Clown Triggerfish off Boca/Delray

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Saw this Clown Trigger ( Balistoides conspicillum) off Delray/Boca today. Hope it's not the start of another exotic invasion.

Hi Mitchsea,

The Reef Environmental Education Program
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) | Diving That Counts,
has a "Exotic Species Sighting Program"
Exotic Species Sighting Program | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
It would be good if you reported it there also.

Don't you need it in your aquarium? I have seen REEF come up and capture Exotic species.

Anne
 
Hi Mitchsea,
George Burgess is tracking invasive species. It would be great if you could send him a high res photo of your find.
his -mail is: George Burgess <gburgess@flmnh.ufl.edu>
and his address is:
George H. Burgess, Coordinator of Museum Operations,

Director, Florida Program for Shark Research

Curator, International Shark Attack File & National Sawfish Encounter Database

Florida Museum of Natural History

University of Florida

Dickinson Hall, Museum Road

PO Box 117800

Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

Thanks, Anne

Will do. I have video of the fish as well if he would like it.
 
Hi Mitchsea,

The Reef Environmental Education Program
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) | Diving That Counts,
has a "Exotic Species Sighting Program"
Exotic Species Sighting Program | Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)
It would be good if you reported it there also.

Don't you need it in your aquarium? I have seen REEF come up and capture Exotic species.

Anne

I have already reported it to REEF.
 
Was the clown triggerfish removed or is it still on the reef in Boca Raton? Clown triggerfish are probably the coolest salt water fish ever. I would love to go an see this fish if it is still on the reef.
 
You need 2 fish to breed. If this is a single fish from some freak's fishtank, it can only become a short-time local attraction.
 
You need 2 fish to breed. If this is a single fish from some freak's fishtank, it can only become a short-time local attraction.

Still the clown triggerfish is one of the coolest fish I have ever seen when diving. I have only seen one when in the Similan Islands but since there is a clown triggerfish in Florida that is awesome!
 
Looking at that picture after seeing the Grammys last night, Mitchsea, I'm pretty sure that you saw Lady Gaga in her Balistoides wetsuit last September. She gets down here a lot for R&R and doesn't necessarily have the whole entourage with her.
 
Still the clown triggerfish is one of the coolest fish I have ever seen when diving. I have only seen one when in the Similan Islands but since there is a clown triggerfish in Florida that is awesome!
They look cool OK (though I've seen them only in aquariums) but who in the bloody Hell knows what their effect on the Caribbean reefs could be. Maybe they would eat up all the dianemas and flamingo tongues, I don't know.
 
Imagine how shocked I was to see this one patrolling the reef like he owned it right here in S. Florida!!! My dive buddies, who aren't very fish knowledgeable, couldn't understand why I was "following that fish with the spots" around so long.
 
I can add something to this discussion of exotic tropical fish sightings in So Fla, (albeit in another place). About 3 years ago I was on a shore dive at the Dania Erojacks. At the very east end of the line of jacks I sighted what was undoubtedly a Pacific Damsel Fish of some type. It rose up with a cloud of Yellow Wrasse to regard me and after about 2 seconds flashed into the jacks. I do not know the specific species as I am just about ignorant for the most part on these Pacific natives other than Lion Fish and Clown Fish. I had started the dive from within John Lloyd State Park so I was without a spear gun. Additionally as we were in our infancy as far as the Lion Fish infestation here abouts and they were not yet on my radar screen, I certainly did not have a little Lion Fish eradication spear of any kind with me. I posted on SB that evening that I had seen this little bugger and asked everyone that might frequent the area to keep a sharp eye out and hopefully someone would catch/net/spear the thing.
I have not seen or heard any mention of this single fish since then and I assume that it had been recently been released and it starved/got eaten/ or succumbed to some native parasite or other complication. At this point, if I see an exotic animal of any kind, it gets whacked if at all possible. I would certainly prefer not to engage in indiscriminate killing but unfortunately, I think the stakes are too high to allow unchecked existence. Too many unknowns.
Chug
Wants to see Pacific fish in the Pacific someday.
 
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

Back
Top Bottom