It has to be said, the Queen Triggerfish is a very cool looking creature, with wonderful coloured stripes across its face, mottled body, and vibrant fins. Triggerfish are known locally in the Caribbean as Leatherjackets due to their thick skin, but the Queen Triggerfish (Balistes vetula) also goes by the name Old Wife, probably for the same reason! It spends its days swimming around seemingly without a care in the world and, due to its thick skin, is able to prey upon hard to eat creatures such as the extremely daunting Longspine Sea Urchin.
This thick skin and the day to day life the Queen Triggerfish leads is probably the reason it swims around in an unintimidated way. Indeed, some species of Triggerfish in other parts of the world can be quite aggressive if approached by divers, and will actively chase them away out of their territory, especially during the reproductive season. The most infamous species for this is the Titan Triggerfish found in the Indo-pacific, that has even been known to take a bite out of a retreating divers fins! Approach with care!
In this particular image is a Juvenile Queen Triggerfish which, at only a couple of centimeters in length, was extremely cute and special to see, let alone get a picture of!
About Reef Creature Clothing
We specialise in not only coral reef inspired athleisure wear, but also beach & swim wear, and other printed products. All our colourful and vibrant designs are made using digitally enhanced prints of real underwater photographs taken in the Caribbean. We donate all of our profits after costs to The Coral Reef Research Hub, a small non-profit organisation that seeks to help fund research projects undertaken by early career coral reef scientists. The projects funded are those that aim to contribute information that will hopefully lead to legislative change, and thus help to protect coral reefs and their associated resources for generations to come!
We write these regular ‘creature features’ to help you learn more about the fascinating inhabitants of the coral reefs where our images came from. More will continue to be posted over the coming months so watch this space!