Wanting a Huma Huma, need some info...

[hallzy]

I just upgraded my 29 gallon reef tank to a 65 gallon. I now want to restock in a different direction. In the 29 gallon I had many mushrooms, frogspawn, aussie hammer, candy cane, and some zoos. For fish I only had a 6 line and a yellow watchman. I also had some hermits, nass snails, and a knobby starfish.
Now that I have a larger tank I would love to get a Huma Huma! It is my wife's favorite fish and I have always liked them. I've heard that they are OK with coral, but possibly not hermits. Can anyone confirm this for me? Also will I have to move my 6 line and yellow watchman? I have a 30 gallon that has only a damsel in it right now that they can go into, but I don't want to move them if I don't have to.
And if there's anything else I need to know about these guys, any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

[saxman]

Your tank is on the hairy edge of being too small for a picasso (I'm assuming you mean Rhinecanthus aculeatus and not R. rectangulus, as both are referred to a humuhumunukunukuapua'a in HI). They are fairly slow-growers tho, so if you get a smaller fish (shoot for 3" or so), you'll probably be OK for awhile. They will eat snails and ornamental crustaceans, as well as bristleworms and pretty much any other critters they can catch, so having a CUC with them around can be tuff.
Also, if you do decide to go with a picasso, make it the LAST fish you add because once they become established, they will generally beat the snot out of any newcomers. Once I added the picasso to my tank, that was it...it wouldn't tolerate anything else.
I do love triggers tho...very interesting fish.

 

[hallzy]

I went to my LFS today and they didnt have a huma huma (and yes i did mean Rhinecanthus aculeatus), which I am glad about because he would have been hard to turn down, but I was NOT going to get one until I found out some info about him on here. I ended up with a yellow tang. Another one that I am on the edge with tank size wise, but I have a friend who also has a 65 gallon and has housed his yellow tang for years now with no problems.
As far as a Huma, I talked to the ONE employee at this store that I trust (and yes he is the ONLY one I trust my questions to because I know him personally and he knows his stuff) and he basically said the same thing that you did. I told him the only other thing I wanted to add eventually was a fuzzy dwarf lion, besides the huma of course and the tang. He did say that the Huma may or may not eat my hermits, it kind of depended on the temprament of the certain fish I ended up with.
He also said that a trigger should be the last fish I add, but with Humas they are one of the less aggressive of the trigger family, and that I should be ok if the only other fish I added was the dwarf lion last, so I went ahead and ordered the Huma. He said he would make sure it was a smaller one as you suggested as well. Im very excited for his arrival! Since I just added the tang, i told him to wait and not order him in the very next shipment, so I can give it some time before adding another, so It will probably be about a month. But i will be sure to post pics once he is in!
Thank you for your help, and any other advice would still be gladly appriciated!

 

[hallzy]

Oh i almost forgot, my other MAIN concern with the Huma is my coral. Most places that I read say they will not bother any coral, but a few here and there say they will nip at them. Does anyone have any experience with a Huma and coral?

 

[kiefers]

Quote:
Originally Posted by hallzy http:///forum/thread/386883/wanting-a-huma-huma-need-some-info#post_3400490
Oh i almost forgot, my other MAIN concern with the Huma is my coral. Most places that I read say they will not bother any coral, but a few here and there say they will nip at them. Does anyone have any experience with a Huma and coral?
hello there. i too love the huma huma triggers. My advice will be the same as Mr. Saxman's, the small er the better. they are tough yet beautiful fish and may indeed nip at some of your corals, so don't be suprised. I know a person that has a trigger, named 49.95 (Lol..) and so far he hasn't nipped at anything, he is also 2.5 inches. the smaller the better chance you get a good one. Oh and yes..... make sure there well fed, less chances of them nipping then. If you do get one post pics. I want one too but have many corals......

