Triggers

[kevjtomy]

When we buy a house, I would like to set up one or two FOWLR tanks. The two fish that I would absolutly love to have are the undulate and clown triggers. I just love the looks of them. Questions: How large of a tank for these guys? Am I correct assuming you could not have both in one tank? Could any other fish live with them? (I'm thinking down the road when they are full grown, don't want anything eaten). Morays would be OK with them, wouldn't they? I can just hear it from friends: 200 gallons for that one little green and orange fish??? What are your thoughts/experiences? Thanks..

[ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: kevjtomy ]

 

[davelin315]

Triggers will grow fairly large, usually up to about a foot in captivity. The undulated has the reputation of being a very mean and aggressive fish, and the clown trigger is not that far behind it in reputation. When they are smaller, if you keep them well fed, you can keep them together. I had a friend who had a niger, a picasso, a queen (donated by me), and a clown trigger in a 55 and they all did fine together and grew to about 6-8 inches until the queen all of a sudden decided that it was time to get mean and started to eat the other fish. The queen, in my opinion, is one of the meanest triggers out there. However, that said, each trigger will have it's own personality. Picasso's aren't supposed to be that aggressive, however, I put one in my bat ray pond, and it attacked my bat ray, causing it to jump out, and it subsequently died. The bat ray was about a foot in wingspan and the picasso is only about 3-4 inches. There was also a 1-2 inch undulated in there, and he didn't touch my bat ray at all, even though he's supposed to be really mean. I would avoid the morays, as eventually, the trigger may decide to start taking bites out of its tail. As with any fish, the predators you want will have individual personalities, and compatibility will be affected by personality considerations.

 

[kevjtomy]

OK, from all of the searches I've done it looks as if I will need to keep them separate. I sure would have thought that a moray could hold its own, but maybe I was wrong. What do you think of a 120 for each? They have those in my neck of the woods for a somewhat reasonable price.

 

[Anonymous]

Without question, put the undulate in it's own tank. It's a nasty SOB, for sure, and will kill anything else, even at around 3-4". A 120 gallon for the undulate would be more than fine. You can even get away with a 75 gallon if you start it small.

The most aggressive triggers are :

1. Titan
2. Undulate
3. Queen
4. Blueline
5. Clown

Hope this helps...

Peace,

Chip

[ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: marillion ]