Need advice with a FOWLR setup (dog faced puffer, lionfish, triggers...)

I am looking to buy a 90-125 gallon tank and get it cycling because I really want to start getting some of the bigger, non-reef safe fish out there.

My ideal stocklist would be:

• Dog Faced Puffer
• Volitan or Russell's Lionfish
• Some triggers (probably Niger and Picasso)

From what I've read, none of these are too aggressive with fish they're size, but does is this list realistic?

 

ive read that lions and triggers dont get along most of the time.

 

Hopefully Jerry will chime in here he had a video of his trigger attacking a lionfish. Don't remember what kind of trigger it was though.

 

Picasso, clown, and indian triggers are your more aggressive triggers that will go after your lion, You should be safer with a blue throat or a peaceful. Clown triggers get very territorial so they are hit or miss depending on tank size, 125g is too small.

I have a 120 gallon fowlr seupt, with 1 large black volatins lion, a porcupine puffer, a dog faced puffer, a powder blue tang and purple tang.

Its all about the species, its gets frusterating when people say triggers and Lions dont get along when it is really just certain types.

just my 2 cents out of personal experience.

 

I had a Black Volitan, Dogface puffer, Undulated Trigger, Emperor Angel and a Baby shark in mine at one time and it is said that Undulated Triggers are the worse.

 

I would go with a picasso,rectangle,red tooth,red tail,blue throat,or bursa trigger.I don't know as much as some of these guys.
Surgeonfish: Tang Fish, Yellow Tangs and other Surgeons

Foxface & Rabbitfish

Hawkfish

Saltwater Aquarium Fish: Wrasse for FOWLR Aquariums

Damselfish: Blue, Yellow and other Types of Damselfish Species for Sale

Hogfish
^ other options. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=15 18
almost forgot!

 

Mine was the Queen Trigger when she was small, the video is stickied on RC. The point of the video wasn't that all triggers attack lionfish, but that it's a good possibility, and something you need to be aware of.

Btw, the lfs guy that I bought the Queen from had another Queen in with a lionfish. That's where I got the idea from. When I went back to tell him what had happened to the lionfish, he told me that his Queen Trigger was stung around the mouth so badly that it nearly died. Even though it was badly injured, it was relentless in trying to bite the spines off of the lionfish.

If you really want some of those bigger fish, you should start thinking about a bigger tank, more like a 180 or larger. You can do other aggressive fish in a 125, but the ones you listed can get very large.

 

I just looked up the Queen Trigger on LiveAquaria and it did say "(t)hey are one of the more aggressive fish that should be added last to your collection". Plus the Niger's max size is half that of the Queen, so maybe she's an exception. They have Niger Triggers in with lionfish at my lfs and it seems to be pretty passive, so I'll debate getting one of those and keep an eye on things if I do add one.

I just agreed to buy a rimless 90 and am driving down to Charleston to pick it up. I wish it'd been bigger but this came with some beautful and sizeable pieces of SPS (which I'm not putting in the FOWLR of course!) so I decided to go ahead and get this.