Huma Huma or Picasso?

[amber439]

I bought a 3" triggerfish today from my petstore who is going out of business, so everything was very cheap, including a very healthy, beautiful, & mellow huma huma trigger for only $11!
When I got home I did research and now I'm confused. Is the huma huma and picasso the same species? Or are they just close relatives?
This fish is very peaceful in my tank, with a 4.5" pork puffer, a tiny four striped damsel, and gold barred damsel. The tank is 55 gallons. Yes I know, when I move out in a couple years, I'm going to upgrade to a much larger tank. (I'm just 16 years old).
Also, how do triggers sleep? I saw mine in the rock work just laying their slightly slanted, I freaked out because I thought he was sick or dead, but then he swam out perfectly fine!
Thanks all!

 

[chopper320]

There are a few triggers that I see referred to as huma huma's and most of them look very similar. The Picasso is often called a Huma Huma. They are a really great fish. They have great personalities and get to recognize their owner very quickly.
They usually sleep in a whole in a rock or something they can fit into and will often times sleep slanted or even upside down. They use their "trigger" to lock themselves in their whole at night so that predators can't get them. Be careful as to never try to pull them out of their whole because they lock themselves in their pretty tight and you can hurt them really easy.
You'll really enjoy him

 

[dlight692000]

the post above is true, and i am pretty sure piccaso's and huma;s are generally the same, maybe in their homeland the natives can see a difference, but that is another story. the post above is correct they sleep in rocks, normally the same one every night and they goto sleep generally the same time and get up the same time, great fish, you may see him moving around the rocks in the tank, or digging a little whole for easy access to his home, but that is natural.

 

[guppie]

They are one in the same. They do like to sleep in some strange position. I have found mine upside down cramed into a hole in a rock. Good Luck

 

[saltwater4me]

Congrats on the good find! 11$! Thats an awesome price.I think they are both the same, They go under rock, and erect there trigger and is then stuck. Or they lay down on the ground on his side, Mine goes in his cave and sleeps.

 

[amber439]

Thank you everyone!

 

[goldfish]

I love my picasso!! He is sooo cute!
Very hardy fish...messy eater though. Swims all day and then tucks himself in bed at night. Too cute to watch!

 

[puppy]

i love my picasso trigger too, when i walk in the room, he goes to the top of his tank wanting food, when someone else walks in the room, he hides in his cave.. =)

 

[grouperhead]

huma and picasso are the smae. i have seen the assasi(sp?) referred to as a picasso as well. mine sleeps in a piece of pvc pipe that is the day home of my eel. great fish. great price for 11 bucks. im gonna go ahead and do pufferlover a favor. puffers and triggers dont mix. one will end up dead or severally injured

[hr]
usually the puffer. if you want to know more about it, do a search about the porks that were at his lfs with triggers. bo

 

[c-lover]

Amber,
Hmmm... Now, I bought a Picasso last week at my LFS and they had Huma's in the next tank. The only slight difference I saw, was the Picasso had two bluish lines diagonally on it's side and the Huma's didn't have the same markings. They did look different for sure though. I thought the Picasso had more color and liked it better.
I think they tend to also be more aggressive as they get bigger. (not sure about that) Good Luck !!

 

[mark24]

Picasso trigger is the 'western' or modern term for the Rhinecanthus aculeatus where as the orignal name for that fish is the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Humuhumu means small trigger fish, nukunuku means small snout (when a phrase is repeated it means small humu alone means trigger fish and humuhumu means small trigger), a means like, and pua'a means pig in Hawaiian. So humuhumu-nukunuku-a-pua'a means 'Small trigger fish with a short/blunt nose like a pigs [nose]' And so lazy Americans didnt want to say the 12 silabul (sp) word so they named if the Picasso Trigger. However, there is the R. rectangulus which is ocassionally called a Picasso, but it is easy to tell the difference because Rectanular triggers (or R. rectangulus) have a much darker almost orange body, and true picassos (R. aculeatus) have a pale body.
-Mark

 

[puppy]

The matkings on my trigger are usually a dark green , then, hen he is excited, they turn blue!

 

[mark24]

Whoa, thats cool, I didnt know that.