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Sea fish

Bluespotted cornetfish

Fistularia commersonii

Get to know the species, pick your region, find your spot.

Other names: Çomak balığı · Kornet balığı

Open fishing grounds on the map Bait and tackle
Bluespotted cornetfish
(c) Ben Costamagna, some rights reserved (CC BY) · source
Family
Fistulariidae

Choose your region

The information changes with the region you choose.

Where is Bluespotted cornetfish caught?

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Central & South Aegean fishing spots

290
Central & South Aegean
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A listed spot is not a guarantee of a catch.

Central & South Aegean

Season and suitable conditions

Check the season information for the region you chose.

Peak months: Apr, May, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov

Season information is no guarantee of a catch.

Best spots in October

By month

Average monthly score of the spots in Turkey (0–100).

  1. 0 Jan
  2. 0 Feb
  3. 0 Mar
  4. 43 Apr
  5. 58 May
  6. 74 Jun
  7. 72 Jul
  8. 70 Aug
  9. 71 Sep
  10. 73 Oct
  11. 58 Nov
  12. 0 Dec

The best spot in each Turkish province, by this month’s score.

  1. Enez Limanı Dış Kıyısı Enez, Edirne 80/100 Very good
  2. Karaincir Beach Bodrum, Muğla 80/100 Very good
  3. Sülüklü Plaji Demre, Antalya 79/100 Very good
  4. Ayaz Beach Burhaniye, Balıkesir 77/100 Very good
  5. Mersin Limanı Yolcu Salonu Akdeniz, Mersin 77/100 Very good

A 0–100 score from season, water temperature, habitat and local records; a general trend, not a guarantee.

Best times of day

When in the day it bites best, month by month.

  • Active at dawn and dusk
  • Poor at night

In October

  1. Dawn 85

    1 h before sunrise → 2 h after

  2. Midday 45

    1 h before midday → 1 h after

  3. Dusk Best 90

    2 h before sunset → 0.5 h after

Not productive at night

Moon phase

Effect of the moon on night fishing; the scores compare the phases.

  1. New moon 15
  2. First quarter 15
  3. Full moon 20
  4. Last quarter 15

Best phase: No clear effect

Windows across 12 months

Best times of day J F M A M J J A S O N D
Dawn 70 70 80 80 80 90 90 90 85 85 85 70
Midday 55 55 45 45 45 40 40 40 45 45 45 55
Dusk 70 70 80 80 80 90 90 90 90 90 90 70
Night

Windows follow sunrise and sunset; clock times change with place and date. Scores are relative within the month: 100 is the best window of the day.

11 sources · confidence medium

Habitat

Where it lives and in what kind of water: ranges compiled by the research.

Depth

0–132 m

mostly 1–30 m

Water temperature

17.1–33.1 °C

ideal ≥ 22 °C

Salinity

Full-strength seawater

28.1–39 ‰

Shore types

  • Sandy beach
  • Rocky shore
  • Breakwater / jetty
  • Pier / quay
  • Mixed shore
  • Inside harbours
  • Harbour mouth
  • Reclaimed shore
  • Shoal / reef

Bottom

Lives close to the bottom

  • Sand
  • Rock
  • Sand, gravel and rock
  • Seagrass

Ranges from FishBase, AquaMaps and the literature; a general tendency, not a hard limit.

Confidence: shore type high, temperature medium

Bait and tackle suggestions

Recorded baits and fishing techniques.

Bait by month

Baits documented for shore fishing, month by month and by water clarity.

In October

Lures

By water clarity

Inshore / reef predator — Semi-pelagic; ambushes and chases. Good eyesight and a strong lateral line; takes both kinds of bait.

Clear Visibility: over 8 m
Lure First lure: Hard minnow · Very suitable Usually in this water: Natural-coloured soft shad/minnow, LRF, slim hard lure; slow and natural. Colour: Clear, White
Slightly coloured Visibility: 4–8 m
Lure First lure: Hard minnow · Very suitable Usually in this water: Hard minnow, jighead + shad, stickbait. Colour: White, Clear
Moderately coloured Visibility: 2–4 m
Lure First lure: Jighead + shad · Very suitable Usually in this water: Paddle-tail shad, vibe, spinner; vibration first. Colour: White, Glow (UV)
Murky Visibility: 1–2 m
Lure First lure: Jighead + shad · Very suitable Usually in this water: Rattling vibe, scented soft plastic; near the bottom, slow. Colour: Dark silhouette, Glow (UV), White
Very murky Visibility: under 1 m
Lure First lure: Jighead + shad · Weak Usually in this water: Not recommended; if you must, scented and rattling. Colour: Dark silhouette, Glow (UV)
12-month bait calendar
January
Out of season
February
Out of season
March
Out of season
April
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
May
Lures: Hard minnow, Jighead + shad
June
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
July
Lures: Hard minnow, Jighead + shad
August
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
September
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
October
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
November
Lures: Jighead + shad, Hard minnow
December
Out of season

This is the usual pattern; the water and weather on the day can change it. Colour is fine-tuning: bait type, size and action come first. Confidence: natural low, lures high. Colour and presentation guide

Fishing rules

The regulation holds no separate minimum size or closed season entry for this species. The provisions for Türkiye as a whole apply.

Before you go, check local area and method restrictions.

