FAQs about Odonus niger Triggerfish
Behavior
Related FAQs: Odonus 1,
Odonus 2, & FAQs on: Odonus Identification, Odonus Compatibility, Odonus Selection, Odonus Systems, Odonus Feeding, Odonus Disease, Odonus Reproduction, & Triggerfishes
in General, Triggerfish: Identification,
Selection, Selection 2,
Compatibility,
Behavior, Systems,
Feeding,
Diseases,
Triggerfish Health
2, Reproduction,
Related Articles: Odonus
niger, Triggerfish,
Balistoides
Species, Red Sea
Triggerfishes,
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Triggerfishes for Marine Aquariums
Diversity, Selection & Care
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by Robert (Bob) Fenner
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Niger Trigger/Behavior/comp.
12/21/11
Hello all,
<Hi Kyle>
recently set up a 60 gallon tank and had a maroon clown and some
live rock, about 4 days ago we added our trigger and very next morning
the clown of comparable size to the trigger was torn to shreds.
<Not surprising. The Niger is an aggressive fish and belongs
with similar tank mates. Your 60 gallon tank will be much too
small as this fish grows.>
We removed him and now our trigger has started to lie on it's side
on top of one of our live rocks, always in the same spot. Tank is
free of disease and water was just tested. Is this normal behavior?
<Not really. Niger Triggerfish are very active during the day
although when alarmed/frightened, they will lock themselves into a rock
with their trigger. Their personalities in that regard can differ
by a wide margin.
Do read here and related articles/FAQs.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/fishes/triggers/index.htm
James (Salty Dog)>
Niger trigger, beh.
10/17/11
Hey Crew,
Quick question for you today. I just recently put a 1-2" Niger
trigger into my main tank on Saturday evening (10/15/11). I've
dealt with this species of trigger before, and I've never had this
problem. Although it is eating when I put food into the tank, it seems
to hide behind rocks the entire day, and is some what intimidated by
the pygmy angel which is also around the same size. I know its early,
just wanting some advice/explanation.
Thanks!
<Just "afraid"... will become more social w/ time going
by. Not to worry.
Bob Fenner>
Snowflake eel and Niger Trigger Relationship --
02/12/09 Hello WWM Crew, <Hi Michelle> First of
all I recently upgraded my a 75gal aquarium to a 125gal and was
quite successful with some help from you. In my 125 I have a
5" snowflake, 3" Tomato Clown, 4" Arc-eye
Hawkfish, 3.5" Panther Grouper, 4" Lunare Wrasse and a
BTA. <The trigger and its size seem to be missing in this
list.> Yes I am aware that the grouper will grow quite large
and will potentially try to eat some tank mates when he gets
bigger. <Yes.> I have crushed coral as substrate about
150lbs live rock, 4 powerheads, skimmer, and 180w 10,000K and
180w Actinic lighting. Should I upgrade lighting for the anemone?
<Should be sufficient in my opinion, especially if it chooses
a higher spot in the tank as residence. You'll see how the
anemone develops given you have a sufficient water quality.>
Ok, so on to my question... The snowflake and the Trigger have
began to share an area in the tank. The eel hides in a large
round piece of rock with an opening about the size of the
Trigger. The Trigger will go up to the opening and hang out so he
blocks the hole. The eel will poke his head out near the Triggers
head and will just sit there. They almost seem to be cuddling.
Neither seem to mind each other at all, but are extremely
territorial towards all their other tankmates. I have attached a
few photos so you can see, a couple are blurry but they really
captured them cuddling. There is a picture of the tank itself,
the rock they have been under is the one that is in the center of
the tank. So, should this behavior concern me? <No, not at
all. Most triggers prefer a spot for sleeping like a narrow gap
or cave where they can use their trigger. I hope such spots are
available, if so, I see no problem.> Is it "normal"
for triggers and eels to share areas and actually get along?
<Happens, but the exact opposite of triggers harassing morays
by biting their fins or larger morays ripping pieces out of
triggers also occur.> We are quite baffled by this one, I hope
you can give us some insight on what we think is a strange
occurrence. <More tolerance and acceptance than friendship
using human terminology. In nature morays are more often found
co-existing with congers or groupers, even communicating with the
latter ones and hunting together with them. So, some social
behaviour is not too surprising, especially not within the
limited choices of an aquarium.> Thank you all, Michelle
<Welcome. Marco.>
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"Me and my snowflake eel; we got a
relationship" |
My Odonus niger Hi, I recently bought a niger triggerfish
from my local petstore and added it to my 75 gallon semi-reef tank. the
only other inhabitant to my tank was a red-Volitans lionfish that is
about 4 inches in length. the triggerfish is a good 3 inches in length
but still seems to be afraid of my lionfish. I am positive that the
lionfish can not fit this fish in his mouth, although i do know they
are quite surprising sometimes, but my trigger stays hiding in a cave
in the back of the tank all day long, except for feeding. I
have had him for 4 days so far and he seems to refuse to come out and I
have noticed that he has scratched himself on the rock as well. do you
think he's just going to hide away and die? is there anything I can
do to make him less scared. anything would be greatly appreciated.
