overview
who is the gray triggerfish
The peixe-porco, peroá, or cangulo is a triggerfish with a tall, compressed body, thick skin with plate-like scales and a small mouth with strong teeth. It lives in bays, reefs, rocky shores, and rocky and sandy bottoms of the shelf, down to about 100 m, on both sides of the Atlantic. It eats mollusks, crustaceans, and other bottom invertebrates, and juveniles drift at the surface with sargassum. It is traditional in artisanal fishing in Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro and common in recreational bottom fishing, famous for stealing bait. Portaria GM/MMA 1.667/2026 added the species to the national list as Endangered. Since it was not on the previous list, the ban on catch, transport, and sale starts 180 days after publication, around October 25, 2026 (Portaria 1.666/2026, art. 12). After that, if you hook one, release it alive.
fun facts
- The first dorsal spine locks upright and only unlocks when the second is lowered, like a trigger.
- Juveniles live at the surface, hidden in drifting sargassum.
how to recognize it
identification
Tall, oval, compressed body, gray to olive, with three wide, irregular dark bands, sometimes faded, light blue spots on the upper half and fins, and a narrow pale stripe on the chin. First dorsal fin with three spines, the first strong, which locks upright. Small mouth and high-set eyes. The names cangulo and peroá are also used for the queen triggerfish (Balistes vetula), which is more colorful, with blue lines on the head.
how gray triggerfish fishing looks
Loading the next 7 days…
Each card shows the day's index (0 to 100) and, below it, a strip with the index for each hour, from 0h to 23h. from poor to excellent.
