Blue cheek trigger, how reef safe?
 

Blue-Throat/Gilded/Blue Chin Triggerfish
Xanthichthys auromarginatus

So who has experience with them? Soon to be upgrading from 55g reef to a125g reef and I am looking at my triggerfish options. The most aggressive fish I have now is a male lyretail anthias of 4+".

Truly coral safe?
Snails?
Hermits?
Coral banded Shrimp?
Cleaner shrimp?

Thanks, all help welcome!

I had a pair in my 125, they were great. Never bothered anything. Cleaner shrimp never even hid. Highly recommended.

Yeah - they are reef safe. Outside one or two incidents, they do well with everything. To put their "safeness" in perspective, more tangs have been reported to eat inverts and coral than Xan triggers have.

Thanks guys! I've been reading about them for a few days and I'm pretty sure that I'll eventually add one. Anything bully them in your tanks?

My male even enjoyed the services of cleaner shrimp. He never showed any inclination to eat them!

Unfortunately, both my male and female blue-throats exhibit(ed)repetitive swimming patterns suggesting they do not take to captivity very well....and that was in my 400 gallon tank.

So..while reefsafe...my experience with Blue throats has not been good. It is possible that mine were too mature when captured and could not adapt to captivity.

To give you some idea....the male swam back and forth across the front of the tank so continuously that his skin began to wear a scratch line in the front acrylic panel of the aquarium. Imagine the number of passes if you cover the 6 foot front every 2 or 3 seconds.

I felt so sorry for this fish that I donated him to the local public aquarium where he now lives in a 12,000 gallon tank.

I dont believe that any of the Xanthichthys triggers really should be in a tank smaller than 300gallons and 8 ft long. I had a male blue throat in my 180 and he was not happy, he lost color and "paced" similar to the what the above poster stated. I gave him to a friend with a 300 gallon so that he would have ample space. The fish in this genus are pelagic open water fish and swim alot, so they need lots of space.

The color will dull with lone males. If you introduce a female, then the color will become vibrant again.

They do need a lot of room. My XHatches have been fine in my 210G, but it is a 7 foot tank with minimal live rock - they have not exhibited the "pacing" like some have noted.

You can get some bluethroats in the 3 inch range if you are patient. They might do quite well in a 180G tank for some time. They are slow growers, but they will eventually outgrow the tank.

My X Hatches eat about 50% of their diet in nori. When really hungry, the male can kill an entire large sheet in about 10 seconds.

Thanks for the continuing replies, it would seem I should rethink my plans as the 125 may be too small. :(

the bluethroats are pretty reef safe but i would use caution with cleaner shrimp. my crosshatch triggerfish loved cleaner shrimp to eat!