Holly Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Husband & I would really like to get a trigger. I keep getting conflicting info on them. (scratch) All the books say they're NOT reef safe, but then I find sites online that say that Niger or Pink Tails are OK. ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Some Nigers are ok, pink tails are fine as are blue throat and crosshatch triggers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 They won't suck down my peppermint shrimp?? I have quite a few and some are small (they keep carrying eggs and a few have survived) YAY! This is great news! =) THANKS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Nigers will be hit or miss. I've seen lots of tanks with the other triggers and they had shrimps as well. I don't have experience with them, but i sure do like the looks of the blue throats and crosshatches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanz Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 I've been googling prices to get an idea of what's normal and what's high, before I try to get one. This site seems to have lots of fish are very good prices. I've never seen it before http://www.freshmarine.com/ The crosshatches are way way WAY expensive. The males are giganticonormous, too. A lg male for $400?? An adult pair for $899?? (scary) Beautiful fish though! I'm leaning towards a Blue Throat or Niger, since they seem to be the smallest and least threatening of the four you listed. The three places I quickly checked all said NO under "reef safe" for the Niger, so that makes me a titch nervous. The others were all "with caution"... Thanks for the help! You guys are a wealth of knowledge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Dan (drock59) has both for sale in the classifieds. http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3062 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr S Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 I have never had a problem with a niger trigger. That does not mean it couldn't happen. I have dan's niger in my school tank and he is doing fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoseCityAquarium Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 My blue jaw has been a model citizen in my 90 gallon reef. He has made a cave under an echinophyllia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mbeef61 Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 i had a niger in my reef once...it was ok until he started picking up frags that were too close to his hiding spot and kept dropping them behind the rockwork...but other than that he was fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nu2reef-n Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 It's too bad trigger fish are so iffy in a reef tank. They are very cool fish, with really entertaining antics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 Vanz - beautiful fish! Love it.. Theyr'e really different-looking fish. Thanks for the head's up, Impur - I'm gonna go ck that out =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanz Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 Vanz - beautiful fish! Love it.. Theyr'e really different-looking fish. Thanks for the head's up' date=' Impur - I'm gonna go ck that out =)[/quote'] oh it's not mines. I think it's a nice trigger. Not sure if it's reef safe though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 I couldn't find any pics online that look like that one. Maybe it's a juvenile..? Really nice markings though. =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palani Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 IMO the pink tails are the most colorfull. I've seen them in the wild and they have pink (of course), green, yellow, and orange on certain spots on their body. If I got a reef safe trigger I would choose a pink tail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted February 8, 2007 Share Posted February 8, 2007 I have had many triggers in my reef over the years and find that it always adds an element of stress to the tank. However, if you add a very small specimen in a large tank, IE what Mr. S. has going, you should be fine. Ive kept Nigers, Bluejaws and Pinktails in a reef and nary a one has ever gone to work on my shrimp, snails, clams or coral. I had to remove the last two simply because they were chasing some other fish. I liked the other fish more so out they came.....very sad. I would say give it a try with care and I would recommend a pinktail or a crosshatch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted February 9, 2007 Author Share Posted February 9, 2007 We got a small Niger (2-3"). (clap) It's moving the substrate around into neat piles in the quarantine tank already and a nice brightish blue color, esp on its face. It's so cute!! It's investigating all over the place, but it's only a 10g tank and there's nothing but substrate and one small rock, so it seems kinda bored (if fish can 'seem bored') When food's involved, it's scary. I'd read that they could bite, and I just figured it'd be like when my maroon nips me, but watching that little guy ripping a silverside to shreds and barking it down in huge chunks is really kinda frightening. Can they draw blood? I'm nervous about putting my fingers in there (scary) I've been feeding it a headless silverside twice a day, and it's eating it all up in a matter of seconds. :eek: Is it possible to overfeed it doing this? What about the freakin' spine of the silverside? It digests that TOO? It seems to follow me with it's eye (whichever is facing me at the time) when I walk by. What a great fish! So different from other fish, anatomically... My only biggish fish are just under 4" : yellow tang, CBB, maroon clown female. All the other fish in my tank are quite small, so I'm a titch nervous about that. Trigger's not much bigger than those small fish are right now, though, and there are a bazillion tiny dart-holes in and around the rockwork, so I hope everything works out. If he ends up getting too big and mean, I'll adopt him out. We'll see. (fingers) We've named him Clint...for Clint Eastwood...cuz of the 'trigger' connection. Yes, I shamefully admit we name our larger more individualistic fish. :o Do any of you guys do this??? Sorry for the too-long post.. I'm too excited about it (nutty) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbrownies Posted February 9, 2007 Share Posted February 9, 2007 My scopas tang has drawn blood on me before, I'm sure a trigger can, its all about how he reacts to your hand. Make sure it doesn't see your hand when you feed it, or it might start associating your hand with food, and that would be a bad thing fast. And don't worry about the head or the spine, they eat crabs whole, shell and all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powdertang05 Posted February 11, 2007 Share Posted February 11, 2007 when i had my huma it was always gentle always nice it actually always came up to the tank side where i was and was always doing something entertaining and i could put my hand it the tank when ever i wish either to hand feed or to touch him. never nipped at me and was always nice to other fish the only thing that didnt work out was they loved hermits snails and shrimp so it got costly so he went but was a really really nice sweet fish as for my niger ive has multiple ones the first one i ever got was by far the best was always active never bothered anything and never nips unless my hand was on the food where he wanted to eat so it did happen only need a band aid. also another thing to keep them from nipping was to use clams or oysters form those asian stores so they had fun breaking them open and gettign a meal also helped with the teeth, but i think since reading this ill probably get anther trigger i love their look and how they act great fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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