Will enriching triggerfish reduce psychotic breaks?

[ichthyogeek]

So I just watched this scishow video:


Now, anybody who's watched a few nature documentaries, might notice that the hunting strategy developed looks strangely similar. In fact, it looks quite like this:

Or even, perhaps, this:


Something I know, is that cetaceans are ridiculously smart. Enough that they get bored. And that they need enrichment when held in captivity, otherwise they might get stressed (and also enrichment in general is just a good idea).

I'm not sure if triggerfish are approaching cetacean level intelligence, or even if they're approaching cephalopod level intelligence, BUT:

I'm curious to know if triggerfish that have more enrichment in their lives, are less likely to go ballistic on their tankmates or not. If you provide enrichment for your trigger, have you noticed it being more calm?

For context: I define enrichment in this case as some sort of change to the animal's environment that allows them to engage their brain. Common enrichment items include toys such as giant balls for larger animals, or could even be complex food dispensers that an animal must figure out how to open in order to get the food. An example of enrichment might be feeding a trigger with a turkey baster, and either letting the fish "play tag" with the turkey baster (squirting food whenever the fish hits the baster), or even putting the turkey baster in various parts of the tank for the fish to chase. Another example might be feeding live animals such as clams or urchins, or feeding in such a way that the fish has to figure out how to get at the food (ex. using a food jar for cats, or a kong toy for dogs)

 

[Spare time]

I think that with many animals, especially those whom may be more cognitively complex, enrichment is a good idea. I don't know of many ways to do this in a fish tank other than maybe moving things around every once and a while (it is a pain so I would never do that personally). However, I do little things like keep the pumps on during feeding to have the fish chase the food. You could maybe give them things like frozen clams with shells on and what not so they have to work for it. Or maybe you can come up with some sort of food holder that the fish has to work around to get the food.

 

[lion king]

This is why I love triggerfish. You will find this not only in voracious hunters like triggerfish; but in many of the ambush predators and other voracious hunters like groupers and eels; puffers are just dumb but they try. I find these fish in their own category, of interactive fish. These fish will also be very reactive to stimulus outside the aquarium, which also adds to their appeal.

Large tanks and aggressive tank mates are necessary, but maybe some enrichment would be a good plus. I've worked with land predators, and the ones that responded to enrichment, were more tame with humans and lived a longer life.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Kinda makes me think of this tumblr thread actually