New kids in town

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by jimbo222

what kind of tang is the first one.
i like...

Sorry, I should have posted that info. The tang is a lavender tang, Acanthurus nigrofuscus (max size around 8", and to me a really beautiful colour although some think they are drab - you kind of have to give them a chance but when they do colour up it's just "wow").

The trigger is a crosshatch trigger, Xanthicthys mento, and is a total juvenile at 3", the smallest I have ever seen of one of these.

[wickedfrags]

Great pick-up Tony. You will enjoy watching the disposition of this fish change as it become familiar with the tank, and then of course associating you with food.

Watch those fingers around the tank!

Originally Posted by Delphinus

The trigger is a crosshatch trigger, Xanthicthys mento, and is a total juvenile at 3", the smallest I have ever seen of one of these.

[kien]

Glad to see the lavender is doing okay! And ya, that crosshatch is nice! Probably the only trigger that I would ever get if I ever got a trigger :-)

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by kien

Glad to see the lavender is doing okay! And ya, that crosshatch is nice! Probably the only trigger that I would ever get if I ever got a trigger :-)

Yeah that first week was really dicey. I'm very relieved that they seem to have resolved their issues with each other.

So .. um .. shouldn't you be on a beach or something by now?? Dude, put down the iPhone and start on a Corona or a Pina Colada or something!

[Lance]

Nice fish Tony. Good choices, I'm jealous. I wanted a Crosshatch but settled for a Blue Throat as I couldn't see taking out a second mortgage to buy one. You're very lucky to find a small affordable one. Love the Lavender too. They are very similar to my Chocolate Tang, at least with the juvenile colouration.

[Delphinus]

Hahaha I know. I still can't believe I pulled the trigger on the purchase (oooh punny, I didn't actually mean that to be punny, sorry!!) but, and it really must be the size that explains it, but he (she?) was on par with the going rate on .. say, a nicely coloured carpet anemone these days (and not even the most expensive carpets!!) That same LFS had a pair last year that I saw that was 3 times the price for the two of them. Although in a strange way I think that makes more sense that a "pair" of something is worth more than two times one individual..

Josh, it sort of depends on what your definition of reef safe is. In this genus (Xanthichthys) are the crosshatch (X. mento), blue jaw (X. auromarginatus), and sargassum (X. ringens). They are supposed to be planktivores, their mouths even turn upwards as opposed to downwards as they are interested in open water prey. Clams and corals *should* be safe, but I guess I'll find out if I'm wrong here.

That said, I'm not sure if I trust him (her?) around shrimp like cleaners or peppermints (which is why I was asking Dave about that earlier).

There are other triggers I've seen in reef tanks, huma-huma triggers, pinktails .. maybe nigers too come to think of it. Although maybe it's hit and miss and these others, I don't know. Or maybe you make a choice not to have the kind of invertebrate they go after (things like snails or whatever). But everything I've read seems to suggest the Xanthichthys triggers are OK in a reef.

My butterflies are doing way more damage to my reef anyhow (you can see in the pictures the gorgs are all closed up) and I have to make a decision about them. I don't want to, so I keep hoping I can maybe get my other tank ready soon enough, then I'll just move everything ELSE over and keep them behind and turn this tank into a FOWLR or a BOWLR (butterflies only with live rock ). I'd love to try a pair of semilarvatus butterflies for example (oohhhh such preeeeety fish ). Failing that though I might have to catch them and sell them to someone with a FOWLR.

[es355lucille]

Nice purchase Tony! Wow those are really nice. These are both something I have never seen before. The lavender looks to have some reds and blue colors in the one picture. The Crosshatch is amazing!

Brad

[Delphinus]

The lavenders are exquisite in a subtle sort of way. At first glance many think of them as drab but if you stop to think, they wouldn't call them lavender if there wasn't some purple in them. And the more you look at them, the more you see different colours flash out from them. They're definitely one of my favourites, and at 8" max size they are a nice small tang too (especially for Acanthurus sp.).

Here's an interesting article about them: http://www.hawaiisfishes.com/fish_of.../fom_05_03.htm

[fishoholic]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I find that to feed my golden dwarf eel I have to maneuver the tongs very quickly down to the eel's feeding station - I feed him mostly krill (seems to be the eel's favourite) but the trigger has discovered he too quite likes krill so also wants that tasty morsel that's being so conveniently held still by tongs.

I find the same thing with my eel and my pink tail trigger. Only my silly eel is always hungry (for silversides) and he will come way out from where ever he's hiding in order to try to grab the food from the tongs. Problem is my trigger is a lot faster then my eel and loves silversides too. So I came up with a solution......I take my large net and I hold the food on the tongs on the one side of the net while moving the net (in order to scare away the trigger, which doesn't always work, sometimes he can get under the net and a few times he actually swam into the net and almost seemed to try to eat through the net to get to the food but anyways 9 times out of ten it keeps the trigger away) which allows my eel the time he needs to grab the food.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by wickedfrags.com

Great pick-up Tony. You will enjoy watching the disposition of this fish change as it become familiar with the tank, and then of course associating you with food.

Thanks!

Starting to see a bit of that already (introduced into the tank on Boxing Day, spent the first two days holed up in a buried crevasse - you could just see the eyes moving watching everything swim by). This is a very clever fish, you can just tell.

Were you ever able to keep shrimp with yours Dave?

I find that to feed my golden dwarf eel I have to maneuver the tongs very quickly down to the eel's feeding station - I feed him mostly krill (seems to be the eel's favourite) but the trigger has discovered he too quite likes krill so also wants that tasty morsel that's being so conveniently held still by tongs.

I'm just wondering with both of their dispositions to krill that I'm probably unable to ever keep cleaner shrimp and etc. in the same tank.