Chinese trumpetfish

The Chinese trumpetfish is a long, thin reef fish that looks a little like a floating stick. It hunts small fish and shrimps by stealth rather than speed. It grows to about 80 cm, with 60 cm being common.

Also known as: aulostomus chinensis, flutemouth, indo-pacific trumpetfish, pacific trumpetfish, painted flute-mouth, painted flutemouth, spiny-back trumpet-fish, spiny-back trumpetfish, stickfish, tahiti cornet fish, trumpet, trumpetfish

Body colour is not a reliable guide here, since it shifts between brown, green, and yellow forms. What stays constant is the tail: whatever the body colour, the caudal peduncle (the narrow base just before the tail fin) and the tail fin itself stay yellowish.

The body is very long and flattened side to side, ending in a long tube-shaped snout with a small barbel, a short whisker, at the tip. The mouth can shoot forward to grab prey. The back carries a row of separate small spines followed by a small soft fin set far back, matched in shape by a fin underneath. Body colour comes in three basic forms: plain brown to green, mottled brown to green, or a striking all-over yellow. The rear of the body is usually black with white dots, and the tail fin usually carries two round black spots.

This fish lives in tropical and subtropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but not the Red Sea. It favours clear, calm water on rocky and coral reefs, both sheltered and seaward, from 3 to 122 m deep.

It hunts alone by day, relying on stealth rather than speed. One tactic is the ambush: it hangs motionless beside hard coral, a black coral bush, or a gorgonian (a sea fan) and waits for prey to pass. The other is shadowing - staying close to a larger animal such as a grouper or even a hawksbill turtle, using it as cover to approach prey that has not noticed the smaller fish tagging along.

harmless

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  Eastern Atlantic Trumpetfish

  Aulostomus strigosus

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  Trumpetfish

  trumpetfish_g364

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  Western Atlantic Trumpetfish

  Aulostomus maculatus