Starry triggerfish

The starry triggerfish (Abalistes stellaris), or flat-tailed triggerfish, is a tropical, harmless, oviparous bottom dweller, characterized by some white spots along the spinal dark band. The tail is dorsoventral and looks very thin, when looked upon in profile. There is a deep groove in front of the eye. The background colour is grey with olive green spots. Its mitochondrial DNA has been sequenced by the University of Tokyo, Japan.[1]

Starry triggerfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Tetraodontiformes
Suborder:
Tetraodontoidei
Family:
Balistidae
Genus:
Abalistes
Species:
A. stellaris
Binomial name
Abalistes stellaris
(Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801)

Nomenclature

The name of the species has been recently changed to Abalistes stellatus and the author of the taxon is now "Anonymous, 1798".[2] The species has also been recently differentiated from the closely related species Abalistes filamentosus.[2]

Length

Male adults grow up to 60 cm.

Habitat
  • Indo-West Pacific up to the Red Sea and East Africa
  • mud, silty sand bottoms, coral reefs

Diet

Benthic animals such as crustaceans, crabs, mollusks; bony fish.

Status

Not in the IUCN Red List.

Economic use
  • in aquariums
  • food fish (fresh or dried-salted).
  • leather

References
  1. "Abalistes stellaris (ID 33735) - BioProject - NCBI".
  2. MATSUURA, KEIICHI, & TETSUO YOSHINO, 2004. A new triggerfish of the genus Abalistes (Tetraodontiformes: Balistidae) from the western Pacific. Records of the Australian Museum 56(2): 189–194.
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