English Name: Bluespotted cornet fish
Family: FISTULARIIDAE
Local Name: Onugandu tholhi
Order: Gasterosteiformes
Size: Common to 1 m; max. 1.6 m.
Specimen: MRS/0056/86
Distinctive Characters: Dorsal fin with 15-17 rays. Anal fin with 14-16 rays. Pectoral fin with 14-16 (usually 15) rays. Ridges on snout with antrose serrations, the upper ridge diverging anteriorly. No bony plates along dorsal midline of body. Body extremely elongate and depressed, the width twice the depth. Snout long and tubular. Mouth small, caudal fin forked with trailing filament.
Colour: Greenish to brownish grey above, silvery below. Two blue stripes or rows of blue spots on back.
Habitat and Biology: Ranges over reefs, sea grass beds and sand flats. Feeds on small fishes and shrimps.
Distribution: Circumtropical.
Remarks: Fistularia commersonii is a more active swimmer than other cornet fishes. This species was previously misidentified as F. petimba Lacepède, 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).
Colour: Greenish to brownish grey above, silvery below. Two blue stripes or rows of blue spots on back.
Habitat and Biology: Ranges over reefs, sea grass beds and sand flats. Feeds on small fishes and shrimps.
Distribution: Circumtropical.
Remarks: Fistularia commersonii is a more active swimmer than other cornet fishes. This species was previously misidentified as F. petimba Lacepède, 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).