Triggers

[alexwolf]

I have noticed a lot of people have some form of Trigger in their reef tank. I had understood that they arent reef safe. Am I mistaken? I love the fish, i think they are too cool!!

[witecap4u]

As far as reef safe goes, they usually wont bother your corals, however, they will probably kill your shrimp and some crabs and snails depending on size.
I have a niger in my tank, its small enough that my hermits and snails are still alive, but I only have 1 peppermint shimp left that hides in the rockwork.
cs

[don-n-sa]

niger, pinktail and sargassum are the most "timid" of all the triggers

I also have a niger in my tank, It does not mess with hermits or snails but makes quick work of shrimps

I think the sargassum is considered the most "reefsafe" of them all

[SaltyJim]

I think that one of the main problems with triggers is that they are messy eaters, just like puffers. I started with a SW tank that housed only triggers, eels, and a lion, and at feeding time, the water became so cloudy with pieces of food and fish scales (once a week they got Ruby Reds as a treat).

Cleanup would make them undesirable to me in my reef tank from now on.

Jim

[prof]

The messy feeding is an interesting subject. I would welcome a messy feeder in my reef. The corals would love the small particulate food. It should do a lot of good for many corals.

[SaltyJim]

The messy feeding is an interesting subject. I would welcome a messy feeder in my reef. The corals would love the small particulate food. It should do a lot of good for many corals.

I think it also depends on what you're feeding. In my case, it was always live food (guppies, rubies, ghost shrimp, all fortified with vitamins) and there were always scales floating around. Not something that I'd want to have settling on top of any of my corals. Even after I stopped feeding live foods, I could still see some scales on the bottom months later.

But, I know better now. There are much better choices of food for the triggers and other predatory fish than when I started.