Marine life  /  Trumpetfish & cornetfish
4 of 1316 species
Group

Trumpetfish & cornetfish

Long, thin, tubular fish that hunt by stealth rather than speed: the trumpetfish, which hangs among gorgonians, and the cornetfish, which hovers over open ground with a whip-like filament trailing off the tail.

Species
4
Depth
1–45 m
Rarity range
1 star of 5, found on most divesto 3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
Night only
None
Can hurt a diver
None
Destinations
9

The trumpetfish's method is to be somewhere else's outline. It hangs vertically head-down among sea whips and gorgonians, and it shadows larger fish - swimming alongside a parrotfish or a grouper - to get within range of prey that has already decided the larger fish is not a threat. It occurs in brown, blue-grey and bright yellow forms on the same reef.

The cornetfish is longer, thinner and out over sand and seagrass rather than in structure, and the filament off the tail is what identifies it at a distance. Both feed by getting close and then expanding the mouth suddenly, which pulls the prey in with the water.

Both are hard to photograph well for the same reason: the fish is a metre long and a few centimetres deep, so it either fills the frame end to end or reads as a stick. Shooting along the body rather than across it is usually the answer.

4 species

Photographed first, then commonest

4 written up, none photographed yet

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 4 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 4.

Lembeh Strait 2 Anilao 2 Dauin & Dumaguete 2 Bali 2 Papua New Guinea 2 Islas Revillagigedo 2 Florida 2 Bahamas 2 Cayman Islands 2

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 Triggerfish & filefish 25 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.

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