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Dead Huma Huma trigger... mis-placed 7/20/06 Hi. I was emailing you to see if you knew of a disease a Huma recently had. I bought the Huma and put in a 70 gal tank with a Niger and Undulated trigger. <Oh yes... know already... a social disease... psychological stress from mis-stocking, crowding> Other than normal checking each other out at entry the fish were ok with each other. <Uh, no> The fish ate the first day in the tank. The second day I found the fish with his head pointed at the top of the tank near the surface. <A submissive posture... "trying to get out..."> The Huma did not eat and kept staying around the surface all day. I noticed on his body color loss. The color loss started behind his trigger fin and ran like a straight line down one side of his body. It was like his body has divided in half with half looking normal and the other half looking muted with color loss. The line ran from top to bottom. The fish died within 6 hours after I noticed the line down his body. I noticed after I moved him to a sick tank the other side had started to do the same thing. I have not seen anything like this before and wanted to know what it was? Can my other triggers get this from the one I lost? The fish had been at the fish store for over a month in a tank with another trigger and a lion fish before I bought him. Thanks for you help, Chad <... These Balistids can't be housed together... not compatible behaviorally... Bob Fenner> Pink tailed trigger needs help Bob I have a pink tailed trigger in a 77 gal tank He has gone from dark green to almost a whitish Has almost like eye shadow above his eyes Swims with a bit of a list. <Sounds like this animal is stressed> also in the tank are two other triggers a lion fish and a dwarf lion. I am aware that it is a heavy bio load and I change 3.5 gal of water every day or two <... need a much larger system...> I have dose 10 mils of Cupramine (SeaChem) I have also bought and set up a vortex diatom filter and bought a Fluval 404 canister to take out copper I will set the 404 up next week currently has Fluval 303) <What were/are you hoping to accomplish with the copper?> my other trigger swim beside him and rub up against him and I think one other is infected any idea what is wrong?? what should I do?? <Get a larger system> I am new to salt water but have had fresh for a while (the 3 triggers do get along other than try to steal empty clam shells from each other) - les <And more. Les, your system is way overcrowded... physiologically as well as psychologically. Trade in all but one of those triggers or get a much larger system... a couple hundred gallons plus. Bob Fenner> - Injured Trigger - <Greetings, JasonC here...> Hi guys, I have a small 50 gallon system set up in my new home until I get my 6'x2'x2' set up installed this summer. My set up's are fish only and my biggest fish is a Regal Tang that I have had for about 3 years, followed by a Yellow Tang which is about the same mass as my Clown Trigger. Living with them and coping well are my Valentine Puffer, a small 'Hovercraft' Box Fish and a pair of Percula Clowns. The tangs and the smaller fish used to share a home for a couple of years with a much larger Clown Trigger and they all got on well enough until I inadvertently poisoned the trigger and lost him about 6 months ago, my hovercraft and puffer died too in this incident which, although sad and expensive, at least taught me a lesson. I replaced the puffer and hovercraft fish fairly quickly and was prepared to wait until I had my 6 footer up and running before looking for another Clown Trigger. However a couple of weeks ago I spotted a lovely looking Clown Trigger at my local dealers. He looked the perfect size to introduce to my other fish and I took him home with me. He settled in very well and as expected the Regal Tang (who was not that brave with the original larger trigger, although they had plenty of 'face off's') was keen to show the newcomer who was boss fish in the tank. After a couple of days monitoring things and deciding that all seemed okay (the fish where happy enough with the newcomer and he was feeding and looking after himself as expected) I noticed a piece of skin or something dangling down from under the triggers mouth. It was very small but it looked as though one of the tangs had cut him with the scalpel and caused a small wound. After a couple of weeks this wound is now looking quite red and you can see a clear break in the surface of the skin which looks like it is not 'skinning' over and leaving a small crack like effect under his mouth which, to me looks quite sore. Could you make any suggestions as to anything I should be doing to intervene if necessary? <I would consider putting this fish in a separate tank so it can be given some peace and quiet while it heals. The actual healing part of it there's not much you can do other than offer foods it likes, and perhaps add an antibiotic to prevent infection. Space to itself will insure no one hassles it and it can convalesce in peace. As an aside, and please understand - I love these fish - clown triggers are mean to a fault. They may not start off that way in your system, but by the time year one comes along, your other fish will be in serious jeopardy. In the wild, most other fish give clown triggers a wide berth... they are aggressively mean. That being said, perhaps you might consider a system just for this one fish...> Thanks, Kevin Everett, Hull, England <Cheers, J -- > Trigger's Inability to Swim My Picasso triggerfish had
his eye ripped out by another triggerfish over a week ago. (He is now
affectionately called One-Eyed Pete.) I transferred him to a separate
much smaller tank, 20 gallons, the only one I had open with nothing in
it. He was always alert and curious and eating a lot. He even would try
to eat us! But he didn't eat anything until tonight. I was putting
his favorite food on a feeding stick and putting it near and around his
mouth, but tonight I tried fresh scallops. He bit in. And for the first
time I noticed that he couldn't swim up from the sand. He had dug
himself a huge hole between two pieces of live rock. I thought from
trying to dig himself a grave, but now I realize he was trying to swim
but was unable to move, his fins propelled the sand up and he dug
further down. <He propels sand but doesn't swim? Is he stuck? If
not it sounds like he may have injured more than his eye...perhaps his
swim bladder from running into stuff and fighting?. Go here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/AqBizSubWebIndex/fishdisho.htm and scroll
down to swim bladder in bold.> My water parameters are ammonia 0
nitrites 0 nitrates 30, PH 8.4, salinity 1.024, calcium 425. That's
all I test for regularly. The only physical injury he had that we could
see was a torn dorsal fin (which has almost completely healed) and his
ripped out eye. I love this fish, I have had him for years. Is there
any hope for him? I know triggers are resilient, but this is bad. Thank
you so much in advance for any insight you could bring to this dilemma
-Rachel <Do some water changes and get the nitrates down a bit, it
might help him. Besides that water looks good. Sounds like a rough and
tumble kind of guy. I wish you well. Craig> Hi Bob, You had wrote me some things that could be wrong with my trigger. And you had I think solved one of the problems. Sometimes the Blue line trigger comes over from the other side of the tank and bites the clown trigger. So what can I do? >> Really about the only thing is to separate them... completely, as in two different systems... These are very territorial animals that are often "fight to the death" adversaries between and amongst species. No amount of "trial separation", therapy, moving decor... is likely to solve this problem. Bob Fenner
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