thank you so much for all of your help. <Well, this is a shy species
actually... and it is very new to your system. I agree with you that it
is unlikely to be swallowed by the Lionfish. I would not be concerned
re the apparent scratch (these animals are tough, good healers), nor
the lack of outgoingness of your trigger at this point. Give it another
week or two, and it will be out and about much more. Bob Fenner>
Nocturnal Odonus Niger? Hello, <Hi, Mike D here> I am
new at having a tank. I have a 125 gallon salt water tank. I have a
yellow tang, an angel, Picasso trigger and a Niger trigger (Odonus
Niger). At night the Niger is very active and likes to make splashing
noises. Is this normal? I have been unable to find anything about the
Niger fish being Nocturnal or anything else on this. Thanks.
<The Niger trigger, sometimes sold in larger sizes as the Vampire
trigger due to it's red teeth, can reach up to 19", so you may
find that you need to upgrade to a larger tank eventually. To the best
if my knowledge they aren't truly nocturnal but often occupy deeper
waters, thus becoming "twilight fish" that are active in
dimmer light. Not generally being as aggressive, when small, as the
Picasso, it may be telling you that it needs an additional feeding now
that the competition has eased off. For whatever it's
worth, the Niger is one of the few larger triggers that doesn't
automatically eliminate tank mates as it matures as does the Undulatus,
the Clown and the Queen, the hint here being don't add too many
triggers lest you end up with a bloodbath in the eventual
future.>
-A Niger Fakes it- <Hello> I bought a Niger triggerfish
a week ago. <Did you Q/t this fish?> He seems very active
with my damsel, but when he stops moving he lays on his left side on
the bottom of the tank in the same spot. <Well they do tend to have
personality "quirks" and each does different things to get us
to pay attention.> Is this normal behavior of this fish?
<Could be, But I really need to know if this fish was q/ted or even
freshwater dipped as it might be sick. Is it eating well, swimming
normally and not having any spots etc?> I have just a 20 gal.
tank with crushed coral bottom and 5 live rocks. <Ok here is the
problem, Not only was it not q/t ed its in a tank that is way too small
for this fish. While it may be fine now and the laying on the substrate
is normal (Mine does it sometimes to get more food), it will get way
too large for this tank and will get sick soon if it isn't already.
I hope your tank is not infected with any diseases from this fish, but
please quarantine your fish for at least 4 weeks before putting them in
your display. If any of them are sick or have ich then they will infect
everything and its a hassle to get everything well. Also please
research your fish on WWM before buying them. This fish will get
8" to 15" or more in some cases. Can you handle a 80-120
gallon tank for it?> Thanks, John <Justin
(Jager)>
Niger Trigger 1/10/06 (I am resending the below
message just in case it was never received. My virus scanner is on the
blink and causing all sorts of trouble.)
<Thank you for this. We have webmail issues off/on as well> Crew,
As always thanks in advance. I am having a
problem with my Niger trigger. First off the long and not so short; 55
gal. <... too small a volume for this species.> FOWLR, pH 8.3,
temp. 80, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate 0, calcium 450, Alk 7. I started
to have trouble with the trigger after I rearranged my power heads in
an attempt to eliminate dead spots in the aquarium. The next day the
trigger was hiding under her sleeping rock but came out to eat at chow
time. The next day wedged under the rock again, this time it
wouldn't eat. Third day the same behavior, move to quarantine tank.
