Marine life  /  Triggerfish & filefish
25 of 1316 species
Group

Triggerfish & filefish

Triggerfish and filefish, which swim by rippling the dorsal and anal fins rather than with the tail. The name is the locking mechanism: the first dorsal spine raises and a second spine locks it upright, wedging the fish into a hole.

Species
25
Depth
0–50 m
Rarity range
1 star of 5, found on most divesto 4 stars of 5, two or three a season
Night only
None
Can hurt a diver
6
Destinations
13

The titan triggerfish is the reason this group carries a warning. A female guarding a nest defends a cone of water above it and will charge and bite anything inside that cone, including a diver. The way out is sideways and level, not upward: swimming up keeps you in the cone.

Most of the group is far less trouble. They feed on hard things - urchins, molluscs, crabs - and the queen triggerfish is known for turning an urchin over to get at the underside.

The filefish are the same body plan built lighter, with a single long spine and a rough skin. Several are extreme specialists: the orange-spotted filefish eats Acropora coral and matches it, and the mimic filefish copies a toby, which is poisonous.

25 species

Photographed first, then commonest
Orange-spotted filefish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris
Orange-spotted filefish
Oxymonacanthus longirostris
Living Acropora thickets · 1–30 m
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one upin Lembeh Strait

The other 24, written up but not yet photographed

Every one has a page. They are shown as a list rather than as pictures because nothing has been photographed or logged for them yet, and a species with nothing behind it should not sit in front of one that has.

Where they are recorded

How many of the 25 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 25.

Lembeh Strait 12 Anilao 9 Bali 9 Dauin & Dumaguete 7 Papua New Guinea 7 Islas Revillagigedo 6 Florida 4 Bahamas 4 Cayman Islands 4 Maldives 3 Red Sea 2 Ambon 1 Australia 1

The other groups

Anemonefish 11 Angelfish 25 Batfish 3 Blennies 26 Butterflyfish 35 Cardinalfish 13 Damselfish 32 Dottybacks 5 Dragonets 5 Eels & garden eels 18 Flatfish 8 Frogfish & anglers 26 Goatfish 8 Gobies & dartfish 29 Groupers & anthias 42 Hawkfish 5 Jacks & open-water fish 29 Jawfish 4 Lizardfish & flatheads 10 Morays 26 Morwongs & trumpeters 4 Parrotfish 16 Pufferfish & boxfish 23 Rabbitfish 5 Scorpionfish & lionfish 47 Seahorses & pipefish 53 Shrimpgobies 17 Snappers, breams & sweetlips 39 Squirrelfish & soldierfish 9 Surgeonfish & unicornfish 26 Trumpetfish & cornetfish 4 Wrasses 56 Other fish 46 Sharks & rays 63 Turtles, sea snakes & crocodiles 11 Marine mammals & birds 10 Cephalopods 36 Nudibranchs & sea slugs 137 Sea snails & shells 26 Shrimps 38 Mantis shrimps 5 Crabs 45 Hermit crabs 10 Lobsters & squat lobsters 13 Isopods & parasitic crustaceans 5 Amphipods 2 Sea stars 18 Brittle stars & basket stars 7 Feather stars 2 Sea urchins 23 Sea cucumbers 12 Worms 11 Flatworms 3 Jellyfish & stinging drifters 10 Anemones & zoanthids 12 Corals & sponges 29 Sea squirts 4 Blackwater & plankton 52 Other invertebrates 2

All 1316 species in one index, with filters for destination, rarity and hazard.

← Surgeonfish & unicornfish Trumpetfish & cornetfish →