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Not all Titan Triggerfishes are aggressive

November 14th, 2007 | Posted by NK in Thailand - (0 Comments)

On our last dive at Koh Tao was at the divesite Twins where Benjamin discovered that not all Titan Triggerfishes are aggressive…. Benjamin had the camera and suddenly both Benjamin our Divemaster and I spottet a Titan Triggerfish deeply engaged in eating from a coral – the only difference between our observation was that Benjamin didn’t recognise the ‘fish’ as a Titan Triggerfish, so the next thing we saw was Benjamin hanging 2-3 meters vertical on top of the Triggerfish! Usually not the most clever move in the book…  😉  But luckily this Triggerfish was not aggressive at all.. or just to busy eating, so Benjamin did in fact manage to get some shots pretty close from above.
Btw Benjamin does recognise Titan Triggerfishes now… 😉

From above – by Benjamin
Titan Triggerfish from above

Titan Triggerfish leaving….
Titan Triggerfish leaving us

The Titan Triggerfishes around Koh Tao are would famous for being very agressive and being up to 75 cm’s its quite a big fish attacking with an incredible speed.
My divemaster from Big Blue Diving, Koh Tao, back in the summer 2005 had her own defence position sort of sitting in the water with her finns towards the Titan Triggerfishes whenever see saw one… yes, it seemed like she was rather worried about them… maybe because the Finnish divemaster also from Big Blue Diving got bitten in her nose some weeks ago and now has a nice little scar… but most people get away with no problems or a bit in their finns…
But on my last trip to Koh Tao in August 2007 the Divemaster from Grand Coral Divers showed me how to handle Titan Triggerfishes with success by blasting them with the air from the octopus… that was sooo coool! He just faced the Titan Triggerfish and waited for it to attack and then blasted it when it was near… it was really funny to watch how the Titan Triggerfish turned away and flead.. but just to attack again – and get blasted.. He really played with it for several minuts which were good entertainment for us and I took a couple of pictures…

Titan Triggerfish gets blasted with air from the octopus Titan Triggerfish

And it returns for some more… its incredible so aggressive they can be..Titan Triggerfish gets more air