I've had my 55 gal marine tank setup for about two mos. now. i had a snowflake eel, and a volitan lion fish, both were and still are doing very well. i purchased a 2 1/2" niger trigger for my third and final fish, and it seemed ok for a while 'til....he got stuck in my smaller castle and i didn't find him for a couple of days. i eventually got him out, and he is still alive but for the past few days he is constantly in hiding; again. he appears to be healthy yet he never comes out to eat. i've tried krill, silversides, clam, nothing seems to work. is he just stressed, should i put him in a qt tank? is there any treatment i can give him? Qt tank may stress him more i'd think. i also thought they were supposed to be a blueish color, but this one has been black since the day i bought it. any suggestions for my trigger?
Stressed Niger Trigger
- Thread starter fishyb6e
- Start date
I'd start by ditching the castle and go with a more natural tank decor. I have a humu humu trigger that loves to bury himself in the rockwork. That is how they sleep. New triggers to the tank will be shy but they soon get over it. As for the coloration, all of the niger's I have seen are very dark bluish. Then again most of them I have seen are quite larger than you stated yours was. With it being that small you might want to try brine shrimp, or mysis. Mine loves mysis. Good luck.
the smaller castle i have i would not be heartbroken to see it removed, the larger one though is my eel's domain. no matter where i move it in the tank, that's where you'll find him. i would like to get more live rock and plants though. the trigger remains in hiding, but on occasion i do see him come out around feeding time though, so maybe he's just very shy. the reason i bought this fish is cause i thought he was a swimmer, and that he'd be out a lot more. hopefully when he gets a little bigger he'll be out a little more. thanks for your input.
You don't have to remove anything from your tank. You do have live rock and sand so if the trigger wanted to go behind a rock and sleep or bury in the sand it would. I've got a treasure chest in my tank (cave for the shark) and my trigger is not bothered by it. My Niger also goes behind the rocks to sleep. He will get up very late and go to bed very early lol. When I first got my Niger he was extremely shy and nver out swimming, now he's out most of the time. He's only about 4in. When I first got him he was very very picky on what he wanted to eat but after a few months he will come up to the sureface to eat.
yeah, so my niger trigger died last week. i had a friend over who was clueless about marine fish or any fish in general. she says "hey look at your new fish, he's doing tricks", and she starts giggling about it and i told her "my fish is dying, that's not funny". she knew i was rather pissed off at the situation as well as her for laughing at my fish and she left. good riddens, i didn't really want her at my apartment anyway. i bought a new niger trigger last week and all seems well, this one is a little more lively than the other one was. possibly the other one wasn't healthy when i got him. i'm new to this forum, in the future i plan on posting some pics of my tank when i get my new camera. thanks all