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Dieren en planten

Fish   Trigger-fish   Sunfish   Marine fauna   Sea fish   Catches and finds   

Mens en Milieu

Water   Water currents   Sea currents   Seawater   Ecology   Ecosystems   
  • Dut: Trekkervis
  • Lat: Balistes carolinensis
  • Eng: Trigger-fish (filefish)
  • Ger: Drückerfisch
  • Fre: Baliste (Alutère)
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Triggerfish, foto fitis, sytske dijksen

Trigger-fish

Trigger-fish are a warm water species, which only occasionally swim in the North Sea. They live a solitary life, are sixty centimeters long and can live up to thirteen years. They live on rocky bottoms, between ten and one hundred meters deep. Trigger-fish have a small mouth but strong forward leaning teeth. They eat molluscs and crustaceans.

  • Named after a pistol

    Trigger-fish were named after the fact that the front bone of the first dorsal fin resembles the trigger of a pistol. This front bone can be erected and locked to the next bone, which locks to the next one. When in danger, the fish uses its dorsal fin(s) to clamp itself in a crevice between rocks on the sea bottom. The attacker cannot easily get the fish out of the crevice.

  • Distribution and habitat
    Trigger-fish, foto fitis, sytske dijksen

    Trigger-fish have expanded immensely in West-African waters. Because of this along with a change in current patterns in waters of Northwestern Europe, trigger-fish have been found more often in northern European waters since the 1970s than before.
    The first specimen in the Netherlands was fished in 1930 in the former Zuiderzee by Amsterdam. This trigger-fish lived in the aquarium in Artis for years. The second specimen was only caught in Dutch coastal waters in 1968.

trekkervis