---
title: Redtooth Triggerfish (Odonus niger)
scientific_name: Odonus niger
common_name: Redtooth Triggerfish
taxon: Triggerfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-01-01T21:57:51.547Z
updated: 2026-08-13T20:44:20.641Z
tags: Redtooth Triggerfish, Odonus niger, Triggerfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/triggerfishes/redtooth-triggerfish
---

# Redtooth Triggerfish (*Odonus niger*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Triggerfishes (*Balistidae*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Depth:** 5-110 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Current-swept drop-offs, in loose feeding clouds
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- deep blue-purple body with a pale line across the head
- long trailing tips on the tail lobes
- red teeth, visible at close range
- in loose clouds of dozens facing into the current
- length up to 50 cm

Blue-purple fish in a loose cloud off a wall, all facing into the current, feeding on nothing a diver can see. This is the triggerfish that gave up the family trade: instead of crunching shells it picks plankton out of moving water, which is why it is always where the current is.

The teeth are still red. Bright red against the blue face, and visible at a meter - a leftover from an ancestry of hard-shelled food, kept by a fish that now eats copepods.

It keeps the family's other invention too. The first dorsal spine locks upright and is held there by a second small spine behind it, like a latch; a fish wedged into a crevice with that spine up cannot be pulled out until it releases the lock itself. Every triggerfish sleeps this way, and this one bolts into a hole and locks in at the first sign of trouble.

Unlike its titan and yellowmargin relatives, it is harmless to divers - no nest to defend on open reef, no interest in anything larger than a copepod. Fifty centimeters (20 in) at most, and one of the most reliable sights on any current-swept corner.

## Also known as

- **English:** red-toothed triggerfish, Redtooth Triggerfish, Red Toothed Triggerfish
- **Arabic:** Himarah hamra'a sin, Karkamba, Shuroma
- **Hebrew:** פיחון אדום-שן
- **French:** Baliste dents rouges, Baliste bleu
- **Italian:** pesce balestra denti rossi
- **German:** Rotzahn-Drückerfisch
- **Spanish:** Ballesta Azul, Pejepuerco dentirojo
- **Portuguese:** Porco dentes vermelhos
- **Dutch:** Roodtand Trekkersvis, Roodtandtrekkervis
- **Swedish:** Blå tryckare
- **Polish:** Balista czerwonozęba
- **Czech:** Ostenec černý
- **Japanese:** アカモンガラ, Akamongara
- **Chinese:** 紅牙板機魨, 紅牙鱗魨, 魔鬼砲彈
- **Russian:** Краснозубый спинорог
- **AF:** Rooitand-snellervis
- **CA:** ballesta de dents roges, Ballesta blava
- **DA:** Rødtandet aftrækkerfisk
- **DIV:** Vaalan rondu, ވާލަން ރޮނޑު
- **ET:** Must odoon, Punakihv-odoon
- **FI:** Sinisäppikala
- **GL:** Peixe porco azul
- **LT:** Raudondantės raguotės
- **MAH:** Bub mej, Bub
- **MAL:** ചോപ്പു പല്ലന്, വാലന് കരട്ടി, വാളന് കരട്ടി
- **MSA:** Jebong wau bulan, Ayam laut, Triger biru
- **SIN:** Kalu pothypora, Valla
- **SMO:** Sumu-pe'a
- **SOM:** Kiin-koy
- **SW:** Kikande, Tundu, Vidui
- **TAH:** 'o'iri ave
- **TAM:** Karuppu-klathi
- **TH:** ปลาวัวดำ
- **VI:** Cá bò răng đỏ

## Scientific synonyms

- *Balistes erythrodon* Günther, 1870
- *Odonus erythrodon* (Günther, 1870)
- *Xenodon niger* Rüppell, 1836

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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