The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts — Issue 22

A Fish With a Difficult Name

Some names can be tough to pronounce, and the official fish of Hawaii could take the prize as the most difficult. The state fish of Hawaii is the humuhumunukunukuapua’a, or if you would rather not tie your tongue in knots, it’s also called the reef or rectangular triggerfish. In Hawaiian, the name means “triggerfish with snout like a pig.”

The rectangular triggerfish is a tropical reef fish. They sometimes make grunting noises to possibly warn of intrusion by predators to their territory, which they can be aggressive in defending. They also use jets of water from their mouth to uncover food underneath the surface of the sand. The reef triggerfish also has the ability to change their color depending on if they’re active or not.

The fish hasn’t always been the state fish of Hawaii. It was the official fish starting in 1985 after a public survey, but because the state law expired after five years, it was no longer the state fish in 1990. It wasn’t until 2006 that the humuhumunukunukuapua’a became official again. Source, Source