shy new trigger

salt creepette · 07-19-2003, 09:02 PM

Hello all, I am new to this site (and new to the hobby). I have two 10 gallon fish only tanks with live rock and sand, millenium wet dry filter. (One of the 10's is soon to become a 30 gallon). I recently acquired a 2 1/2 inch odonus niger (redtooth trigger) from my LFS. He ate like a horse for the first two days and now he just hides and hasnt seemed to be eating for the last 5 days. At least I havent seen him eat. He was eating frozen mixture of squid, worms, plankton, algae. He's been offered it since, along with brine shrimp, and doesnt seem interested. all he wants to do is hide. The water parameters are fine (no nitrites, ammonia, nitrates, salinity and temp are normal). Anyone know if he will grow bolder with time or will he always be a chicken? His color seems good and eyes are active and bright; he's just a hider....any insight would be helpful, thanks.

07-19-2003, 09:09 PM

i think hes asking for a much bigger tank
even the 30 will be too small these get to be 40 cm in length

AND WELCOME TO TRT

Geoff · 07-20-2003, 12:10 AM

Welcome to the TRT!!!

it seems a little strange that he would eat like crazy for a while then stop. unless it was cyanide caught. supposedly they will eat for a short period of time, then the poison will take over and they do not do well.

i also think a 30 will be really small for a trigger.

G~

Jimmer · 07-20-2003, 12:14 AM

Agreed on the size of the tank. ALso how long has the tank he is in been established for? More precisely how long did you cycle the tank for?

WELCOME TO TRT! You'll get great info from everyone here and this is the GREATEST place to ask any and all your questions!!!

Doug1 · 07-20-2003, 03:46 AM

Greeting Salt Creepette, glad to have ya aboard.. Hard to say whats up with the little guy, might be delayed stress, what if anything is it in with. Not to harp but even in a 30 in a year or so, maybe sooner space will become an issue, hopefully it snaps out of the not eating,
Good Luck

salt creepette · 07-20-2003, 08:25 AM

thanks all for your replies. It is honestly intentioned that he will be in his own large tank shortly. I have a friend that wants to give me his 55 gallon tank, and I will put the trigger in there after the tank is up and cycled appropriately. this will be his home until he reaches four inches or so, then will upgrade his home to something larger. the tank he is in now has been up since late may. it has amphipods, copepods and something that looks like a tiny jellyfish thriving in it. his tankmates include a 2 inch gold stripe maroon and a blue assessor. neither seem to pay any attention to the trigger which lies against the live rock on the bottom of the tank. there are also two astrea snails, two red leg hermits, decorator crab, emerald crab and sally lightfoot crab. Im honestly not worried about the trigger eating my cleanup crew, as he is so small and not eating (around me, anyways) for the time being. he looks healthy and does not appear to have the thin appearance of a cyanide caught fish. I observed him in the LFS for about three weeks before I bought him to be sure. Well anyways, thanks for your help everyone!

JennM · 07-20-2003, 08:27 AM

Welcome to TRT!

The tank size issue notwithstanding (it will take a while for him to grow - but an exit plan or a larger tank is the way to go...), I've had a number of these fish in the shop - assorted sizes, and they tend to be shy for a while, but once they "come out of their shell" they are real personalities. Once he learns to associate you with the dinner bell.....

Unless, yes unless he was improperly caught...

Jenn

Doug1 · 07-20-2003, 08:28 AM

Hmmmmmmmmmm 2" gold stripe Maroon clown. Bust out the hidden nanny cam, the clown is my prime suspect. Hopefully it will come into its own soon

salt creepette · 07-20-2003, 08:36 AM

thanks jen and doug. also, may I ask, when its time to upgrade to a larger tank, even though I will use some of the water, sand and live rock from my established tank, wont the new tank go through a 'cycle' of its own before it stabilizes? any words of wisdom on the best way to do this? ive heard throwing a piece of shrimp in every so often will give the bacteria food to grow. how often should I do this?....

JennM · 07-20-2003, 09:00 AM

If you are moving all the contents of an existing setup into a "larger glass box" you shouldn't have any cycle at all - all you are doing is changing the container and adding a bit of water volume.

If you are moving some of the contents, such as live rock/sand (I wouldn't use old water, no benefit IMO), it shouldn't spike unless you add too much biological load, too fast.

Jenn

Junkzoo · 07-20-2003, 09:17 AM

WELCOME TO TRT!

ditto on all the great advice so far on the trigger,,,
same on Doug's post about the Clown,,,,been there, seen that,,,
right Scott(Pirate)? they will put on a nice act while the lights are on,,,,
Scott (Pirate) had the same deal scratching our heads,,,fish would DOA in the AM,,,we checked everything,no clue as to why. no signs of any agression/disease etc. his wife said , why not put the maroon clown the sump,,,,,voila! fish that got put in the tank, now survived in the tank!

b4 this solution came to be, Scott was THIS close to calling it quits.had his tank up for sale and all!
luckily, things are all better now, he upsized the tank, and the clown went back to the LFS, to terrorize another fish , another day

again, welcome , enjoy it here at TRT,,feel feel to ask away any questions you need to ask ,check the archives for anything else you need to know.
if you don't find it in the archives, no such thing as a dumb question here,,,nobody bite anyone's head off here,as least not for long

salt creepette · 07-20-2003, 12:55 PM

hmmmm. this could very well be 'mystery solved' on what happened to our adorable beloved little black tail damsel. The clown and damsel had been living in harmony for about a month; I had fed the clown and damsel one night and all were in good health, when the very next morning, the black tail damsel was *poof!* simply vanished...no remains, nothing. All along we thought it was the banded coral shrimp, so we took him back to the LFS (he would lunge and snip at the fish).
Well, the assessor is holding his own...if I have any other mysterious disappearing fish deaths, I will definitely suspect the maroon. So would it be a bad idea to keep the maroon with other fish such as a firefish or a bar goby, in the future??? in a larger tank???

salt creepette · 07-20-2003, 02:22 PM

update:

ok, the trigger seems to have 'come out of his shell.' he is swimming around a bit now, and longingly looking at bubbles, wishing they were food bits. I caught him snapping up a bit of flake I had just put in. all is well. (dont worry, I have bits of store-bought shrimp, mussels, etc that I feed as well as brine shrimp)

Pirate · 07-20-2003, 07:58 PM

Welcome and thanks so much Jeff for the memories re:that killer fish. I still have night mares. As far as the Trigger and the tank... got to agree with all the others. If it had been caught using cyanide it normally would have a ravenous appetite and would continue eating until the day it dies. Fish caught in this manner normally are unable to gain nutrition due to the damage of the digestive tract.

Hope that things look up for you, hang in there.

Junkzoo · 07-20-2003, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pirate
Welcome and thanks so much Jeff for the memories re:that killer fish. I still have night mares.

I Knew i could get you out here Scott with that lil story,,,
'member,,,it drove me a bit batty scratching this dome here too,,,

good thing your wife is smarter than both of us.