---
title: Orange-striped Triggerfish (Balistapus undulatus)
scientific_name: Balistapus undulatus
common_name: Orange-striped Triggerfish
taxon: Triggerfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-30T22:45:29.385Z
updated: 2026-08-13T08:05:41.167Z
tags: Orange-striped Triggerfish, Balistapus undulatus, Triggerfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/triggerfishes/orange-striped-triggerfish
---

# Orange-striped Triggerfish (*Balistapus undulatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Triggerfishes (*Balistidae*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 1-60 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef with rubble patches nearby
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- dark green body ruled with curved orange lines running back from the snout
- orange band across the base of the tail, and a yellow patch behind the mouth
- males lose the lines on the snout, females keep them
- length up to 30 cm

Dark green, ruled with curved orange lines that run back from the snout across the whole body, with an orange band at the tail base. Up to 30 cm (12 in), and one of the more aggressive fish on the reef relative to its size.

It eats what other fish cannot. Urchins are turned over and attacked through the mouth on the underside, coral branches are bitten off, shelled molluscs are crushed, and the same jaw handles algae and worms. A triggerfish jaw is a set of eight heavy incisors on a short powerful skull, and it lets a fish this size make a living out of armored food.

Nesting is when it becomes a problem for divers. The female digs a crater in rubble, lays there, and defends a cone of water above it that widens toward the surface; she charges anything inside it and the bite takes chunks out of fins. Swimming upward keeps you in the cone. The way out is sideways, low, and unhurried.

Males and females are separable if you look at the snout: the orange lines cross it in females and fade out in adult males.

## Also known as

- **English:** orange-lined triggerfish, Leubiem kunèng, orangestriped
- **French:** Baliste ondulé, Baliste strié
- **Italian:** Pesce balestra striato di arancio
- **German:** Orangestreifen-Drückerfisch
- **Spanish:** Ballesta Picasso de Rayas Anaranjadas
- **Portuguese:** Cangulo-undulado
- **Dutch:** Groene Trekkervis
- **Czech:** ostenec oranžovoproužkatý
- **Japanese:** クマドリ, Kumadori
- **Chinese:** 波紋鈎鱗魨, 波纹钩鳞鲀, 鉤板機魨
- **Russian:** Оранжевоперый спинорог
- **CA:** Ballesta folrada
- **DA:** Bølgelinjet aftrækkerfisk
- **FI:** Aaltosäppikala
- **GL:** Peixe porco ondulado
- **MAL:** Karatti, കരട്ടി, കരറ്റി
- **MSA:** Ayam laut, Jebong
- **SW:** Kikande
- **TGL:** Pakoy, Papakol
- **TH:** ปลาวัวลายส้ม, ปลาวัวหางเหลือง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Balistapus undulates* (Park, 1797)
- *Balistes aculeatus minor* Forsskål, 1775
- *Balistes aculeatus viridis* Bennett, 1828
- *Balistes lineatus* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Balistes minor* Forsskål, 1775
- *Balistes porcatus* Gronow, 1854
- *Balistes sesquilineatus* Lay & Bennett, 1939
- *Balistes undulatus* Park, 1797
- *Balistopus undulatus* (Park, 1797)

## Range

Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/triggerfishes/orange-striped-triggerfish)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*