Titan Triggerfish

Photo: Frank Krasovec · CC BY-NC

Large, confident individuals have established territories across the mid-sections of the artificial structures, defending their nesting sites aggressively during breeding season — typically from April through July — when they will charge and bite divers who enter the nest area. Outside breeding season they are a spectacular presence, using their powerful fused teeth to crack sea urchins and clean large patches of substrate that other reef fish then colonise. Their ecological role as a keystone invertivore is critical for maintaining the structural diversity of the artificial reef.