Common Name: Wedgetail Triggerfish

Distribution: Common in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, from the Red Sea to South Africa, east to the Marquesan Islands, north to southern Japan, south to Lord Howe Island. In Australia recorded from reefs offshore in the North West Shelf region of Western Australia, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to around Sydney in New South Wales, and including Lord Howe Island.

Ecological Notes: Frequent outer reefs, shallow areas subject to surge, especially areas with mixed substrate of bare rock, rubble and coral.  Depth to 20 m.

Additional Notes: Pale with large black oblique patch from the eye to the anal fin, black arrowhead patch at base of caudal fin and two yellow chevron markings on rear body. Feed on algae, detritus, molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, small fishes and sponges. Territorial and sometimes difficult to approach. Grows to 30 cm, specimen in photograph around 15 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.448.

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

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