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.
The genus. Abalistes Jordan & Seale 1906 - a- (not). ETYFish
The species. Abalistes stellatus (Anonymous 1798) - starry. ETYFish
- 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
Why it's threatened
Abalistes stellatus is taken incidentally by bottom trawls and utilized for human consumption (Hutchins 1984), however, this is not thought to be a major threat at this time (K. Matsuura pers. comm. 2014).
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
