Titan triggerfish
Balistoides viridescens
Valid name.
- English
- Titan triggerfish
- Scientific
- Balistoides viridescens
- Dhivehi
- މާ ރޮނޑުMaarondu
- Group
- Reef fish
- Maximum size
- About 75 cm
- Depth and habitat
- Lagoons and reef slopes, about 1 to 50 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2022
Description
The largest common triggerfish: a heavy, greenish-yellow fish with dark scale patterns, a dark 'moustache' band above the mouth and powerful teeth. It eats sea urchins, crabs, molluscs and coral tips, often blowing water at the sand or flipping rocks to expose prey. During breeding, females guard eggs in a sand pit and attack any intruder entering the cone of water above the nest. Swimming away horizontally, not upwards, is the standard advice.
In the Maldives
Common on Maldivian reefs and well known to snorkellers because nesting adults defend a cone-shaped territory and will charge and bite.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Balistoides-viridescens.html
- fao.org /4/AD471E/AD471E00.htm
- dv.wikipedia.org /wiki/މާ_ރޮނޑު
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Titan_Triggerfish_imported_from_iNaturalist_photo_324702096
Dhivehi name source: M.R.S. (1997) Fishes of the Maldives, Marine Research Section, Malé (FAO/BOBP MAG/21) (Latin); Thaana from Dhivehi Wikipedia (fish articles derived from the MRS 1997 Dhivehi edition).