Trigger Question

Hey all. We have a 55 gallon tank that we intend to make a community fish tank. Stock list will be:
1 Yellow tail damsel (IF he can behave he can stay)
2 False Perc Clownfish
1 4line Wrasse
1 Diamond Goby
1 MYSTERY FISH

We recently saw a Niger Trigger at our local pet chain pet store that we don't buy fish from and of course he said oh yeah he would be fine as your "big" fish in the tank. I've read and heard that the nigers are pretty laid back and are ok in community tanks so thats not my worry. My concern is I think my tank is to small and my LFS that I trust isn't open right now so I thought I'd ask here. Is a Niger trigger A) To big for my tank, B) To big for my tank with those other fish and C) Going to take out every member of my fish tank on a late night Sushi run?? Thanks for the help guys

 

IME
The trigger if introduced last to your set up will be fine with the other fish

the 55 will eventuallly be to small for all the fish you listed above IMO

in a 55 you can generally keep (individual systems vary) 13 - 14 inches of fish
which allowing for growth, your listed fish exceed

saying that many people do keep juvenile fish of species that will outgrow their tanks and either upgrade to a bigger tank later or trade the fish back for another juvenile of a different species as it gets larger

if you want a fish to keep for a very long period and watch it grow and see how long it will live in your system, then IMO the trigger is not the fish for you

Steve

 

i've been looking at getting an 8" niger trigger off craigslist recently. this thing is immaculate, but the owner says its become way too big for his (oddly enough) 55 and is getting aggressive with his other fish - thus selling on craigslist.

just from hearing and seeing that i would say pass on the niger trigger for your tank.

~Will.

 

This 55 gallon tank is going to be temporary we are almost positive of that. That said I'd hate to get fish, get attached and have to get rid of them. The damsel is not a fish we wanted but we got him as a test fish and hes a pretty fish and so far hes behaving I hate to send him back to the fish store . The clowns are something that's going in because we have 18 month old little girl and she recognizes them as nemo so of course we have to get em.

Other then the clowns we are not set on anything and in fact the goby was only going in for two reasons, one as something to kind of clean the sand and two we were told that the inchs of fish thing wasn't as big a deal with him as he would be a ground dweller and not take up swim space...false???

Honestly we don't know what to put in here, we just want happy, healthy fish that will live a long life. Watching just the little blue guy swim around under the moonlights is a blast can't wait to see all of them once its stocked! Sooooooo....we will go back and review our stock list and probably count the triggers out for now, thank you for your advise ;D

 

Hi Arvins - clowns are a great choice for a 55 IMO , excellent fish , with character
I would advice you not to bother with a nem for at least 6 months , they like mature water (Finding Nemo has probably caused more deaths in clowns and nems than I would care to guesstimate at)

The LFS shop advise about space is not really valid IMO - its bioload thats more important than space, there is only a fixed anount of real estate for bacteria to colonise and the stocking capacities are general guidelines based on amount of biological filtration capacity the system has, not so much how much space there is

free swimming space is important, but that would not mean you could overly stock your tank with fish that dont do much swimming, like blennies, hawks , gobies, etc

a 50 with a cannister filter and minimal rock work - has a lot of swimming space, but its stocking capacity would be less than the same tank, with loads of rock, loads of water movement and a great skimmer

water quality and maintaining water quality is the real key to how many fish your tank can safely hold on the species that dont swim about much.

Steve

 

Thank you steve for the advise. Actually at this point we don't think we are going to let our little clowns acquire a anemone, have heard they can live very happily without it and that the nems tend to walk into stuff...like corals and powerheads! IF we get one it will be much later I had heard at least six months and if we do get one we would probably wait till after the first of the year just to be sure the tank was established enough to keep it healthy! It's the same with corals we aren't after those for months, well maybe a zoo frag or two in a bit to see if we can keep them healthy. Well then the goby is probably a no go, snails can clean our sand! So then we shall stick to the clowns, the damsel (maybe) and the four line wrasse.....are those four fish it then? Would a little dwarf angel, royal gramma or ????? anything else work? If four is it then four is it!! As I said happy, healthy is more important to me then numbers.

 

Mystery fish? This sounds like a job for 3reef. Can we get a pic?

 

Oh, No sorry I meant we don't know what our last fish should be Didn't mean to be confusing right now a yellow tail resides in our tank, until tomorrow morning he is all alone at which point the clowns will finally be bought and added. The rest of the fish listed is just our want list.

 

Oh got ya. Niger triggers get pretty big dont they. To big for a 55 I would think.

 

With the fish you listed, and while there are no corals in the tank - a drawf angel would be a perfect centre piece fish IMO ( they can be coral nippers, you can get lucky, many do, but I have never been lucky with them and I have tried 4 different species in various reef set ups, flame, rusty, coral beauty and fireball)

5 fish in a 55 would be great IMO

Steve