The only shrimp he'll be getting is the "dead" variety. He's still pretty shy, hides out in the rocks when I approach the tank; but throw in a small prawn and he's out of the rocks in a nano-second. So far he's eaten everything I've given him: Flakes, shrimp, clam, mysis, pellets and nori.

I thought bluethroat triggers were water column feeders? In terms of "reef safe" triggers, I always heard it was the bluethroats, crosshatch, sargassum, and ... um .. I forget what the 4th one is offhand... pinktail maybe?

You're right Tony. Bluethroats are zooplankton feeders, but I've done quite a bit of reading on them and although mostly reef safe you have to make sure you keep them well fed or they may sample your crabs, snails and shrimp.

I'm mostly concerned with how he's going to get along with the Harlequin Tuskfish. The Tusk is fine with the other fishes in the tank, but goes ballistic when anything new is added. He tore a huge strip of flesh off the Kole tang when it was added. After a few attacks though it settles down.
The trigger is larger than the Tusk though so I'm hoping there won't be a problem.

Well, so far so good with the Trigger. He's been in QT now for a week with a smaller fish, snails, small hermits and some corals and has been a model citizen. Eats like a pig and has been playing in the flow and likes to carry small rocks in his mouth and spit them out. He's pretty smart too. He's learned that if he bumps the powerhead with his nose soon after feeding, Mysis that were sucked into the intake come shooting out. It's pretty funny to watch. He bumps the PH and quickly swims about 12" directly in front and waits for small pieces to shoot out at him. I'll try to get a video of him doing this.

How do you have your QT setup? How big? Sorry if the details are already posted (I have a very short memory!!)

FYI not all women name their fish. Although I fully admit I'm one of the only women I know who doesn't :redface: I always have other female reefers ask me what name I gave my fish, and they are always surprised to find out they don't have names. That being said though, I do call my Sohal "Scar face" after the name Marie gave him (seemed only fitting after everything he went through with marine velvet) and for the life of me I can't help but call regal tangs "Dori" :redface:

Pinktail triggers is right Tony. Actually the pinktail trigger is supposed to be the most reef safe of them all. So far my pinktail trigger has proven that, my sexy, peppermint & pistol shrimp he leaves alone as well as my crabs and my sandsifting starfish.

Lance I love your Harlequin Tuskfish, very pretty fish. I was kinda of wanting one myself but I think my lunare wrasse (maybe) and my miniatus grouper (definitely) would pick on it too much, to warrant getting one. Ironically it's one of the few fish my King angel would leave alone.

Tony, the QT is a 30g with a 20g sump. The QT is a functioning tank where I put all new fish and corals for observation and fattening up. If I need to treat a fish I can turn off the gate valve on the drain to the sump and use the sump for a hospital tank. There is nothing in the sump but a powerhead, the return pump and some macro algae. I just take the algae out, put in some PVC pipe for hiding spots and place the fish in there.

Laurie, The Tuskfish (Sydney) :mrgreen: chases my Lunare (Zippy) :mrgreen: all over the tank, but can't catch him as he's too fast. Actually I think it may be as much playing as serious because the Lunare teases the Tusk to get him to chase it.

OK, here's the video of him working the powerhead for some food. This is about 2 minutes after the last pieces of mysis were eaten. Notice how he bumps the PH and then waits to see if any food will come out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKbXa-X2M8