Common Name: Blackspot Toby

Distribution: Uncommon in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, from East Africa and South Africa, east to the Tuamoto Islands, north to southern Taiwan, south to Australia. In Australia recorded from the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to Eden in New South Wales and including Lord Howe Island.

Ecological Notes: Frequents reef flats and lagoons, preferring algal or silty habitat on shallow rubble substrate. Depth to 15 m.

Additional Notes: Pale below, green on top with a darker band along the midline. Has a distinctive light edged black spot around the base of the dorsal fin and blue green lines radiating from the eye. Feed mainly on benthic invertebrates, filamentous green and coralline red algae. Grows to 10 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.461.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Canthigaster-bennetti.html. Accessed 24/03/2019.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Canthigaster+bennetti. Accessed 24/03/2019.