Last Update : Sunday 11 November, 2001 7:46 PM
Last Update : Sunday 11 November, 2001 7:46 PM |
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| Illust : Anuwat Saisaeng |
| Trumpet fish | |
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Scientific name |
Aulostomus chinensis |
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Common name |
Trumpet fish |
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Size |
60 centimeters |
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Dispersion |
Andaman Sea. Rare in the Gulf of Thailand |
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Area found |
Demersal fish |
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Depth |
1 – 40 meters around the edge of the coral reef. |
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Feed on |
Small animals, crabs, fish |
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Situation |
Can still be found in general. |
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Conservation |
Some times caught by fishhook. Fishing in the conservation area should not be done. |
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Fish Tip |
Using a summersault to disguise. Swimming close to fish or turtle to hunt. |
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His name derives from the look of his mouth. Divers in the reef area, whether snorkeling or SCUBA diving, can have an opportunity to meet this fish. But you have to select the reef though. Do not think you will meet him in the reef off Pattaya Bay. Normally he lives in the reef far from the shore with reasonably clear water like Surin, Similan, Phi Phi, Adang.
Many people are confused between trumpet fish and flute mouth fish, because they look so much alike. If you look carefully, you will see the differences. Trumpet fish is plumper, with larger mouth. Flute mouth fish has long whisker extending from caudal fin. Flute mouth fish is in Family Fistulariidae. But trumpet fish is in Family Aulostomidae. There are only 2 species in this Family and only one species reported in Thailand.
Many of you may think that you used to meet trumpet fish in light brown color and yellow color. Why have I said that there has been a finding report of one species only? That was color variation of the same fish. We meet the light brown color more often. But the yellow one is more beautiful, especially the bright yellow ones.
Trumpet fish is fed on animals. They eat everything in sight by strongly drawing water in to the mouth, complete with smaller fish. They still have other hunting method as well. What we have seen and like most, is the ‘parallel’ technique.
When meeting a large fish or turtle, trumpet fish might swim up to the upper part of that animal’s head and swimming in parallel at the same speed without touching any part of the large animal’s body. This is unlike the technique of remora fish. Just swimming in parallel. Smaller fishes might not be aware. The trumpet fish then would swoop down to draw them into his mouth.
The other technique is doing the summersault. Usually this fish does a summersault following any object looking like a stick of wood i.e. sea fan, black coral etc. so as to lure smaller animals to come near him. In emergency case trumpet fish uses the summersault to camouflage as well. I once followed a trumpet fish that thought I was stupid. He went in to do the summersault among the black coral. It was a pity I had a camera with macro lens instead of wide-angle lens that day. So, I could not take any photograph.
The young trumpet fish lives in the deep among soft coral, sea fan or black coral. I once met one, size about hand length, living among the sea fan. Some live with featherstar. The information in Talay Wallpaper showing young trumpet fish hiding among the sea fan. You are welcome to click in to see.
Apart from being beautiful and lovely with unique behavior, trumpet fish is important to the ecological system because he is a hunter of small animals to keep the balance of population, not different from lion fish, moray eel and other hunters in the reef.
If you caught a trumpet fish from your fishing trip, please let him go. I have never heard of anyone eating a trumpet fish before. So, taking him home is a waste. Let him go so that he can continue to look after our coral reef.
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