- humuhumunukunukuāpuaa redirects here. For the Rhinecanthus aculeatus of the same name, see Lagoon triggerfish. For the High School Musical song, see Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (song)
The
reef,
rectangular, or
wedge-tail, also known by its
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
name,
, also spelled
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a or just
humuhumu for short; meaning "triggerfish with a snout like a pig"), is one of several
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
of
triggerfishTriggerfishes are various, often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit warm coastal waters of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific.-Anatomy and appearance:...
. Classified as Rhinecanthus rectangulus, it is endemic to the salt water coasts of various central and south
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
islands. It is often asserted that the Hawaiian name is one of the longest words in the Hawaiian Language and that "the name is longer than the fish."
Description
The triggerfish's teeth are blue and they are set close together inside its relatively chubby mouth, it has a small second spine, which it can use to lock its main spine into an upright position. The triggerfish can wedge itself into small crevices and lock its spine to make it extremely difficult to get out. In addition, when fleeing from predators, the triggerfish will sometimes make grunting noises, possibly a call to warn other nearby triggerfish of danger at hand.
One particularly interesting aspect of the fish's behavior is the ability to blow jets of water from its mouth. These jets help the fish find benthic invertebrates that may be buried under the substrate. Triggerfish can often be seen spitting sand from their mouths in order to sift through the material in search of edible detritus or organisms. Reef triggers are fairly aggressive and will generally not tolerate conspecific species in its general vicinity, thus the fish is often found solitary. This is particularly true in captivity. Triggers have the remarkable ability to rapidly alter their coloration. They can fade into a relatively drab appearance when sleeping or demonstrating submission while the coloration is often the most vivid when the fish is healthy and unthreatened by its surroundings.
Distribution
The reef triggerfish is distributed throughout the
Indo-PacificThe Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region, and it is especially prominent in the
coral reefCoral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in marine waters containing few nutrients. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate...
s of the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Excluding Midway, which is an unincorporated territory of the...
.
Hawaii state fish
Due to an expiration of a Hawaiian state law, the trigger fish ceased to be the state fish of
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
in 1990. On April 17, 2006, bill HB1982 was presented to the
Governor of Hawai
{{Taxobox
| name = Reef Triggerfish
| image = Reef Triggerfish 1.JPG
| regnum = AnimalAnimals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously...
ia
| phylum =
ChordataChordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail...
| classis =
ActinopterygiiThe Actinopterygii constitute the class of the ray-finned fishes.The ray-finned fishes are so called because they possess lepidotrichia or "fin rays", their fins being webs of skin supported by bony or horny spines , as opposed to the fleshy, lobed fins that characterize the class Sarcopterygii...
| ordo =
TetraodontiformesThe Tetraodontiformes are an order of highly derived ray-finned fish, also called the Plectognathi. Sometimes these are classified as a suborder of the Perciformes...
| familia = Balistidae
| genus =
RhinecanthusFishbase lists 7 species in the genus Rhinecanthus:*Rhinecanthus abyssus
Matsuura & Shiobara, 1989*Rhinecanthus aculeatus
, Blackbar triggerfish...
| species = R. rectangulus
| binomial = Rhinecanthus rectangulus
| binomial_authority = BlochMarcus Elieser Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century.- Life :...
& SchneiderJohann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider was a German classicist and naturalist.Schneider was born at Koilmen in Saxony...
, 1801
}}
humuhumunukunukuāpuaa redirects here. For the Rhinecanthus aculeatus of the same name, see Lagoon triggerfish. For the High School Musical song, see Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (song)
The
reef,
rectangular, or
wedge-tail, also known by its
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
name,
{{unicode|humuhumunukunukuāpua{{okina}}a}} ({{IPA2|ˈhumuˈhumuˈnukuˈnukuˈaːpuˈaʔa|pron}}), also spelled
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a or just
humuhumu for short; meaning "triggerfish with a snout like a pig"), is one of several
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
of
triggerfishTriggerfishes are various, often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit warm coastal waters of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific.-Anatomy and appearance:...
. Classified as Rhinecanthus rectangulus, it is endemic to the salt water coasts of various central and south
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
islands. It is often asserted that the Hawaiian name is one of the longest words in the Hawaiian Language and that "the name is longer than the fish."
Description
The triggerfish's teeth are blue and they are set close together inside its relatively chubby mouth, it has a small second spine, which it can use to lock its main spine into an upright position. The triggerfish can wedge itself into small crevices and lock its spine to make it extremely difficult to get out. In addition, when fleeing from predators, the triggerfish will sometimes make grunting noises, possibly a call to warn other nearby triggerfish of danger at hand.
One particularly interesting aspect of the fish's behavior is the ability to blow jets of water from its mouth. These jets help the fish find benthic invertebrates that may be buried under the substrate. Triggerfish can often be seen spitting sand from their mouths in order to sift through the material in search of edible detritus or organisms. Reef triggers are fairly aggressive and will generally not tolerate conspecific species in its general vicinity, thus the fish is often found solitary. This is particularly true in captivity. Triggers have the remarkable ability to rapidly alter their coloration. They can fade into a relatively drab appearance when sleeping or demonstrating submission while the coloration is often the most vivid when the fish is healthy and unthreatened by its surroundings.
Distribution
The reef triggerfish is distributed throughout the
Indo-PacificThe Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region, and it is especially prominent in the
coral reefCoral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in marine waters containing few nutrients. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate...
s of the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Excluding Midway, which is an unincorporated territory of the...
.
