Balistoides viridescens
- Up to about 75 cmSize
- Year round; nesting and most assertive in summerBest time
- Least Concern (IUCN)Status
What to look for
A big oval fish with a yellowish body, dark scale edges, a black moustache-like mark above the mouth and a strong set of teeth. The name comes from the first dorsal spine, which locks upright and can only be released by the smaller second spine, the trigger. Watch one feeding: it blows jets of water at the sand to uncover prey.
The nesting season
Nests are shallow pits in sand or rubble, and the territory above them is a cone widening upward, so swimming up over a nest keeps you inside it. If a trigger turns to face you and rolls on its side, swim away horizontally, fins toward the fish. A bite is painful but rare, and the fish is only doing its job.
Where to see it
Dive with us to see it
You might also see
- ParrotfishFrom the crunching schools of bumpheads to the sleeping bags of mucus at night, parrotfish are the reef’s builders and gardeners.
- Moray eelA head in a hole, mouth opening and closing: the moray is breathing, not threatening. Giants reach three metres.
- Giant clamMetre-wide shells with mantles of electric blue, green and purple, some of them a century old.
