Niger Trigger

kreblak

kreblak

FDA approval pending
Mar 13, 2003
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There is a juvenile Niger triggerfish at my LFS that I am considering purchasing. It is currently about 1.5 inches in length. It has some behavior quirks, though.

Whenever I get close to the glass to get a good look at it, the trigger swims up to the front of the tank, turns sideways to me, and clamps ALL of his fins tightly to his body. This includes clamping his dorsal and anal fins, as well as scrunching up his caudle fin until it looks like a tail. He then makes several strained wiggles that manage to propel him about 4 inches through the water. Then he unclamps his fins, swims back to where he started, and repeats the display. If I back away from the tank, he quits. He will only display this behavior if my face is within one foot of the tank glass. The only other fish in the tank is a 5 inch long grunt.

What is he doing? Is this some sort of territoriality display? Does he just not like me? I have found very little on Trigger behavior in my usual literature. Lots of articles about their feeding habits and aggression tendencies, but nothing explaining this little "dance" that he likes to do.
 
Not quite sure what it is trying to do but would guess it is some kind of defending his territory display. Whenever I approach my two they generally get excited or if they get scared they will either dart for their holes or lock both triggers in the open water. The smaller one has a tendency to lock only the dorsal trigger but that is all they do. How much live rock/hiding places are in the tank. It might be a fear reaction if there is not enough live rock. I have a 4" Red Coris Wrasse that I bought from the store I work at because we have .5 inch of aragonite to bury in and he couldn't bury so was freaked out all the time. He now resides in my 209 which has 3" of aragonite and is a very happy camper. It depends on what kind of an element the fish is in as to how they respond to it. Hope this helps and good luck with whatever you decide. Just remember Nigers grow to 18 inches not including tail and will need at least a 125 when full adult. Good luck!
 
He doesn't lock either his dorsal or anal trigger when doing this little dance, instead he flexes them. While making these wiggling motions with his fins drawn tightly against his body, he slowly extends and then releases both triggers....it looks a lot like a body builder slowly flexing and tensing a muscle. He also breaths very deliberately while doing this. You can see the gills as he take long, slow breaths.

The folks at the LFS say they have never seen a trigger do this. Two of them watched the last time I was there, and both were dumb struck as to what the fish was doing. One then proceeded to place his hand in a lionfish tank to show a customer that they weren't dangerous. He got stung. I don't go there for the advice, they just have a good selection. :rolleyes:
 
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