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Blue line triggerfish
5/21/17
Pseudobalistes Fuscus Distribution; geog. color, markings
var. 6/1/14 Pseudobalistes Fuscus Jigsaw Triggerfish Compatibility (in-)
5/29/14 Mysterious Death (P. fuscus) & "Feeding incompatibility" 2/4/07 Hi All, <Go ahead, "caller"> Long time reader, first time emailer (always wanted to say that) <Dork... ;)> To the point: I woke up this morning with a dead (floating) Blue Line <(Pseudobalistes fuscus)> Trigger. <Perrrty.> I've had him for about 6 months and during that time he's grown from about 1 1/2" to 4". <Wow! That's fast, indeed!> He was the boss of the tank and up to and including last night, was round, robust, and very healthy. I tested the water today and everything was fine as were the other fish. <"Fine" water quality is relative, or speculative at least. Need real numbers.> He had no visible marks on him. Besides some sort of random genetic internal organ failure, <Mmm... yes, barring that...> two possibilities occurred to me as causes; he could have smacked into the dwarf lionfish when feeding and been envenomed (if that's the right word), <Not impossible, but you *should* be able to see puncture-wounds on the trigger, and would've seen some very obvious signs of "envenomation" (I like that word as much as any other...) in the form of erratic swimming, pain, etc.> or he could have gotten some of that wiry stuff from muscles <mussels> that I feed caught in his gills or digestive system. <Again, not impossible, though not likely IMO.> Are either of these possible causes of death? <Not to me.>Is there something else that comes to mind for this sort of thing? <With what information I have, I would rate water-quality as number one, with the lionfish spine as a second. After these two, I would speculate about an internal infection that killed your friend. > While I'm emailing, there's one other thing I've been wondering for a while. Having set up a couple of 'predator' type tanks before this one<.> I've repeatedly run into a stocking compatibility issue that seldom or never is mentioned in books or on the web, yet in my experience is of critical importance. <Ok, cough it up.> Basically it's the issue of feeding compatibility. What I mean by that is this: some fish like groupers and lionfish should only be fed about twice per week depending on size. Most other fish need to be fed once to twice per day. <Or more...> However, the groupers and lions are able and willing to gulp down vast quantities of food intended for other tankmates, even while using sticks, nets or whatever to distract during feedings. <True.> While trying to adequately feed the tankmates (wrasses, triggers, angels), I have twice before ended up with the same problems: 1) Overfed and rapidly growing lionfish and groupers (in one case a very aggressive miniatus) 2) Minimally fed or under fed and slow growing tankmates (including one Picasso trigger who was nearing bite size) 3) Diminished water quality from having to throw more food in the tank than I wanted and having the wrong fish eat it. These situations both culminated having to trade some of the livestock after a period of about 2 years. This is the reason in my new tank I have included a Dwarf Lionfish which in terms of feeding has been working out much better. <Ahh, yes. More "manageable."> In my opinion, the only good companions for large Lions and Groupers are others who are able to feed seldom, then wolf down their food in the same manner. <I disagree. I have had many systems thrive with both groupers and lionfish housed with tangs, angels, triggers, eels, etc. I think the "key" here is to teach your other aggressive fishes to feed from your hands. The triggers should have no problem associating your hand with food, and the lions are usually less-inclined to grab right from your hand. Wrasses can be fed smaller chunks that would be less appealing to the lions/groupers, too. As for the angels, they have different nutritional needs from the lion/grouper combo, so I wouldn't think they would be gulping down the angel-food. > Morays and Sharks seem like good choices though may have to be fed by a stick. Puffers might be ok. However, the vast majority of fish often touted as being possible Lion/Grouper companions (Large angels, wrasses, tangs, and butterflies, and more peaceful triggers) all seem to have such dissimilar feeding habits as to be very poor choices for the long term, period. <Really haven't seen this to pose a problem in practice.> Is feeding compatibility an issue with other types of tank setups? <Can become a problem, but with the variety of foods that most tank-mates thrive on, lions and groupers turn many of them down. Well, at least the lions do. I find that the heavy-hitters prefer the bigger hunks of food, and that they will ignore smaller stuff if there is big food available.> Why is it almost never discussed? <Got me, bub.> Thanks in advance, David <You are welcome, and feel free to send some more info on H2O-chemistry our way. -GrahamT> Trigger, Sand, and Live Rock 12/28/05 Crew, <KC> Merry Christmas! <And to you> My question relates to the interesting behavior of my Picasso trigger. He constantly sifts the sand, and spreads it all over my live rock. In fact, half of my live rock is now covered completely by sand (talk about a white Christmas!). <Ah, the joys of keeping triggers.> Is this bad for the live rock? I plan to use a power head to blow most of the sand off the rock. But I would like to know if I need to clear the sand off my rock every day or couple days to save my rock. <I don't believe any harm will come to the rock but for aesthetic reasons I think I would blow the sand off every couple days. James (Salty Dog)> Thanks KC Friendly Fuscus Trigger? I was just checking out one of you web pages on the Pseudobalistes triggers. Had one more question. You mentioned the yellow finned was fairly gentle in the aquarium, but what about fuscus. I imagine if it was you would have mentioned it. Anyway, I'd appreciate your feedback. <While they are definitely not the most aggressive, I would not describe the Fuscus as peaceful. Also, all of these descriptions are broad generalizations and may not be applicable to individual specimens. -Steven Pro> Ethan Millard
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