Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Melichthys vidua
cochito cola rosada, Pejepuerco cola rosada, Pinktail triggerfish
Brown to olive head and body with yellow pectoral fins. To lenghts of 28 cm
Habitat: Depths of 4 to 60 m; areas of high coral cover where the water is clear and shallow.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Order
Tetraodontiformes
Family
Balistidae
Genus
Melichthys
Species
vidua
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Balistes erythropterus (Fowler, 1946), Balistes vidua Richardson, 1845, Balistes vidua kamoharai Abe, 1958, Melichthys nycteris (Jordan & Evermann, 1903), Oncobalistes erythropterus Fowler, 1946, Pachynathus nycteris Jordan & Evermann, 1903, fide Appeltans et al. (2010)
Origin: Vagrant
Distribution: Indo-Pacific, ranges from east Africa to Hawaii and the Marquesan and Tuamoto Islands; in the eastern Pacific at Isla del Coco and Ecuador in Galapagos, Western Panama
- Grove, J.S. Lavenberg, R.J. (1997) The Fishes of the Galapagos Islands. Stanford University Press, Stanford California. 862 pp.
- Humann, P. Deloach, N. (2003) Reef Fish Identification - Galapagos. New World Publication, Inc. Florida USA & Libri Mundi, Quito, Ecuador, 226 pp.
- Appeltans, W. Bouchet, P., Boxshall, G.A., Fauchald, K., Gordon, D.P., Hoeksema, B.W., Poore, G.C.B., van Soest, R.W.M., Stöhr, S., Walter, T.C., Costello, M.J. (eds.) (2010) World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Available online at http://www.marinespecies.org.
- IUCN (2010) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 26 April 2010.
- McCosker, J.E. Rosenblatt, R.H. (2010) The fishes of the Galápagos Archipelago: an update. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sc., Ser. 4, vol. 61, Suppl. II, no. 11: 167-195.
- Constant, P. (2007) Marine Life of the Galapagos. The Diver's guide to Fishes, Whales, Dolphins and marine Invertebrates, 307 pp.
- Horton, T. Horton, T., Kroh, A., Ahyong, S., Bailly, N., Boyko, C. B., Brandão, S. N., Gofas, S., Hooper, J. N. A., Hernandez, F., Holovachov, O., Mees, J., Molodtsova, T. N., Paulay, G., Decock, W., Dekeyzer, S., Poffyn, G., Vandepitte, L., Vanhoorne, B., Adlard, R., ... Zhao, Z. (2021) World Register of Marine Species. Available from https://www.marinespecies.org at VLIZ.
- Grove, J.S. Long, D.J., Robertson, D.R. & Victor, B.C. (2022) List of Fishes of the Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 39, 14–22.
- IUCN (2023) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-2 Https://www.iucnredlist.org
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Melichthys vidua", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=7823. Accessed 8 May 2025.