Trigger fish help

5

55mixreef8236

New member
So 4 months ago i got a niger trigger for my reef tank. Hes been doing great, wont eat my hermits, and doesn't bully my other fish. About a week ago i noticed he was acting shy. This is not normal because he usually comes to the front glass when im near the tank. Now though, he wont come out of a hole in the LR in my tank. He just lays there, no fin damage, breathing fine. My serpent star lives there with him now. The star doesn't touch him but he stays in there as well. Any help on what might be wrong? I dont want to force him out if hes fine.
 
Forcing him out won't do you any good regardless of whether he is fine or not.
Let's go over some details of your tank:
What size is it?
What do you feed?
Are your parameters stable and what are the numbers?
What, if anything, have you added recently and what is your quarantine procedure?

We also have a Niger who is a great fish if somewhat of a jerk from time to time. Luckily he decided to take on a girlfriend during our tank upgrade: he now spends most of his time trying to woo the powerhead.(I have no idea...lol)
 
Don't force the fish out. It sounds like he has a disease or ailment of some kind. Did you QT? What was the last thing added and when? Tank size, tank readings ect...
 
The tank is a 55 with 4 other fish. A clown, chromis, fairy wrasse, and a small sailfin tang. I know that the tank will be to small for these fish in the future, but in a year and a half ill be in college and have found new homes for all these fish to live in. My parameters are stable. No measurable phosphate/nitrates. Just have a little algea on the sand bed thats come up in the past few weeks. No new fish for the past 4 months. I feed mysis twice a week and light pellets the other days. Making sure to never overfeed. Last thing added to the tank was a zoa rock about a month ago.
 
Trigger fish help

55mixreef8236 said:
The tank is a 55 with 4 other fish. A clown, chromis, fairy wrasse, and a small sailfin tang. I know that the tank will be to small for these fish in the future, but in a year and a half ill be in college and have found new homes for all these fish to live in. My parameters are stable. No measurable phosphate/nitrates. Just have a little algea on the sand bed thats come up in the past few weeks. No new fish for the past 4 months. I feed mysis twice a week and light pellets the other days. Making sure to never overfeed. Last thing added to the tank was a zoa rock about a month ago.
Click to expand...


A sailfin and a Niger?

Oh lord.

You didn't answer Derek's question. Did you QT? I'll assume that you didn't. A fish can be a carrier of a disease and not show it until they're stressed, or immune. I'd guess that something stressed out your trigger, probably the tank size, and now it's got something.. Pictures would help us ID it.


Also, you need to be feeding a lot more, especially with a trigger.. Frozen needs to be fed everyday. With good nutrient export devices, overfeeding shouldn't be a problem...
 
The sailfin and niger have never showed any aggression to eachother. My skimmer is rated to 90 gallons and it runs semi-wet. I dont have a place to quarantine my fish, simply not enough space/outlets/time to have it set up. I buy all my livestock from the same store and have never had any diseases in the 2 years ive had the tank. The trigger used to come out to eat but now he stays in the rock. Do you think i can spot feed him mysis to get him to come out?
 
Having proper territory is just as important if not more important than bio load filtration. You need to move one of the big fish and I'd suggest moving both. Never buy a fish planning to rehome it or upgrading your tank later. It's just not fair to the fish.
 
What are you feeding them? When I had my Niger he ate nori, rods, pellets, everything but that was after months of getting that going. Variety is the key, figure out what the fish really goes for and feed that daily.
 
Since you don't have a place for a qt or hospital tank, you're going to be pretty limited on anything you can do to help your fish. I agree that you're probably under feeding for a Niger so increase your feeding, trying to spot feed him certainly won't hurt, but you're really in a wait and see game. You can't force him out, that has the potential to do more harm than good, all you can do is try to maintain a stable tank and hope he overcomes whatever it is.
 
DUDE!! those fish do not belong in a tank that size. A sailfin will outgrow that tank in a matter of a few months. It's no wonder your niger is hidding
 
Got 140 gal tank not looking good to put a trigger or 2 in then with a couple of tangs. Was thinking it would b ok just upgrading from 50gal, no fish in it yet
 
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