Starry triggerfish

Species of fish

The starry triggerfish (Abalistes stellaris), or flat-tailed triggerfish, is a tropical, harmless, oviparous bottom dweller, characterized by some white spots along the spinal dark band. The tail is dorsoventral and looks very thin, when looked upon in profile. There is a deep groove in front of the eye. The background colour is grey with olive green spots. Its mitochondrial DNA has been sequenced by the University of Tokyo, Japan.^[1] Male adults grow up to 60 cm.

Taxonomy

The name of the species was proposed in 2004 to be changed to Abalistes stellatus (Anonymous, 1798).^[2] FishBase considers Abalistes stellatus a misapplied name and accepts it as a separate species.^[3][4]

Abalistes stellaris was also differentiated from the closely related species Abalistes filamentosus in 2004.^[2]

Habitat

• Indo-West Pacific up to the Red Sea and East Africa
• mud, silty sand bottoms, coral reefs

Diet

Benthic animals such as crustaceans, crabs, mollusks; bony fish.

Economic use

It is used in aquaculture, as food (fresh or dried), and for leather.

References

1. "Abalistes stellaris (ID 33735) - BioProject - NCBI".
2. MATSUURA, KEIICHI, & TETSUO YOSHINO, 2004. A new triggerfish of the genus Abalistes (Tetraodontiformes: Balistidae) from the western Pacific. Records of the Australian Museum 56(2): 189–194.
3. Fishbase
4. "Abalistes stellatus". www.fishbase.se. Retrieved 29 December 2020.