes generalizations difficult with regard to the minimum tank size. Others are just tremendously slow growers, and are not likely to reach anything close to adult size even after 6 or 7 years of captive life.

A good example of this is the genus Rhinecanthus , which comprises a few very popular species, including the Huma Huma Trigger R. While fish of this genus are without a doubt some of the most easily kept and sociable of all trigger species, they are also very slow growers — annoyingly slow if truth be known. The above can also be applied to the Undulatus Trigger Balistapus undulates. The primary difference here is that an Undulatus MUST be kept alone, for they are without a doubt the most aggressive aquarium species available, either freshwater or marine!

A few commonly seen species get quite large, and grow at a much faster rate than our beloved Rhinecanthus species. Among these are the Niger Trigger Odonus niger , the Queen Trigger Balistes vetula , the Clown Trigger Balistoides conspicillim and the Blue Line Trigger Psuedobalistes fuscus All four are relatively fast growers and require very large tanks as adults.

Of the four, only O. The Clown Trigger and Blue Line fall while quite aggressive, are still a bit more social that the Queen, and if acquired small can live quite comfortably in a 55 or 70 gallon tank for some time before a larger tank becomes necessary, and they will even coexist with other species for a time if enough space is provided.

This almost always changes at some point though, so be warned! Even with the more sociable species, you will be very limited as far as suitable companions unless even more space is afforded. As mentioned above, Triggerfish are highly resilient animals, and for the most part they ship well and feed from the time they are collected to the time they make it into your home aquarium.

Unlike members of some other genera, adult Triggerfish generally ship well and thrive in captivity, as to quite young specimens above the 1. However in this hobby, as with all things, nothing is all the time, and Triggers can and do become sick deteriorate if not cared for properly after collection.

The prospective keeper should also watch for cloudy areas or spots on the eyes, fins and body, as well as poor color. Very small specimens can sometimes be difficult, and some species are more prone to problems here than others. One the worst in this regard is the Clown Trigger, and very small specimens under an inch in length often last only a matter of weeks in captivity. Still, bear in mind that the Trigger should be the smallest fish in the tank for those species where cohabitation is a reasonable option and specimens in the 1.

Of course, the Trigger must be of sufficient size to prevent it from being consumed by larger piscivores that might already be present in the system. As mentioned above, certain species of Triggerfish are more appropriate than others for long-term cohabitation with other fish species.

While these species can certainly be kept with other species when small, attempting to keep them in a community setting once they begin to put on some size usually ends in tears — these are very powerful, and potentially very destructive fish.

The advice given here is meant to provide the keeper with a long term husbandry solution. Fortunately there are species that usually do quite well when mixed with other tough marine species in large quarters.

Among the most commonly seen species that fit this description are those of the Rhinecanthus genus, which includes R. More than one Triggerfish from this genus can even be kept in the same tank, but they should be introduced at the same time to avoid serious territorial aggression.

Unlike some species, this one will grow to full adult size in reasonable time if cared for properly. The Halfmoom and Bursa Triggers, Sufflamen chrysopterus , and Sufflamen Bursa respectively can also be kept in a community setting, as can the Pinktail Triggerfish, Melichthys vidua , the Bluechin Triggerfish, Xanthichthys auromarginatus , the Crosshatch Triggerfish, Xanthichthys mento , and the Sargassum Triggerfish, Xanthichthys ringens.

The latter 4 species, as well as Odonus niger have the distinction of being generally safe in reef settings, with the caveat that small shrimp should be added before the Triggerfish, and the Triggers themselves should generally be added last, and be the smallest fish in the tank. In fact, in all cases your Trigger should be the last and smallest fish added to the community. The reason for this is that even relatively peaceable species like the Huma Huma, are only peaceable in relative terms!

They are still somewhat aggressive fish , and can do a fair amount of damage in an altercation. For this reason they generally should not only be added last, but also be the smallest fish in the tank. Simply following these two rules generally assures that the Trigger does not establish itself as the dominant fish in the community, and allows the other inhabitants to adapt to the presence of the Triggerfish.

For their part, Triggers are not generally susceptible to stress from larger, bullying tank mates, and they are quite well armored against anything short of a depth charge attack! These species can be kept in reef setups, and often to even bother small shrimp if the shrimp are introduced before the Trigger.

Remember, you can keep them in a community for a while, and the fact that many people do is the reason why I mention them here. Unfortunately, this practice is normally the result of ignorance rather than the knowledge that sooner or later other living arrangements will have to be made.