 

[teresaq]

Now, I'm not an expert, but from what I have read, triggers and lions dont mix - something to do with triggers nipping the lions fins. Sax would be the one to answer that.
T

 

[hallzy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiefers http:///forum/thread/386883/wanting-a-huma-huma-need-some-info#post_3400495
hello there. i too love the huma huma triggers. My advice will be the same as Mr. Saxman's, the small er the better. they are tough yet beautiful fish and may indeed nip at some of your corals, so don't be suprised. I know a person that has a trigger, named 49.95 (Lol..) and so far he hasn't nipped at anything, he is also 2.5 inches. the smaller the better chance you get a good one. Oh and yes..... make sure there well fed, less chances of them nipping then. If you do get one post pics. I want one too but have many corals......
Yeah I have quite a bit of coral. Not anywhere near what most coral keepers have, but I just started about a year ago, and slowed because of running out of room in the 29 gallon. I do plan on buying more now that I have more room. Heres a pic of my new setup. The 29 I had was nearly full of rock and now the 65 made it look like nothing! I even added two large sized rocks from my other tank and it still doesnt look like i have much! lol But anyways, heres the new setup. Most of the coral isnt open because I upset them when I was moving things around to add those 2 new rocks, but you get the idea..

 

[saxman]

FWIW, lionfish and non-planktonic feeding triggers don't mix well, and I think a fuzzy would be a prime target. Then again, my picasso died from the result of envenomating itself on my volitans' dorsal spines while trying to swoop in on some food meant for the lion...oops! The USUAL case is that triggers nip off the lionfishes' spines and kill them.
Granted, this was like 20 years ago when nobody really had a good handle on which SW fish were truly compatible...

 

[tangs rule]

I kept a humu from about 2002 - 2008, and he was a fantastic fish to own. While he would eat smaller snails/ hermits, the large ones in big shells were safe, as he couldn't get a marble size shell in his mouth to crush.. He was very cool, and over time while I was out of town on work for 300+ days of the year, my mom came over to fed the fish daily (we live 3 blocks apart) - the fish became very friendly to her, actually allowing her to "pet" him daily. He suddenly died one day - tottaly unkown cause, no ich/disease - had a fat belly. was rather crushed by the loss...And he was very pretty, all those colors & lines..... these are the good times...
However, if you've ever owned a dog that chewed up the garden hoses, dug holes all over the backyard, tore up the flower garden, and buried anything YOU like - then that's alot like owning a humu.....that darn fish constantly moved the substrate from under rocks allowing them to fall over. He'd tip over corals & frags and bury them. He'd move smaller chunks of liverock around - bang them against the glass......He actually broke a submereged glass encased thermometer, shattering it. . . he'd take mouthfulls of substrate and spit them out over corals - even covering them sometimes - rocks too. He seemed to prefer a "dish" shapped bottom of the tank, as he kept the substate VERY low in the tank center, but kept it 6"+ deep at the ends/sides.......It was HIS tank, and I was just the feeder......you can beat a dog when it rips up the backyard, but you can only laugh at a mindless fish destroying "your" ideal habitat. I never saw evidence of mine eating coral - he just buired them, flipped them over and covered up with sand.
They can be a fantastic fish to own, but IME - they tend to do their own thing in the tank, owner be darned. I've NO plans to have another

 

[siptang]

I 100% agree with tangrules!

 

[tiffanyk]

hahaaha Tangs Rule: My Humu does the same thing with sand...he spits it all over the darn place!

 

[phanatik]

I actually just picked up a Huma yesterday. I put it in with my Niger and they seem to be getting along. They're both really small still (around 2") and I have them in a 300g. So far, the Huma has been nipping at the LR and has found a place to wedge itself for the night. I really hope they can coexist for the long haul.

 

[mjm889]

I have had 3 humu humu triggers over my 18 years of keeping saltwater fish. They will destroy your inverts, they can become aggressive, even with there owners, i have been nipped several times while cleaning the tank, Humu Humu's are very hardy and very social i never had any problems with them health wise, good luck

 

[ironeagle2006]

I have had a total of 3 Humas also 2 were Pussy Cas ONE however was the Spawn of Satan I swear. But then again the one that snapped my Ex wife bought so there might be something with that purchase. I am looking to get one just know this Forget the CUC mine killed even the largest snails Shrimps crabs I could find. I had a Gorilla Crab that even my SFE would not mess with and and the Huma huma ate it in 2 seconds flat.