rhinecanthus questions

[NoahLikesFish]

A. can you cohabitate 2 rhinecanthus triggers in a 75g aquarium (acelatus, rectangulatus, verrucosus) any 2 of the 3 mixed together although dream is all 3 or rectangle and bursa. i also like the pinktail and any other triggers. no xanicthys cause they cost 10 trillion dollars

B. what sessile invertebrates will they eat?

C. what are the best things to keep them with. pebbletooth eels, small groupers, lionfish?

D. what kind of filtration will i need, i want to do the tank fairly cheaply so if i have to use base rock or i have to have weak lights and not keep coral, thats fine. my overall budget is like 1500 to start the tank. im not doing anything real fancy & im probably going to diy a skimmer, mabye not use a sump & use cheap play sand instead of aragonite sand cause of the budget

 

[blaxsun]

D. I wouldn't use play sand - it typically contains a lot of stuff you don't want in your tank and that could be harmful to your reef. Stick with saltwater-specific sand, ie: aragonite, oolite, etc. or go bare bottom on your tank.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

D. I wouldn't use play sand - it typically contains a lot of stuff you don't want in your tank and that could be harmful to your reef. Stick with saltwater-specific sand, ie: aragonite, oolite, etc. or go bare bottom on your tank.

are eels fine in BB? i thought you needed a dsb for eels

 

[NoahLikesFish]

meh its just $70 for crushed coral ig thats fine if it works

 

[blaxsun]

are eels fine in BB? i thought you needed a dsb for eels

Eels have different requirements like suitable rockscaping, tunnels, tight lid, etc. It also depends on the particular species of eel.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

the stocking i think i want rn is 2 triggers, wolf eel, chainlink or snowflake moray, and 1 or 2 other cool fish like sea robin or something

 

[Dave1993]

is it possible to set up a 75 with ur budget my tank alone cost ur budget

 

[Jacked Reefer]

IMO there is no trigger that could live long term in a 75 gallon. ESPESIALLY the rhinecanthus species as they get much larger and much more boisterous.

Also for a 75 predator tank you are fairly limited. Smaller eels, Hamlets, and scorps are pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head. Of those three only eels would long term Cohab with a grouper

as other meme bees have touched do not use playsand unless you like tanks covered in algea. Cheap lighting is fine, but don’t skimp out on stuff that will later turn to be important. IMO if you were to do everything used 1500 could get you a 125. Which then you might be able to do smaller triggers like blue throat.

the stocking i think i want rn is 2 triggers, wolf eel, chainlink or snowflake moray, and 1 or 2 other cool fish like sea robin or something

Also this stocking list is bonkers. The triggers and the wolf eel need a minimum of 180. If not 300. Sea robins require a specialized tank. And only th snowflake would work long term.

if I had a number one piece of advice for this tank go back to the drawing board. It is good to have dreams but harming animals does not benefit either one of you. Sorry to be so harsh but as I work at an LFS I see people trying to get away with abhorrent stocking and tank setup practices and it really gets on my nerves. So please fix this tank plan before you traumatize your poor LFS employee

 

[Tamberav]

His nano is way overstocked so hope he takes this advice

 

[Jacked Reefer]

His nano is way overstocked so hope he takes this advice

I am unfortunately aware, I just can’t stand to see intelligent large fish subject to such conditions. I at least have to ray and break though. Normally I mute users like this, I actually think iahve this same user blocked on another smaller forum. But he is just a kid, and as someone who started in this hobby in my early teen years I understand the mindset. I just hope I can help facilitate a change in heart

 

[NoahLikesFish]

is it possible to set up a 75 with ur budget my tank alone cost ur budget

link?

