Redstripe tuskfish
Choerodon vitta
Illustration: Bloom by Day
A small brown-grey tuskfish with a dark reddish-brown stripe down the middle of the side that ends in a dark spot on the tail base. It is a rubble and weed-edge fish, usually solitary, and turns side-on to inspect a diver before drifting off.
how to recognise it
- a dark reddish to brown stripe down the middle of the side
- usually a prominent darker spot at the tail-fin base, right behind the end of that stripe
- brown to greyish above, white below
- small: to about 20 cm
don’t confuse with
- Dagger tuskfish — the dagger tuskfish's stripe is YELLOW, going blackish at the rear, with a large pale oval patch below the rear dorsal
- Wedgetail tuskfish — the wedgetail has a black and blue slash above the pectoral base, not a stripe down the side
- Darkspot tuskfish — the darkspot's black spot is ON the middle of the dorsal fin
Field marks read from Fishes of Australia, 2026-10-15. Our wording, their facts. Max size 20 cm TL.
facts
- habitat
- reef
- size
- ~16 cm, to 20 cm
Max size from Fishes of Australia (20 cm TL); the typical size is Bluebird’s, not from a cited source
- records
- 22 at 6 spot(s), none of
them in this region
Recorded at Low Isles (Port Douglas), Green Island (Cairns), Fitzroy Island (Cairns), Frankland Islands (Cairns), Dunk Island (Mission Beach), Cairns Reef (Great Barrier). A count of occurrence records, not abundance. Records are where someone looked.
when it has been recorded
JFMAMJJASOND
A gap means no record in the sample, not absence.
the rule
QLD — Min: 30cm · Combined limit: 6 in total of all tuskfish species
source
· verified 2026-10-10
no NSW rule listed — check before you dive
no closed season recorded for this species — that is not the same as open; check the official page
Rules checked 2026-10-13 against qld.gov.au
Rules change. Check before you dive.
Occurrence data: Atlas of Living Australia (ala.org.au), CC-BY 4.0.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.