---
title: Starry Triggerfish (Abalistes stellatus)
scientific_name: Abalistes stellatus
common_name: Starry Triggerfish
taxon: Triggerfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T19:53:56.839Z
updated: 2026-08-13T07:59:25.204Z
tags: Starry Triggerfish, Abalistes stellatus, Triggerfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/triggerfishes/starry-triggerfish
---

# Starry Triggerfish (*Abalistes stellatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Triggerfishes (*Balistidae*)
- **Size:** up to 60 cm
- **Depth:** 7-120 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open sand and mud away from reef, often deep
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- olive-brown body with three or four large pale blotches along the back
- flattened tail stalk with a distinct ridge, unlike the rounded stalks of reef triggers
- white spots scattered over the lower body
- length up to 60 cm

A large olive triggerfish with pale blotches along the back and a tail stalk flattened into a ridge - the feature that names it flat-tailed and separates it from every reef trigger here. Up to 60 cm (24 in).

It does not live on the reef. This is a fish of open sand and mud, often at depths past 50 m, and it feeds by blowing water at the bottom to expose molluscs, crabs and urchins, then crushing them. Divers meet it on deep sand slopes and trawlers meet it constantly, which is why it appears in markets far more often than in photographs.

The trigger mechanism is the family's: the first dorsal spine locks upright, held by a smaller second spine, so the fish can wedge into a burrow or a crevice and cannot be pulled out - useful even for a species that lives where crevices are scarce.

It is a solitary animal with a large home range, and it is fished commercially across the Indo-Pacific. Nothing about it is showy, which is exactly why it is worth being able to name.

## Also known as

- **English:** Starry Triggerfish, Flat-tailed Trigger-fish, Flat-tailed Triggerfish
- **Arabic:** زناد مسطح الذيل, زناد نجمي, Karkamba
- **French:** Baliste étoilé
- **Italian:** Pesce balestra coda piatta, Pesce balestra stellato, Pesce pollo
- **Spanish:** Ballesta Estrellado
- **Portuguese:** Porco-estrelado
- **Czech:** ostenec hvězdnatý
- **Japanese:** オキハギ, Okihagi
- **Chinese:** 宽尾鳞鲀, 星點寬尾鱗魨
- **Russian:** Обыкновенный абалист
- **CA:** Ballesta estrellada
- **DA:** Stjerneaftrækkerfisk
- **FI:** Härkähai
- **GL:** Peixe porco estrelado
- **MSA:** Ayam laut, Jebong
- **SW:** Kikande, Tundu, Vidui
- **TGL:** Pakoy, Papakol
- **TH:** ปลาวัวจุดขาว

## Scientific synonyms

- *Abalistes stellairs* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Abalistes stellaris* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Balistes phaleratus* Richardson, 1846
- *Balistes stellaris* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Balistes stellatus* Anonymous in Lacepède ex Commerson, 1798
- *Balistes vachellii* Richardson, 1845

## Range

Red Sea

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