Balistes capriscus (Gmelin, 1789)

EN - Grey triggerfish
PT - Peixe-Porco
FR - Baliste cabri
ES - Pejepuerco blanco

︎︎︎    66 cm
︎   0 - 100 m
︎︎︎    15 years
︎  Small Schools or Solitary
︎  Rocks
︎  Crustaceans and Molluscs
︎  Hook and Nets

Data Deficient (DD) means there is inadequate information to make a direct, or indirect, assessment of its risk of extinction based on its distribution and/or population status. A taxon in this category may be well studied, and its biology well known, but appropriate data on abundance and/or distribution are lacking.

• Triggerfish can be found near rocky reefs covered in small thick scales forming a kind of armor.
  
• Some people use the skin to make teas that have beneficial effects for treating asthma!
  
• During the breeding season, males create holes in the sand that serve as nests, where the
  
• females do their posture.
  
• This species lives in small schools or alone, has diurnal habits, fleshy lips and strong teeth that can break the hard shells of urchins and sea stars.
  
• It is curious and fearless, even biting the divers' suits and masks.
  
• It is called Peixe-Porco (Pig-Fish) in Portuguese because it makes sounds similar to pigs' grunt when it is removed from the water.
  
• It can rotate each of its eyes independently.
  
• Globally, the population has been decreasing and is therefore on the IUCN red list as vulnerable and in Europe there is a lack of data on the population (DD - data deficient).