''Xanthichthys mento'', the redtail triggerfish, blue-throat triggerfish, or crosshatch triggerfish, is a species of

triggerfish Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest species richness in the Indo-Pacifi ...

from the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. It inhabits outer-reef areas at depths of , and feeds on

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

. ''Xanthichthys mento'' grows to a size of in length and occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade.

References

External links

* Balistidae Fish of Hawaii Fish described in 1882 {{triggerfish-stub