Queen Triggerfish

Balistes vetula

Also known as the Queen Triggerfish, this species is very easily distinguished by its long filaments from the tail and top of the soft dorsal fin. The dorsal fin, itself, is large and flamboyant. The body coloring is yellow to olive. The body is accented with two broad, curved blue bands from the snout to the pectoral base. The chin and lower cheek are yellow-orange. Yellow edged dark lines radiate out from the eyes. There are also hints of blue lines near the edge of the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. This a beautiful fish and considered a prized specimen.

Although it is very hardy, it will devour anything that moves. In nature, they prefer sea urchins.

They live among rock and coral reefs, so some rockwork is recommend for their aquarium. Of course, they will decimate a reef, so plain live rock is preferential. They do require a large tank, however. They can reach almost 24 inches and are known to quickly outgrow aquariums! A 200 hundred gallon aquarium is the absolute minimum required for this species.

Finding appropriate tank mates proves a difficult task. These fish can grow larger and more aggressive than aquarists anticipate. Although juveniles and adolescents may reside fairly peacefully with larger fish for a while, eventually they will attack their tank mates.

Inevitably, this species will need to be kept completely on its own. Even then, it will grow so aggressive that it will begin to bite and break aquarium heaters, air-line tubing, and plastic siphon tubes. Of course, aquarists will have to succumb to the redecorating of this fish’s desire.