PDA

View Full Version : Niger triggerfish reef safe?


daniella3d
10-25-2010, 03:14 PM
Hi, Yesterday I went to someone's house and he has a niger trigger fish with coral in there. For now only lps and soft coral. He told me that niger was reef safe?? Anyone has experience with this fish being reef safe with sps or other coral?

What about their teeth that must be weared out? do they need to eat something hard like sps to wear them down?

I find this fish very interesting for my aquarium but I am worried about my clam and my corals and a bit skeptical about it being "reef safe"??

Delphinus
10-25-2010, 03:21 PM
I know several people with this fish in their reefs. Very fun fish, I like them a lot.

Niger triggers plus any of the Xanthichthys genus (bluechin, crosshatch, pinktail, sargassum) are generally regarded as reef safe although in my opinion they tend to be rather aggressive feeders so success is probably variable from individual to individual.

Lance
10-25-2010, 03:23 PM
Like any trigger they are hit and miss as to reef safeness. Nigers are, however one of the better ones: upturned mouth = plankton eater. I have a Blue Chin Trigger, also a planktonic feeder and he is a model citizen. IMO corals should be safe but shrimps, crabs may be taken. If you keep them well-fed there is usually less chance of this.

viperfish
10-25-2010, 04:13 PM
Safe for Coral... yes, safe for inverts and small fish... maybe when they are juveniles but as they mature the predacious instincts will come out. I've had mine for two years, he is one of my favourite fish and up untill recently I haven't had a problem. He fights with my Sally Lightfoot crab constantly but they are evenly matched so no one gets killed but it is funny to watch. I am sure as soon as one gets an advantage the other is toast. I looked in the tank last night and my Niger was eating my cleaner wrasse! He is still not aggressive toward any other tankmates, I also have a Virgate Rabbitfish, Porc Puffer, Emperor Angel, and Maroon Clowns. I have never fed him live fish so that's not the reason for his behavior. He's not hungry, I overfeed if anything, Mysis every day, and raw shrimp every other day. The thing that attracts you is they have a personality second only to my puffer, both of these fish are so entertaining you don't care if you have anything else in the tank, I wouldn't give them up for anything! I would say on the agressiveness scale, they are more agressive than a Bluethroat, Pinktail, or a Crosshatch, and certainly more tame than a Picasso, Clown, or Undulated.

Madreefer
10-25-2010, 04:39 PM
Up until a few years a go I also had an aggressive FOWL tank. I would put live clams in to feed my triggers and puffers to help in wearing the teeth down on the triggers and the beak on the puffers. The niger I had in there with them was on the clams just as hard as all of the other fish. The would hammer at the muscle that holds the shells together until it opened. So in my experiences the niger killed and ate clams. Good luck if you get one. Cool fish.

reefwars
10-25-2010, 07:09 PM
i had one in my reef for a long time and as juvies he was fine once he got to full grown status he started bullying other fish for food and he would eat any cleaner shrimp or harass all the crabs and snails. so coral safe yes but not invert or even small fish once they get fullgrown....if i hadnt of gotten rid of mine i know he would of eaten small fish sooner than later hes taken quite a few nips from my puffer, and fights with my clowns and damsel:) overall though i would add one again in a heartbeat beautiful fish who didnt really cause m,e any grief:)

i posted the same thread when i got mine and was told also that it was hit or miss especially with shrimp:) they do love their shrimp:):)

daniella3d
10-25-2010, 10:04 PM
Ok thanks everyone! very informative. I guess with a clam in the tank it is a no go and I should not have one as long as my clam live. If I ever lose the clam I will probably consider this fish, or maybe a Blue Throat Triggerfish.

daniella3d
10-25-2010, 10:05 PM
wow, are you sure your cleaner wrasse was not dead and the trigger was just eating the dead fish? Because I have read that cleaner wrasse have very poor survival rate.??

Safe for Coral... yes, safe for inverts and small fish... maybe when they are juveniles but as they mature the predacious instincts will come out. I've had mine for two years, he is one of my favourite fish and up untill recently I haven't had a problem. He fights with my Sally Lightfoot crab constantly but they are evenly matched so no one gets killed but it is funny to watch. I am sure as soon as one gets an advantage the other is toast. I looked in the tank last night and my Niger was eating my cleaner wrasse! He is still not aggressive toward any other tankmates, I also have a Virgate Rabbitfish, Porc Puffer, Emperor Angel, and Maroon Clowns. I have never fed him live fish so that's not the reason for his behavior. He's not hungry, I overfeed if anything, Mysis every day, and raw shrimp every other day. The thing that attracts you is they have a personality second only to my puffer, both of these fish are so entertaining you don't care if you have anything else in the tank, I wouldn't give them up for anything! I would say on the agressiveness scale, they are more agressive than a Bluethroat, Pinktail, or a Crosshatch, and certainly more tame than a Picasso, Clown, or Undulated.

sitandwatch
10-25-2010, 10:29 PM
I have a Niger, Pink tail and a blue Throat.

I have snails and a clam that non of them care about, I had a cleaner shrimp that use to hang on and go for trips with the Niger and Pink tail but I think it died during a molt.

I have SPS and the only thing issue is the Niger likes to relocate the frags sometimes but since adding in some rubble he is happy with that.

I hand feed then all.

I have heard of them "Turning" so time will tell but right now the Pink tail is the boss so who knows they are fish.

naesco
10-26-2010, 01:44 AM
wow, are you sure your cleaner wrasse was not dead and the trigger was just eating the dead fish? Because I have read that cleaner wrasse have very poor survival rate.??

