Redtail Sargassum Trigger NOT REEF SAFE

[benscorals]

My new redtail trigger went rouge and ate 1 chromis in half, took off two other chromis's tails, and bit 2 holes one in the head and took a chunk out of his fin in my male blue jaw all within one day. Why did he do this when they are supposed to be reef safe??

 

[Troylee]

@i cant think

 

[The_Paradox]

I think the answer is large carnivorous fish eat smaller fish made of meat. Personally I never trust the term “reef safe”. Everyone has a different definition.

 

[Seansea]

Hungry? You feed him? Trigger is a triiger in the end

 

[i cant think]

My new redtail trigger went rouge and ate 1 chromis in half, took off two other chromis's tails, and bit 2 holes one in the head and took a chunk out of his fin in my male blue jaw all within one day. Why did he do this when they are supposed to be reef safe??

What size tank is he in?
What are you feeding him?
How much territory does he have?

Fish will become quite nasty if they’re not given the territory or swim room needed.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Are we talking about a sargassum or a pink tail? Sargassum triggers are planktivores; they almost exclusively eat things that can fit in their tiny mouths. Mine has learned to chew larger pieces of meat, but it isn't typical. Pinktails on the other hand are carnivorous, and that behavior would not surprise me from one of them.
EDIT: how large is the fish? If it's full adult size (9-12") then it makes a bit more sense that it would behave this way. Most home aquariums are far too small to house the Xanthicthys triggers, they are incredibly active buggers and I'm sure they can get stir crazy. I'm sure it also didn't like having a bluethroat in the same tank, they can be territorial..

 

[fish farmer]

My new redtail trigger went rouge and ate 1 chromis in half, took off two other chromis's tails, and bit 2 holes one in the head and took a chunk out of his fin in my male blue jaw all within one day. Why did he do this when they are supposed to be reef safe??

I'm under the impression that reef safe means they won't eat corals and/or invertebrates.

 

[MrGisonni]

∆ This. Reef Safe= should not eat corals

 

[littlefoxx]

Triggers can be really aggressive if they are not getting the correct food type or enough to eat. They are carnivores, mine try to steal silversides from the eels on eel feeding days

 

[littlefoxx]

∆ This. Reef Safe= should not eat corals

Common mistake made with triggers unfortunately, they are predators and most sites/stores dont talk about that some of them take a liking to smaller reef fish! Was given the whole it will probably wont eat corals but will eat inverts speal from my LFS when I got my first trigger but they never mentioned that they could/would eat gobies… he was a goby muncher.

 

[Joj]

I have luck with my pink-tail, clown so far. Both nice and thick at around 6”. They can probably go postal when older with smaller fishes but I have them in a big aquarium and feed them multiple times a day with pellets and then frozen here and there. They are with 1 inch chromis, 1 inch mollies and haven’t batted and eye with them. I think feeding them a lot and large aquarium has helped out. I remember getting my 6” Harlequin Tusk and it eating one of my 2 hermits and Molly when I first got him from the LFS. But then I fed him heavily and he didn’t bother the other hermit or Molly afterwards. My thought is that it was starving and ate them out of starvation. But once it was fed daily, if didn’t get so curious on eating its tankmate.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

∆ This. Reef Safe= should not eat corals

Even then, if they're talking pinktail, my LFS has one that will "unscrew" hammer polyps from their skeleton