Awesome458
Community Member
Forty-two years ago (not long after I graduated high school), I was living in a small 700 sqft walk up flat and I really wanted to adopt a small dog. However, I could not afford the required damage deposit! As luck would have it fish were not subject to the deposit, so I purchased the first of what would become seven aquariums.
Four tanks were setup as saltwater, the remaining three as freshwater. The largest tank was home to “King,” my six-inch long Clown Trigger. King was an aquarium store owners personal pet and I tried many times to buy him, with no luck. Even after offering two or three times the going price for a similar size Trigger, the answer was still “No.”
The aquarium store owner said that his pet Clown Trigger had a “one-of-a-kind” personality and he was not for sale. I kept working on him every time I visited the store for fish and supplies and one day (about one year later) he finally acquiesced and agreed to sell him to me.
He warned me that he was very aggressive (and may bite if given the opportunity), so I needed to keep him in a large tank by himself. I agreed and left the store with King under my arm and a big cheeky grin on my face. As luck would have it, I had a tank already setup and waiting. I had been looking for a Snowflake Moray for a few months and had previously prepared a suitably large tank.
As King got settled into his new home, I went back to the fish store the following week and asked his previous owner more about his personality. He said that King acted more like a dog than a fish and gave several examples.
He would fetch a practice golf ball (the kind that was hollow with holes in it) that you threw into the tank, then throw it back out of the tank at you. Not once or twice, but over and over again… Our longest play time doing this was about 25 minutes!
This game became a regular ritual for us as King really, really loved fetching his ball and throwing it back out of the tank at you. He would also play chase with you, swimming up and down the long length of the tank faster than a speeding bullet, as you dashed back and forth…
He enjoyed playing hide and seek as well. I would get down on the floor and peep up over the bottom of the tank and he would quickly swim to another hiding spot in the coral. If I waited too long to move and peep up at him, he would swim over and peck at the front glass with his teeth on the aquarium until I relented.
Second only to playing fetch with his beloved ball, he loved squirting water at me, especially when I squirted water back at him with a squirt gun, or a turkey baster. He had excellent aim and I was routinely soaked with saltwater! He was particularly adept at getting saltwater on my business suits and silk ties before I left for work each morning…
King was also keen to play “tug” as he would drag large pieces of coral around his tank like a frustrated interior designer. Almost every morning, I would wake to a new setup inside his tank. Some of the coral pieces were quite heavy, but it did not deter him in any way.
Needless to say, King did indeed act more like a dog than a fish! He was awesome in every way and I eventually got him to accept a tank mate (a large Snowflake Moray) without any aggression issues.
In all the years I had King, he only bit me once. About a week after I got him, I was cleaning his tank filter and he nipped my little finger a tiny bit. I still have the scar…
He never tried that again and I routinely cleaned his tank bare handed without incident. He loved to rub against my hand and arm, much like a dog does when you’re giving it a rub when I was cleaning the tank and resetting his ever changing aquascape.
King was a great Trigger fish with a really quirky personality that only intensified as he got older. The only other pet I had back in the day to rival the antics of King was my pet Octopus. But that’s a story for another posting…
I’m in the process of designing my dream saltwater tank that will be around 500 or 600 gallons when completed. You can bet there will be another Clown Trigger in my tank. They get a bad rap sometimes and a lot of it may be well deserved, but I love them so a 6” or larger one is going to be a dream tank resident, you can bet a handful of the Kings Gold Sovereigns on that!
Cheers!
Four tanks were setup as saltwater, the remaining three as freshwater. The largest tank was home to “King,” my six-inch long Clown Trigger. King was an aquarium store owners personal pet and I tried many times to buy him, with no luck. Even after offering two or three times the going price for a similar size Trigger, the answer was still “No.”
The aquarium store owner said that his pet Clown Trigger had a “one-of-a-kind” personality and he was not for sale. I kept working on him every time I visited the store for fish and supplies and one day (about one year later) he finally acquiesced and agreed to sell him to me.
He warned me that he was very aggressive (and may bite if given the opportunity), so I needed to keep him in a large tank by himself. I agreed and left the store with King under my arm and a big cheeky grin on my face. As luck would have it, I had a tank already setup and waiting. I had been looking for a Snowflake Moray for a few months and had previously prepared a suitably large tank.
As King got settled into his new home, I went back to the fish store the following week and asked his previous owner more about his personality. He said that King acted more like a dog than a fish and gave several examples.
He would fetch a practice golf ball (the kind that was hollow with holes in it) that you threw into the tank, then throw it back out of the tank at you. Not once or twice, but over and over again… Our longest play time doing this was about 25 minutes!
This game became a regular ritual for us as King really, really loved fetching his ball and throwing it back out of the tank at you. He would also play chase with you, swimming up and down the long length of the tank faster than a speeding bullet, as you dashed back and forth…
He enjoyed playing hide and seek as well. I would get down on the floor and peep up over the bottom of the tank and he would quickly swim to another hiding spot in the coral. If I waited too long to move and peep up at him, he would swim over and peck at the front glass with his teeth on the aquarium until I relented.
Second only to playing fetch with his beloved ball, he loved squirting water at me, especially when I squirted water back at him with a squirt gun, or a turkey baster. He had excellent aim and I was routinely soaked with saltwater! He was particularly adept at getting saltwater on my business suits and silk ties before I left for work each morning…
King was also keen to play “tug” as he would drag large pieces of coral around his tank like a frustrated interior designer. Almost every morning, I would wake to a new setup inside his tank. Some of the coral pieces were quite heavy, but it did not deter him in any way.
Needless to say, King did indeed act more like a dog than a fish! He was awesome in every way and I eventually got him to accept a tank mate (a large Snowflake Moray) without any aggression issues.
In all the years I had King, he only bit me once. About a week after I got him, I was cleaning his tank filter and he nipped my little finger a tiny bit. I still have the scar…
He never tried that again and I routinely cleaned his tank bare handed without incident. He loved to rub against my hand and arm, much like a dog does when you’re giving it a rub when I was cleaning the tank and resetting his ever changing aquascape.
King was a great Trigger fish with a really quirky personality that only intensified as he got older. The only other pet I had back in the day to rival the antics of King was my pet Octopus. But that’s a story for another posting…
I’m in the process of designing my dream saltwater tank that will be around 500 or 600 gallons when completed. You can bet there will be another Clown Trigger in my tank. They get a bad rap sometimes and a lot of it may be well deserved, but I love them so a 6” or larger one is going to be a dream tank resident, you can bet a handful of the Kings Gold Sovereigns on that!
Cheers!
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