Are Blue Throat triggers safe with inverts

[Fishfanatic]

Like the title says can you keep them with inverts I have heard mixed opinions.

[balistidae]

I keep a pair with an arrow crab, cleaner shrimp, pep shrimp, snails etc.... The triggers dont even look twice at any of them.

[Psyire]

Mine was good with 50+ snails, 30+ hermits, & 10 shrimp

[Snowmaker]

what about with giant clams????

Would you leave a friendly pitbull with your unattended child?
The trigger has the tools to to do what you dont want it too, do whatever you want, just be prepared to accept any outcome......

[Delphinus]

But I thought blue throats were supposed to be fairly strict planktivores? In fact I was advised against trying them because I wanted a pair to try to de-crabify my ritteri reef (which is infested with about a dozen hitchhiking crabs and at 30" deep I can't remove them manually, they see me coming, and rearranging the rock is not really an option since it's supporting a 24" anemone that I don't want to move! And an eel doesn't work because it's an open top tank, so that means an octopus is a certain no-no as well, and a mantis is something that .. well once the crabs were gone how do I get the mantis out if I ever want to have fish? You see my dilemma. So I was hoping there was some kind of hope for the bluejaws to go after crabs, because I quite like them, but pretty much everyone I asked was skeptical that they'd do anything to the crabs because of the strict-planktivore thing).

[bsyoun]

I don't know if this helps, but this article seems to suggest that blue-throat triggers may be reef safe. The article is mainly about crosshatch triggerfish, but the last paragraph does mention blue-throat triggers and that...

"They should not pose a problem with corals in an aquarium and tend to have a more placid disposition than many of their triggerfish brethren"

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/Fish.htm

[Fishfanatic]

I should have been more specific when I wrote this post I am mainly worried about it eating my clam. I have heard that they are fine with crabs, and snails but a few sites have said that clams are a part of their natural diet. Has anyone on here sucessfully kept one with a clam?

Originally Posted by bsyoun

rs may be reef safe.

"They should not pose a problem with corals in an aquarium and tend to have a more placid disposition than many of their triggerfish brethren"

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/Fish.htm

Read the above quote.....when you get to the words "may" "should" and "tend", emphasise them and let those words sink in... We are putting wild animals in little viewing boxes and getting upset when one of our caged critters has a bad day and eats one of his fellow jailbirds...... If you dont want to lose one of your prized specimins, keep a species tank, otherwise your playin a game called russian roulet, chances are in your favor that your gona come out ok, so are ya feelin lucky punk???

Cheers

[justinl]

like UWA pointed out, it'll be random with something like a trigger. Ive heard they stick to plakton too tony, but you never know with triggers right?

btw tony, if you get a small mantis It'll be just fine really. smaller species are even considered reef safe. A mantis can move rocks/frags about 1.5 times their own weght maximum (probably an overestimate on my part anyways). So if all your frags are down tight to rocks the mantis can't budge, your corals are safe. Now which mantis? well keep to the small ones like G. viridis, N. wennerae, or G. smithii. Stay away from G. chiragra and O. scyllarus (peacock). note that lfs almost never ID mantids properly. I got a g. smithii in my 8gal reef-to-be.