A Red Sea triggerfish with a dark band from eye to eye and bold lines around the mouth and tail base.
To 30 cm. Tan to pale grey above and white below, with blue stripes between and below the eyes, a dark bar running down behind the eye, a yellow-orange band from the mouth, and dark chevrons on the rear body and the base of the tail. The body is deep and flattened side to side, with the eye set high and far back on the head.
It is the only fish of its genus in the Red Sea, which settles the identification there. Where the ranges meet further east, the lagoon triggerfish has a bold black and white diagonal wedge on the lower flank that this species does not.
It lives on shallow sand and rubble beside coral, mostly above about 20 m, and juveniles are on the reef flat. It is solitary and territorial and feeds on bottom-living invertebrates. It has strong teeth and will bite a hand, but it does not charge divers the way the titan triggerfish does. The range is the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman, so it is close to a regional endemic.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.