<I would wait a week or two here... Triggers are given to such
behavioral changes with slight changes in their environment> No
treatment as yet because I have no idea what is going on. The other
tank inhabitants are a small Scopas tang, a lawnmower blenny, a
yellowtail blue damsel, a maroon clown, a large thriving sebae anemone,
a long spine urchin, a pencil urchin, a coral banded shrimp, a cleaner
shrimp, and various hermits and snails. <Am very surprised that the
trigger has not (yet) consumed the last few> Nothing else is showing
signs of distress. Filtration includes an emperor 400 with the
bio-wheels removed and an aqua-c remora pro skimmer. I think it may be
too late for her as she has stopped eating and swimming altogether, but
does not have any other overt visible sign if stress or disease. Her
diet included Formula One and Two soaked in Zoecon, frozen Mysis shrimp
also soaked in Zoecon and lastly Wardley's freeze dried plankton
also soaked in Zoecon. This is very distressing as this was the second
fish added to the system after the tank was cycled nearly eleven months
ago. Thank you ever so much, Mike <Do try
both an opened clam and on another occasion a "cocktail
shrimp" (sans sauce of course)... and replace the trigger in its
larger/est system. Bob Fenner>
Niger Trigger acting funny... 12/12/06 I have had the
fish 3 months and for the most part has been the dominate
<dominant> fish in the tank. The fish eats all the time and seems
very healthy, until this morning. The fish has no intention of doing
anything but resting wedged between rocks in the tank. Usually it
spends it days swimming all over and moving small rocks. <Natural
behavior> i did a water change yesterday like I regularly do, I have
not added any new fish in a long time. The only thing I have added was
some fully cured live rock only about 15 lbs. Does anybody have any
ideas what could be wrong? <Could be "bummed" with the
change in its world... might have eaten something on the LR that
didn't agree with it...> Could the rocks have some sort of
parasite on them? <Mmm, not likely> Any help would be greatly
appreciated. As i am writing this email the trigger will come out swim
for a couple seconds then dart back into the rock and wedge itself in
there again. I have a fish only tank..175 gallon 1) Niger trigger 1)
Huma Huma Trigger 1) Panther Grouper 1) Snowflake eel 1) lion Fish 1)
Domino Damsel 1) One spot fox face rabbit fish 1) Scooter Blenny
<Will be consumed> 1) Porcupine puffer Very little live rock (
working on that though) mostly base rock and dead Tonga Branch
<Mostly a "wait and see" type problem/situation here. Bob
Fenner>
Niger Trigger Issue 12/12/08
Hello, <Jean> Your site is incredible and have helped my
husband and I tremendously with our first go at a saltwater
aquarium. I've read through every bit (I believe) of trigger
behavior on your site, but my question goes a little beyond the
answers that were offered. I hope you can help. <I as well>
We have a 125 gallon saltwater Uniquarium with a Niger trigger
(about 4.5"), a cow fish (same size), snowflake eel
(18"), and panther grouper (7"). About 2 months ago we
had to remove a domino damsel (2.5") because it was bullying
the cow fish. <This species can be a terror> Ever since
then, the trigger has gone into hiding and on a hunger strike. I
read your site and was encouraged that triggers often hide and go
on hunger strikes, but would soon get over it. Unfortunately,
that is not the case. We can find wedged in different rocks, and
use flashlight to see the body in good shape, but the tail is
getting smaller. We are actually shocked it's still alive
because we never see it swim nor eat. Perhaps the trigger is
sorry to have his Domino buddy gone (it used to follow the
trigger everywhere), or could it be sick? We are feeding them
frozen squid daily, the others eat enthusiastically, and the
water and temperature tests fine too. <Mmm, I do concur that
the Dascyllus removal likely traumatized the trigger... and that
this is an extraordinarily long adjustment period> The only
other thing I can think of is back in May, when the grouper was
smaller, the trigger tried to eat the grouper. We quarantined the
grouper for two months while he healed and then reintroduced him
to the group. Perhaps now that the grouper is bigger, the trigger
is turned chicken? <This could also be an influence> We
will soon have to trade in the grouper at LFS because he's
getting too big for the system. Any suggestions you may have
would be most appreciated! Merry Christmas! Sincerely, Jean
<Thank you Jean... I do have a suggestion, or better put,
something, given the circumstances, that I myself would do. I
would systematically remove all rock, to a clean container, and
after all was out for an hour or two, carefully, but differently
restack it in another way... perhaps in two "bommies",
towers if you will, one toward each corner... This simple
rearrangement of habitat, and the sharing of a new trauma amongst
extant tankmates, may well serve to have this trigger "get
over" it current behavior. One other thing. Do know that
Odonus are very social animals in the wild... always found in
shoals of good to huge size... and that in small volumes
(aquariums), by themselves, some individuals "do" just
turn out to be "chickens". Cheers, Bob Fenner>
Re: Niger Trigger Issue 12/12/08
Many, many thanks Bob. My husband is going to work at the new
arrangement right away. Take care and cheers! <Ahh, very
good... Have attached a couple of pix for your enjoyment... one
from the trip last month in Raja Ampat, showing just what
"scaredy cats" this species can be when approached by
divers... and another from some years back diving at a break in
an outer atoll in the Maldives... Lots of Odonus for sure.
Cheers, Bob Fenner>
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Re: Niger Trigger Issue 12/12/08 Stunning -
thank you Bob. <Glad to share with you Jean! B>
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Triggerfishes for Marine Aquariums
Diversity, Selection & Care
New eBook on Amazon: Available
here
New Print Book on Create Space: Available
here
by Robert (Bob) Fenner
|
|
|
|