Picasso triggerfish

Care at a glance

The Picasso triggerfish owes its name to the graphic pattern of stripes, lines and blocks across its body, as though someone had painted it. Triggerfish are named for an ingenious mechanism: they can raise and lock their first dorsal spine, wedging themselves into a crevice.

It is intelligent, curious and frankly forceful in character: it gnaws at hoses, shifts rocks and eats shrimp, snails and small fish. Keep it in a large tank without invertebrates, with firmly anchored decor and tankmates that can hold their own.

Good to know

• Outgrows most home tanks
• Preys on shrimp and snails
• Territorial

Best not combined with

• Cleaner shrimpLysmata amboinensis
• Hermit crab (red leg)Clibanarius sp.
• Turbo snailTurbo fluctuosus
• Fire shrimpLysmata debelius
• Blue leg hermit crabClibanarius tricolor
• Scarlet reef hermit crabPaguristes cadenati
• Electric blue hermit crabCalcinus elegans
• Dwarf zebra hermit crabCalcinus laevimanus

Related species

• Scooter blennySynchiropus ocellatus
• Valentini pufferCanthigaster valentini
• Purple firefishNemateleotris decora
• Zebra lionfishDendrochirus zebra
• Blue devil damselfishChrysiptera cyanea
• Emperor angelfishPomacanthus imperator