Triggerfish
size:
Maximum 60 cenimeters
Dutch sportfishing record: 44.5 centimeters
age:
Maximum 13 years
color:
Fins with bluish lines
food:
molluscs and crustaceans
reproduction:
lays eggs
- Dut: Trekkervis
- Lat: Balistes carolinensis
- Eng: Triggerfish
- Ger: Drückerfisch
- Fre: Baliste (Alutère)
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- Triggerfish, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Triggerfish
Triggerfish are a warm water species, which only occasionally swim in the North Sea. This unusual fish is named after the appearance of the front spine on its back, which looks like a pistol trigger. This spine can be erected and held in place by the adjacent spine, which is then held in place by the third spine. In that way, triggerfish use their dorsal fin when in danger to clamp themselves in a crevice between rocks on the sea floor. It's almost impossible for the attacker to get the fish out of the crevice.
- Triggerfish at Ecomare
- Distribution and habitat
- Trigger-fish, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Because the number of triggerfish has grown tremendously in West-African waters and the current patterns in waters of northwestern Europe have changed somewhat, triggerfish have been found more often in northern European waters since the 1970s than before. The first specimen in the Netherlands was caught in 1930 in the former Zuiderzee by Amsterdam. This triggerfish lived in the aquarium in Artis for years.
The fish live in the Atlantic Ocean in warmer waters south of the Gulf Stream. They are found occasionally in the North Sea particularly in the summer and autumn. They like to swim in bays and harbors or by wrecks or reefs further in the sea.
- Triggerfish at Ecomare
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