Aggressive HumaHuma Trigger

[yellow05gt]

So I added a Sargassum trigger to my display two weeks ago, instantly the HumaHuma went to beating it up and biting at it's tail. So I rmeoved the humahuma to the sump to try and upset the territory in the tank. Well I put the humahuma back in today, after two weeks of being in the sump, and he has chased the sargassum into a corner that the sargassum won come out of. Any suggestions on what to do to get them to live together peacefully? They are in my 480 gallon display.

Stock list below:
5" HumaHuma
5"Sargassum
9" Vlamingi Tang
5" Gold Rimmed Tang
5" Purple Tank
4" Yellow Tang
3" Scopus Tang
4" Bluehead wrasse
5" Quoyi Parrotfish
2 Blue chromis
6" Bicolor Fiji Foxface
6" Scribbled Rabbitfish
2" Aptasia Eating filefish

 

[Eric Cohen]

If you can isolate one of the two triggers into an acclimation box inside the aquarium, you can hope that they will see each other and calm down. Adding another fish at the same time as releasing the trigger back into the tank might be enough of a distraction as well.....I have customers that always add two fish at a time to keep aggression down. Wish you luck!

 

[lion king]

In that size tank they may work it out if someone doesn't die in the meantime. The huma can get real nasty, and that;s right on cue for it's size. There is nothing you can do, realistically in that size tank, with the sargassum being ruffly the same size, the sargassum should be able to take the beating until the huma is satisfied with their dominance. If you are concerned they may not last, one of them will have to go. The huma will repeat the same routine every time you introduce a new comer that challenges his position, mostly any trigger and sometimes any species that the huma feels is a threat to their dominance. It may be a male on male thing, and the only trigger I know how to sex is the niger, the male has streamers.

 

[yellow05gt]

Yea I’m not sure which sex either is. I just know the HumaHuma chases everyone in the tank. Not just the sargassum. I was thinking about adding another 6” sargassum and a male/female pair of 4” blue throats too. Do you think adding the extra to the tank it would curb some of it as well?

 

[lion king]

Yea I’m not sure which sex either is. I just know the HumaHuma chases everyone in the tank. Not just the sargassum. I was thinking about adding another 6” sargassum and a male/female pair of 4” blue throats too. Do you think adding the extra to the tank it would curb some of it as well?

How long has the huma been in the tank, while I have always had good luck with huma's, I do know some get pretty bad when they reach 5" plus. Sometimes they settle down once they are established. Smaller bluethroats may be a risk, they are also pretty wimpy. It would be best to stick with at least the same size or a little larger, especially larger if you are going with less aggressive species. Many times triggers just have to duke it out.

 

[socalfishy]

When my triggerfish explode into war i do 3 things.

1) Change all the rocks up. Yea whoever has a home no longer has the same structure.
2) increase wave flow drastically
3) heavy feed, they just have less follow through drive when really full, if fighting does happen its shorter.
4) turn the lights off, this induces sleeping time for my tank and all action stops.

I usually do a combo of these things and if its still unbearable then someone is going into the acclimation box. I'v only had to do it once for a very large clown trigger. My humu is around 8 inches when he bites someone its BAD. I place the acclimation box where i normally feed. I feed everyone outside the box and then the solo fish. i force it to sit while everyone eats around him.

I have kept many humu triggerfish over the years and typically they beat into submission more so than to death in my experience. If the humu clearly wins and the other fish starts avoiding humu wont bother.

5" is where dominance comes in hard. I bet its bad now, but it calms down later.


How often do you feed your tank, hungry triggerfish wont allow anything to coexist for nutrients.

i feed 3-4 times a day smell meals. Pellets quid krill bunch of small snacks.

 

[yellow05gt]

Thanks everyone for all the advise. He seems to have calmed down a lot since the reintroduction. He does still chase the Parrotfish every now and then, but hasn’t went after the sargassum for about a week now.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

If you can isolate one of the two triggers into an acclimation box inside the aquarium, you can hope that they will see each other and calm down. Adding another fish at the same time as releasing the trigger back into the tank might be enough of a distraction as well.....I have customers that always add two fish at a time to keep aggression down. Wish you luck!

Yup! I always add multiples at once. Helps cut aggression towards any one fish WAY down