vefleaf.blogg.se - Trigger fish

Juvenile gray triggerfish feed on hydroids, barnacles, and polychaetes. Gray triggerfish sometimes direct a stream of water over sandy ocean bottom habitat to expose sand dollars to eat. They have a small mouth with a strong jaw and specialized teeth used to crush and chisel holes in their hard-shelled prey. Adults primarily eat benthic invertebrates including crabs, sea urchins, shrimp, sand dollars, lobsters, and mollusks.Larvae and juveniles spend 4 to 7 months in the planktonic environment before they move to the ocean bottom.Eggs hatch within 24 to 48 hours and the larvae travel to the surface, where they often live among mats of planktonic (open ocean) Sargassum, a floating brown algae.Females also guard the nest from predators, such as wrasses, groupers, and red snappers.

An active nest is defined as one female on the nest guarding and aerating the eggs.

One male can defend up to three active nests on one reef.

After fertilization females aerate the eggs by fanning and blowing on them.

Females deposit an average of 772,415 eggs.

The male and female tightly circle one another in the nest, rapidly changing color, and the female deposits eggs in the nest shortly afterward. Male gray triggerfish establish territories, build nests in the sand, and entice females into the nest to spawn.

Triggerfish become sexually mature at approximately 2 years old.

Triggerfish can grow to be up to 13 pounds, 28 inches fork length (length from the tip of the snout to the center of the fork of the tail), and 16 years old.

Scientists, managers, and stakeholders assess the status of these stocks through the Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) process.

Scientists from NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center monitor the abundance of these populations.

The complex has not been assessed, but according to 2019 catch data, the complex is not subject to overfishing. The population status of the Puerto Rico Triggerfishes Complex, which includes gray triggerfish, is unknown.

A formal stock assessment has not been conducted. Scientists conducted an exploratory assessment of South Atlantic gray triggerfish in 2001 and determined that the stock was not subject to overfishing, but overfished status is unknown. Summary stock assessment information can be found on Stock SMART. The Gulf of Mexico stock is not overfished but still rebuilding to target levels (2015 stock assessment), and not subject to overfishing based on 2021 catch data. According to the most recent stock assessments: There are three stocks of gray triggerfish: the Gulf of Mexico stock, the South Atlantic stock, and a stock contained in the Puerto Rico Triggerfishes Complex.