Hawaii state fish
Due to an expiration of a Hawaiian state law, the trigger fish ceased to be the state fish of
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
in 1990. On April 17, 2006, bill HB1982 was presented to the
Governor of Hawai
{{Taxobox
| name = Reef Triggerfish
| image = Reef Triggerfish 1.JPG
| regnum = AnimalAnimals are a major group of mostly multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously...
ia
| phylum =
ChordataChordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail...
| classis =
ActinopterygiiThe Actinopterygii constitute the class of the ray-finned fishes.The ray-finned fishes are so called because they possess lepidotrichia or "fin rays", their fins being webs of skin supported by bony or horny spines , as opposed to the fleshy, lobed fins that characterize the class Sarcopterygii...
| ordo =
TetraodontiformesThe Tetraodontiformes are an order of highly derived ray-finned fish, also called the Plectognathi. Sometimes these are classified as a suborder of the Perciformes...
| familia = Balistidae
| genus =
RhinecanthusFishbase lists 7 species in the genus Rhinecanthus:*Rhinecanthus abyssus
Matsuura & Shiobara, 1989*Rhinecanthus aculeatus
, Blackbar triggerfish...
| species = R. rectangulus
| binomial = Rhinecanthus rectangulus
| binomial_authority = BlochMarcus Elieser Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century.- Life :...
& SchneiderJohann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider was a German classicist and naturalist.Schneider was born at Koilmen in Saxony...
, 1801
}}
humuhumunukunukuāpuaa redirects here. For the Rhinecanthus aculeatus of the same name, see Lagoon triggerfish. For the High School Musical song, see Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (song)
The
reef,
rectangular, or
wedge-tail, also known by its
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
name,
{{unicode|humuhumunukunukuāpua{{okina}}a}} ({{IPA2|ˈhumuˈhumuˈnukuˈnukuˈaːpuˈaʔa|pron}}), also spelled
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a or just
humuhumu for short; meaning "triggerfish with a snout like a pig"), is one of several
speciesIn biology, a species is:* a taxonomic rank or* a unit at that rank ....
of
triggerfishTriggerfishes are various, often brightly colored fish of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit warm coastal waters of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific.-Anatomy and appearance:...
. Classified as Rhinecanthus rectangulus, it is endemic to the salt water coasts of various central and south
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
islands. It is often asserted that the Hawaiian name is one of the longest words in the Hawaiian Language and that "the name is longer than the fish."
Description
The triggerfish's teeth are blue and they are set close together inside its relatively chubby mouth, it has a small second spine, which it can use to lock its main spine into an upright position. The triggerfish can wedge itself into small crevices and lock its spine to make it extremely difficult to get out. In addition, when fleeing from predators, the triggerfish will sometimes make grunting noises, possibly a call to warn other nearby triggerfish of danger at hand.
One particularly interesting aspect of the fish's behavior is the ability to blow jets of water from its mouth. These jets help the fish find benthic invertebrates that may be buried under the substrate. Triggerfish can often be seen spitting sand from their mouths in order to sift through the material in search of edible detritus or organisms. Reef triggers are fairly aggressive and will generally not tolerate conspecific species in its general vicinity, thus the fish is often found solitary. This is particularly true in captivity. Triggers have the remarkable ability to rapidly alter their coloration. They can fade into a relatively drab appearance when sleeping or demonstrating submission while the coloration is often the most vivid when the fish is healthy and unthreatened by its surroundings.
Distribution
The reef triggerfish is distributed throughout the
Indo-PacificThe Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region, and it is especially prominent in the
coral reefCoral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in marine waters containing few nutrients. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate...
s of the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Excluding Midway, which is an unincorporated territory of the...
.
Hawaii state fish
Due to an expiration of a Hawaiian state law, the trigger fish ceased to be the state fish of
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
in 1990. On April 17, 2006, bill HB1982 was presented to the
Governor of Hawai{{unicodeThe Governor of Hawaii, also called Ke Kiaaina o Hawaii, is the chief executive of the State of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Hawaii State Constitution Article V, Sections 1 through 6. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of...
which permanently reinstated the reef triggerfish (humuhumunukunukuapua{{unicode|ʻ}}a) as the state fish of Hawai{{unicode|ʻ}}i. The bill passed into law on May 2, 2006 and was effective upon its approval.
The 1933 popular song "
My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, HawaiiMy Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii was a popular song written for the July 4th canoe races in Kona in 1933. Tommy Harrison gave the song to Johnny Noble to publish, who revised the music to give it a new melody without changing Bill Cogswell's words. Once published, the song became a major...
" included the Hawaiian name in its refrain, and song of this title was included in the High School Musical 2
.
Humuhumunukunukuapua{{unicode|ʻ}}a
means "triggerfish with a pig-like short snout". It is not, as often claimed, the longest fish name in Hawaiian; that distinction belongs to lauwiliwilinukunuku{{unicode|ʻ}}oi{{unicode|ʻ}}oi
("long-snouted fish shaped like a wiliwiliWiliwili is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It is typically found in dry forests on leeward island slopes up to an elevation of...
leaf"), the butterflyfishThe butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. Found mostly on the reefs of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, there are approximately 120 species in 10 genera...
Forcipiger longirostrisForcipiger longirostris, commonly known as the Longnose Butterflyfish or Big Longnose Butterflyfish, is a species of butterflyfish found on coral reefs throughout the southern and western Pacific Ocean, as well as in portions of the Indian Ocean. It is easily confused with its more common cousin F....
. For the purposes of religious sacrifices, every land animal in the Hawaiian islands had an equivalent in the sea.{{fact|date=September 2007}} The Humuhumunukunukuapua‘a was seen as equal to a pig.