Marine Life

Bluespotted cornet fish

Onugandu tholhi

Fistularia commersonii

Fistularia commersonii is a more active swimmer than other cornet fishes, and was previously misidentified as F. petimba Lacepede in the Catalogue of Fishes of the Maldives, Vol. 1, page 64. F. petimba is a more deep-water species and has red-coloured markings (see next page).

Details

§ 01

size: Common to 1m; max. 1.6 m
color: Greenish to brownish grey above, silvery below. Two blue stripes or rows of the blue spots on back.
order: Gasterosteiformes
family: Fistularidae
image url: https://assets.explore.mv/fishes/fistularia-commersonii.png
habitat and biology: It forages across reefs, sea grass beds and sand flats, consuming small fish and shrimps.
distinctive characters: This species has a dorsal fin with 15-17 rays, an anal fin with 14-16 (usually 15) rays, ridges on the snout with antrose serrations, with the upper ridge diverging anteriorly, no bony plates along the dorsal midline of the body, an extremely elongate and depressed body with a width twice the depth, a long and tubular snout, a small mouth, and a forked caudal fin with a trailing filament.