Help with aggressive tankmate

[kpete4]

Hey, I have a 75 gallon aggressive saltwater tank with some live rock. I have a rectangle trigger, dwarf lionfish, and recently a porcupine puffer. Everywhere that I have read says that the puffer is an aggressive fish and would do fine with the other two. The fish store worker told me I wouldn't have a problem.
I'm having a problem. My trigger, who has never been that aggressive towards other fish, is thrashing the poor thing. I pulled the puffer out and put him in a small quarintine tank because his tail is almost chewed off. He's fine and I'm sure I can get him to survive. Do I need to get rid of the puffer and call it a hopeless situation??? or is there something I can do to make these two get along?????

[michael lai]

Hi Kpete4,
I don't think you can establish a balance after that. Triggers are extremely territorial. You didn't mentioned the size of the fish but then it's a lose, lose situation here. I've kept cowfish with triggers before and they were okay but not with the puffers, let see what the others say.

[kpete4]

The Trigger is a good 4-5 inches, and the puffer is probably 4 inches.

[michael lai]

I usually try to get the indentified aggressor in the group as the smallest fish in order to maintain that balance in the tank at first. Also I put in my community fishes before the addition of the aggressor, it works most of the time.

[kpete4]

That has worked well for me also. There is actually a blue damsel in the tank also. I used him to cycle the tank quite a while ago, and none of the other fish bother him. He was the 1st fish in the tank. I think once i get the puffer back to good condition I'll see if i can bring him back to the store i got him from. It's sad, but i learned a lesson
thanks for the imput
K

[benny]

75 gallon should offer your selection of livestock sufficient hiding space. Given the circumstances, I think you might not be able to reintroduce the puffer back into the tank unless there is a change in the balance. Either rerrange the rocks to ensure no line of sight or other distracting livestock (still a risk).

Cheers,

[kpete4]

2 days ago i rearranged the entire setup (moved all the rocks and stuff around) and tried to put the puffer back in. At this point the trigger is a little confused and hasn't touched the puffer. So far so good!!! Hopefully it will work for me. Thanks for the comments!