Do triggers eat the dead?

[N8MAN1068]

Yeah, totally weird question.

This morning, I noticed that my Volitans was missing. He's about 5" long, and a tad more wide.
The Trigger, a Humu Picasso, is maybe 3" long.
They're both fed on a regular basis, so I can't imagine cannibalism, because i've never heard of that, however, the lionfish is AWOL. It didn't jump. It's not in the overflow. It didn't even come out for some selcon+krill. The trigger did come out though, with a portly looking belly.

Anyone ever experienced anything like this? I'm kind of at a loss.

 

[anbosu]

Triggers are known from time to time to attack lionfish, so it is possible they attacked and killed it. I've always wanted to get a trigger but I've never been able to because of that.

 

[fender4string]

I'll be setting up a tank in the near future and one of the fish i've researched most is the picasso trigger. There's a chance that the trigger might have killed the lionfish. Triggers (especially picassos) and lionfish do not mix. Triggers are able to get through the defense of the spines on lionfish, plucking them off one by one until they can kill the fish. If you can't find him the trigger pry killed it . Hopefully people with first hand experience can chime in on this as I don't know if triggers eat big fish like that

 

[Paul B]

I don't think your 3" trigger ate a 5" lionfish. The lionfish is dead somewhere in the tank and the trigger ate what he could. The rest of the fish fell apart and is probably just a backbone somewhere which your crabs and any other thing in the tank is eating.

 

[Wolverine]

As mentioned, triggers (especially Rhinecanthus spp triggers) can do a lot of damage to lionfish. It's possible that they killed/injured the lionfish, but I doubt they completely ate it.

I agree with Paul B that if it didn't get out of the tank, then there's probably at least a partial corpse in there somewhere being eaten.

Do you have any other pets or rodents in your house? A fish that's finished flopping around on the floor makes a nice treat for them. Also, I wouldn't just check the room with the tank, A fish that has jumped can make it surprisingly far, and I have seen them flop their way to rooms far removed from where the tank is.

 

[N8MAN1068]

I find it very odd, to say the least. I've never seen aggression between them, and they've been happy together for a few months now. I don't have a good supply of hermits and snails, since the trigger took most of those out previously, so I'd like to think that since I last saw the lion a day ago, there'd be some sort of evidence of it left in the tank. A fin or something floating around.

Lessons learned!

 

[Paul B]

Dead lionfish do not float. I am sure it is dismembered in there somewhere unless he got beamed up to the Enterprise.

 

[danorth]

Do they eat the dead?


2.5" titan + 4" lion =

 

[Paul B]

Yep, thats about what they look like

 

[N8MAN1068]

wow...

trigger will be traded in shortly for some more hermits and snails.

Cool little guy...just way more of a terror than I expected.