 

[Soren]

A. can you cohabitate 2 rhinecanthus triggers in a 75g aquarium (acelatus, rectangulatus, verrucosus) any 2 of the 3 mixed together although dream is all 3 or rectangle and bursa. i also like the pinktail and any other triggers. no xanicthys cause they cost 10 trillion dollars

B. what sessile invertebrates will they eat?

C. what are the best things to keep them with. pebbletooth eels, small groupers, lionfish?

D. what kind of filtration will i need, i want to do the tank fairly cheaply so if i have to use base rock or i have to have weak lights and not keep coral, thats fine. my overall budget is like 1500 to start the tank. im not doing anything real fancy & im probably going to diy a skimmer, mabye not use a sump & use cheap play sand instead of aragonite sand cause of the budget

A. I definitely do not recommend more than one triggerfish in a 75-gallon tank, and I don't know of any triggerfish that will thrive long-term in a 75-gallon tank. My personal experience (see below) leads me to believe that limits should not be pushed on recommended minimum tank size for triggerfish and the Rhinecanthus triggers should be housed alone.

B. Not totally sure on this, but they can be destructive and are not considered reef-safe. They will definitely eat shrimp, crabs, and snails.

C. Some other fish may work, but may not be recommended with triggers, especially as they mature. They can be aggressive. Review compatibility charts carefully with triggers.

D. Rhinecanthus triggers tend to be messy and will need decent filtration. You might be able to use canister filters, though I personally don't like the maintenance they require. Any porous rock should work after it is aged to stability, so base rock should be fine for triggerfish. Sand or not is a hard one, since keeping clean-up crew alive with a trigger is difficult. If you do use sand, definitely use aragonite and not play sand (this is known to cause many issues in reef tanks while aragonite actually offers benefits instead). You can get cheap aragonite sand through PetSmart/Petco/Chewy online.

Now to share my personal experience with triggerfish:
My foray into the saltwater hobby started in October 2020 with the purchase of a 75-gallon FOWLR from a co-worker that was moving and not taking his tank with him. Occupants included a ~8" snowflake eel (Echidna nebulosa), a ~3" rectangle triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus), a ~3.5" Picasso triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), a ~3" undulated/orange-lined triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus), a ~3" chromis (possibly actually a ternate damselfish), and a ~4.5" purple tang (Zebrasoma xanthurus) for fish as well as numerous hermit crabs and snails for clean-up crew.
This is NOT a good stocking list for a 75-gallon tank, and I learned this very quickly during initial research. Knowing this would be problematic later on, I started planning a revised and upgraded system while hoping that the triggers would still be young enough to not cause troubles. The triggerfish picked on each other, but without major aggression initially. This lasted for a while, but the undulate triggerfish eventually became extremely aggressive in a very short period of time and stressed out the Picasso triggerfish over a couple days until it died before I could get an isolation tank operable. Within one day after removing the dead Picasso triggerfish, the rectangle triggerfish was harassed to death as well. I ended up placing the undulate triggerfish in the isolation tank as soon as I had it going and could capture the fish, but the whole system was stressed because of it. Within a week before I was going to do system changes, I lost the purple tang from unknown stress and found the eel had escaped over the back of the tank and dried up on the floor behind the tank due to my lack of completely-covering screen lids (which was one thing I was going to fix in my plan with the system changes). The chromis was taken down to a 40g quarantine tank I had running in the basement with other fish in it, but the entire population was wiped out shortly after by what I assume might have been bacterial toxins/Vibrio that may have been introduced with the chromis...

Learn from the mistakes of others and don't follow the same path. A few key points from my lessons learned:
1. Do not house triggerfish together unless you have done enough research to really know what you are doing.
2. Always use sealing and tight-fitting lids with eels unless you like expensive seafood jerky made from your pet.
3. Do not skimp on filtration considerations and maintenance. My disinterest in maintenance on the canister filters (since they have to be unhooked under the tank and opened up to access the filters) caused me to accept lax maintenance procedures that likely led to a (significant?) portion of my issues above.
4. Do not take shortcuts on maintaining water quality. Corals require high quality water more than some fish, but fish still need to be cared-for properly, including water quality/maintenance.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

A. I definitely do not recommend more than one triggerfish in a 75-gallon tank, and I don't know of any triggerfish that will thrive long-term in a 75-gallon tank. My personal experience (see below) leads me to believe that limits should not be pushed on recommended minimum tank size for triggerfish and the Rhinecanthus triggers should be housed alone.

