Are triggerfish this aggressive?

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The only time I had trouble (and got bit on the ear) by a triggerfish was when I was diving over their "territory," where young ones were being protected, and the larger triggerfish wanted me away from their "territoryl" Otherwise, I find them amusing, curious, and very beautiful!
 
Here in Thailand the Titans seem not very aggressive, I don't recall diving during March so that's probably biasing my perception.

I was attacked by one in Rachai Yai / Rachai Noi 12-15 years ago as I tried to pull my idiot guide, (and supposed Assistant Instructor) away from it on our first dive if a three day mini-liveaboard trip..

What happened was that I saw the trigger starting to posture at him as he was leading the dive and signalled to him to swim "around" the cone.

Needless to say, he had better ideas and signalled to rise slightly and go straight over the top of it. He then started to do this and our piscine friend went mental.

Now he started to panic, so I grabbed his fin and pulled him away from the be-finned pitbull, and - you guessed it - the little bastard bit a chunk out of my hand.

I bled like the proverbial stuck pig, and called the dive, while he wanted to carry on, with all the water around me green from my precious blood. Luckily the 4 other guys, all Germans, agreed with me and ascended.

Back on the boat, one of the guys approached me and let me know that he worked as a male nurse, and, another 20 minutes later, I was stitched up using some fishing line and a hook with the barb filed off.

2 hours later, the guide had admitted that he'd never dived there before, wasn't actually an AI, in fact was not a DM, and as matter of fact, had a total of 20 dives his name.

The other group were all fairly newly qualified and asked me if I felt I could still dive, as their dive guide!

I wasn't too keen. I wasn't a total noob, but I was equally no expert, but I allowed myself to be convinced by an orange bikini-clad girl named Erika with pleading blue eyes.

Can't say I showed them too much, as I'd never been there before either, but all-in-all, it was a good trip, and I have a neat scar on my right pinkie. No further memories of Erika, alas.
 
I learned to stay away from them during their breeding season which is July and August (in Sabang, Phils) after I was chased by one and my instructor had to fight it off using his metal reel. Otherwise, if it's not their breeding season I like watching them and think they're really pretty. They're also yummy btw, our host grilled one for us and the meat was really soft and oily like chilean sea bass :)
 
Bill,
I have wondered about this inverted cone theory. It doesn't really make sense to me. It implies that a predator on the bottom can get really close but a passerby far above them is a target of their defensive behaviour. Wouldn't it make more sense from an evolutionary perspective that their protective zone is a bubble (dome) out from their nest rather than a cone going up to the surface?

Well you should take that up with a triggerfish then since they seem to subscribe to the theory:idk:
 
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