I was thinking the same.

MedHat, do cleaner wrasse also 'clean' nigers? If so it was likely dieing when the trigger attacked.

viperfish
10-26-2010, 02:01 AM
I was thinking the same.

MedHat, do cleaner wrasse also 'clean' nigers? If so it was likely dieing when the trigger attacked.
That's the strange part, I've seen the Niger hang around the cleaner wrasse and hold its gill out so the cleaner could give it the royal treatment. Last night I was just watching the fish when before I could do anything the Niger came along and bit a chunk right out of the belly of the Wrasse, it squirmed as it sank but there was no chance of survival and certainly no guessing as to who the culprit was.

naesco
10-26-2010, 02:28 AM
That's the strange part, I've seen the Niger hang around the cleaner wrasse and hold its gill out so the cleaner could give it the royal treatment. Last night I was just watching the fish when before I could do anything the Niger came along and bit a chunk right out of the belly of the Wrasse, it squirmed as it sank but there was no chance of survival and certainly no guessing as to who the culprit was.

Than you are right nigers can't be trusted with small fish.
The cleaner which was it's friend turned into sushi!

ALang
10-26-2010, 02:47 AM
Ugh-oh! I just added a niger into my reef. It has clams and cleaner shrimps.
So far he's good, but he's only a couple of inches long. He's "rooming" with the cleaner shrimps in the same mound of live rocks. He gets the "kiss" marks from my large algae blenny ( I think that the blenny wants to evict the trigger).

So feed him frozen clams?? Like mussels, to wear down his teeth?
He's eating flakes (Formula One and Two), pellets, mysis and nibbles on the romaine lettuce that I left for my tangs.

I am now praying to the fish gods for a good trigger.

viperfish
10-26-2010, 03:42 AM
All I can say is be aware as it matures, one common statement that I have heard from quite a few people is that its not that the Nigers show signs of aggression, but have a tendency to snap at random and kill a fish or invert. IMO if you choose your tankmates carefully you will find the reward that comes with owning one of these beautiful fish far outweighs the risks. Like I said earlier I wouldn't part with mine for anything.

reefwars
10-26-2010, 03:48 AM
All I can say is be aware as it matures, one common statement that I have heard from quite a few people is that its not that the Nigers show signs of aggression, but have a tendency to snap at random and kill a fish or invert. IMO if you choose your tankmates carefully you will find the reward that comes with owning one of these beautiful fish far outweighs the risks. Like I said earlier I wouldn't part with mine for anything.


the problem lies when they get older they start seeing other sources of food and as they get bigger they get more cocky and are willing to go a little further like stated above mine would snap at small fish generally around feeding time i think food motivates their behavior more than aggression mine ate cleaner shrimp and gave my puffer a hard time around feeding time.mine out grew my tank but i would of had to remove him or the smaller fish.i think they are beautiful and def worth putting in and i plan to own another once my new tank is up.they do get to be a big size mine was about 7" and still showing signs of getting bigger:)

daniella3d
10-26-2010, 05:27 AM
My gosh...no way I am brining that fish in with my female mandarin in the tank. wow, voracious! so I will have to wait until I have no more clam and small fish. Maybe one day :)


That's the strange part, I've seen the Niger hang around the cleaner wrasse and hold its gill out so the cleaner could give it the royal treatment. Last night I was just watching the fish when before I could do anything the Niger came along and bit a chunk right out of the belly of the Wrasse, it squirmed as it sank but there was no chance of survival and certainly no guessing as to who the culprit was.

daniella3d
11-01-2010, 05:32 PM
Ok I don't know if I did well but I could not find a blue throat and found a nice very blue looking niger and bought him. He was very friendly with other fish so I will see. I currently have no shrimps in my tank either. He is around 3" and the color is very nice.

Time will tell.

Can I put a niger with a blue throat together in a 75 gallons?

bvlester
11-02-2010, 02:53 AM
I had one also my carpet Nem ate it then I sold the nem I will get another one, mine would pick the narsarious snails out of the sand by their tube and try and eat them but that is all he bothered with. I had corals and shrimp with him but in generally if they want some thing they get it sooner or latter. I really like them maybe even better than tangs....

Bill

lockrookie
11-02-2010, 03:49 AM
every sit you go to on this fish says not reef safe. and our lfs has two in right now i had thought of adding one to my 90g. the ones at the lfs are juvies. as for my cleaner wrass i could catch and move it to my other tank. i should probably wait until i upgrade the tank next year to the 120 this way i wont stress as much out in the process. tempting tho very tempting.

infamous
11-02-2010, 05:32 AM
I just have 1 question.... What is this "teeth wearing down" business? I have never heard of this before and am curious as to what it means.

daniella3d
11-02-2010, 03:41 PM
They are supposed to have some sort of theets that always grow and must be weared down by chewing on hard shell.

Mine is currently with my gold headed goby and they eat side by side and no aggression from either fish. They even toutch each other without any reaction. Mine is around 4" right now.

He has not toutched my flame scallop nor any of my coral so far, keep finger crossed.

I have read they don't attack coral but their natural prey are shrimps and they can eat them once they are adult. I also have a crocea in my aquarium so hopefully he'll ignore it.

I just have 1 question.... What is this "teeth wearing down" business? I have never heard of this before and am curious as to what it means.