B. Not totally sure on this, but they can be destructive and are not considered reef-safe. They will definitely eat shrimp, crabs, and snails.

C. Some other fish may work, but may not be recommended with triggers, especially as they mature. They can be aggressive. Review compatibility charts carefully with triggers.

D. Rhinecanthus triggers tend to be messy and will need decent filtration. You might be able to use canister filters, though I personally don't like the maintenance they require. Any porous rock should work after it is aged to stability, so base rock should be fine for triggerfish. Sand or not is a hard one, since keeping clean-up crew alive with a trigger is difficult. If you do use sand, definitely use aragonite and not play sand (this is known to cause many issues in reef tanks while aragonite actually offers benefits instead). You can get cheap aragonite sand through PetSmart/Petco/Chewy online.

Now to share my personal experience with triggerfish:
My foray into the saltwater hobby started in October 2020 with the purchase of a 75-gallon FOWLR from a co-worker that was moving and not taking his tank with him. Occupants included a ~8" snowflake eel (Echidna nebulosa), a ~3" rectangle triggerfish (Rhinecanthus rectangulus), a ~3.5" Picasso triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), a ~3" undulated/orange-lined triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus), a ~3" chromis (possibly actually a ternate damselfish), and a ~4.5" purple tang (Zebrasoma xanthurus) for fish as well as numerous hermit crabs and snails for clean-up crew.
This is NOT a good stocking list for a 75-gallon tank, and I learned this very quickly during initial research. Knowing this would be problematic later on, I started planning a revised and upgraded system while hoping that the triggers would still be young enough to not cause troubles. The triggerfish picked on each other, but without major aggression initially. This lasted for a while, but the undulate triggerfish eventually became extremely aggressive in a very short period of time and stressed out the Picasso triggerfish over a couple days until it died before I could get an isolation tank operable. Within one day after removing the dead Picasso triggerfish, the rectangle triggerfish was harassed to death as well. I ended up placing the undulate triggerfish in the isolation tank as soon as I had it going and could capture the fish, but the whole system was stressed because of it. Within a week before I was going to do system changes, I lost the purple tang from unknown stress and found the eel had escaped over the back of the tank and dried up on the floor behind the tank due to my lack of completely-covering screen lids (which was one thing I was going to fix in my plan with the system changes). The chromis was taken down to a 40g quarantine tank I had running in the basement with other fish in it, but the entire population was wiped out shortly after by what I assume might have been bacterial toxins/Vibrio that may have been introduced with the chromis...

Learn from the mistakes of others and don't follow the same path. A few key points from my lessons learned:
1. Do not house triggerfish together unless you have done enough research to really know what you are doing.
2. Always use sealing and tight-fitting lids with eels unless you like expensive seafood jerky made from your pet.
3. Do not skimp on filtration considerations and maintenance. My disinterest in maintenance on the canister filters (since they have to be unhooked under the tank and opened up to access the filters) caused me to accept lax maintenance procedures that likely led to a (significant?) portion of my issues above.
4. Do not take shortcuts on maintaining water quality. Corals require high quality water more than some fish, but fish still need to be cared-for properly, including water quality/maintenance.

ok so only 1, ig that works. can they be kept with similar fish though, i think what i might do is TINY baby rhinecanthus along with a eclipse hogfish. i cant decide on other things but an eel would be cool. i might not doo an eel cause of the lid req but scaping for one would be awesome

 

[NoahLikesFish]

i read on tfh i think or tfk i forgot what its called that rhinecanthus can live in 75g for a few years cause slow growth.

 

[Soren]

i read on tfh i think or tfk i forgot what its called that rhinecanthus can live in 75g for a few years cause slow growth.

Yes, if you start with a small one, a 75g would work for a few years. They do grow slowly typically in captivity. I personally don't like to have to rehome fish because they will grow too large for the tank I provide, but there are many that do so. I recommend you have a concrete plan for the rehoming before getting the fish rather than waiting to find a solution later down the road.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

i wont know the exact solution but it will only be in a 75 for about 3-4 years cause in 3-4 years i will move out and i will 99% get a huge tank by then