How to identify the bluespotted cornetfish

What gives this fish away at first glance is not its size but its shape. FishBase describes the body as very long and flattened from top to bottom rather than from side to side, with a long, whip-like filament trailing from the middle of the tail. The CIESM Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea notes that the head is longer than a third of the standard length, that the snout is drawn out like a tube and that the small mouth sits at the tip of that tube. According to the atlas, the body shape and the two middle rays of the tail fin, which end in filaments, set the species apart from every other Mediterranean fish. On colour, the sources paint different pictures. FishBase describes a fish that is green on the back and silvery white on the belly, with two blue stripes or two rows of blue spots along the back; the dorsal and anal fins are orange, the tail filament is white, and at night the body shows broad bands. The CIESM Atlas notes that in the Mediterranean the head, back and flanks range from grey to olive green, and that blue spots or stripes are seen mostly on specimens from outside the Mediterranean. So if the fish in your hand shows no blue spots, that does not make it a different species. The fish it is most easily confused with is its close relative Fistularia petimba. FishBase says the two are often mixed up and describes F. petimba as a reddish or brownish-orange species of deeper water with bony plates along the midline of the back. The Turkish name of this species in FishBase’s record for Türkiye is ‘külah balığı’, while WoRMS gives ‘çomak balığı’. A 2023 study by Bozkaya, Gürkan and Taşkavak in Marine and Life Sciences likewise calls F. petimba ‘kırmızı külah balığı’ (red külah fish). ‘Zurna balığı’ is a different fish: FishBase lists that name for Scomberesox saurus, the Atlantic saury (/en/turler/zurna-baligi).

Where did it come from, and where does it live?

WoRMS places the species in the family Fistulariidae of the order Syngnathiformes, and its home range is the Indo-Pacific. FishBase gives its native distribution as running from East Africa and the Red Sea to Easter Island, and from southern Japan in the north to Australia and New Zealand in the south. The first Mediterranean record is the note Daniel Golani published in the Journal of Fish Biology in 2000, reporting three specimens from the coast of Israel. The CIESM Atlas adds that they were caught by trawl at depths of 15–35 metres, that the species then boomed along the Israeli coast, and that it reached the westernmost part of the Mediterranean in 2007. The first record for Türkiye, from its Mediterranean coast, was reported in a 2002 paper by Gökoğlu, Bodur and Gülyavuz in the Israel Journal of Zoology. The list of alien species in Türkiye that Çinar and colleagues published in PLOS ONE in 2021 gives the first observation year as 2001 for the Mediterranean (Levantine) coast and 2002 for the Aegean, and classes the species as ‘invasive’; a note published in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology in 2013 reports the first record from Edremit Bay in the north-eastern Aegean. FishBase describes it as a fish of reefs and of the sandy bottoms next to them, living alone or in schools at depths of 0–132 metres; Çinar and colleagues record it on Turkish coasts over both hard and soft bottoms, between 0 and 50 metres.

What does it eat, and why did it spread so fast?

The bluespotted cornetfish is a predator. FishBase lists its food as small fishes, shrimps and squids; the CIESM Atlas says it feeds mainly on fish, which it catches by ambush or pursuit. In a study off the coast of Lebanon published by Bariche and colleagues in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology in 2009, the stomachs of fish measuring 25–112 centimetres yielded 41 different prey taxa; the most important were picarel (Spicara smaris) and bogue (Boops boops), and the cornetfish preferred schooling species living in the water column. The sources are cautious about the reasons for its success. The CIESM Atlas rates the species as ‘very common’ in the Mediterranean and suggests reduced competition with native counterparts as a possible reason. In a 2016 study in Molecular Ecology, Bernardi and colleagues found signs of rapid adaptation in the Mediterranean population: almost half of the genes associated with 47 loci potentially under selection were related to disease resistance and osmoregulation.

Species profile

Bluespotted cornetfish
Scientific name
Fistularia commersonii
Family
Fistulariidae
Order
Syngnathiformes
Water type
Saltwater
Seas
Aegean Sea, Mediterranean
Other names
Külah balığı, Çomak balığı, Kornet balığı

Frequently asked questions

Which seas is Bluespotted cornetfish found in?

In our records Bluespotted cornetfish appears in these seas: Aegean Sea, Mediterranean, Central & South Aegean — Greece, Crete & Libyan Sea — Greece, Güzelyurt Bay — Northern Cyprus, Kyrenia north coast — Northern Cyprus, Famagusta–İskele — Northern Cyprus, Karpas Peninsula — Northern Cyprus, Akamas–Paphos west coast — Southern Cyprus, Paphos–Limassol south coast — Southern Cyprus, Larnaca southeast coast — Southern Cyprus, Ayia Napa–Protaras — Southern Cyprus.

In which months is Bluespotted cornetfish at its peak?

Peak periods by sea: Central & South Aegean — Greece April, May, August, September, October, November; Crete & Libyan Sea — Greece April–November; Famagusta–İskele — Northern Cyprus all year; Güzelyurt Bay — Northern Cyprus all year; Kyrenia north coast — Northern Cyprus all year; Karpas Peninsula — Northern Cyprus all year; Paphos–Limassol south coast — Southern Cyprus all year; Ayia Napa–Protaras — Southern Cyprus all year; Akamas–Paphos west coast — Southern Cyprus all year; Larnaca southeast coast — Southern Cyprus all year.

Is the bluespotted cornetfish poisonous?

According to FishBase, it has no spines at all in its dorsal and anal fins. The same source records reports of ciguatera poisoning under ‘threat to humans’; the study it relies on was carried out in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands in the Pacific. The FishBase glossary defines ciguatera as a poisoning resulting from eating ciguatoxic fishes. The CIESM Atlas, for its part, records the species as a fish of some commercial relevance in eastern Mediterranean countries.

How big does the bluespotted cornetfish get?

The sources do not give the same upper limit. FishBase lists a maximum length of 160 centimetres total length and a common length of 100 centimetres; the CIESM Atlas gives a common size of 20–100 centimetres and a maximum of 150. In a study published by Vitale and colleagues in the Italian Journal of Zoology in 2016, 23 fish examined south of Sicily measured 69–104 centimetres excluding the tail filament, weighed 155–798 grams and were aged at 3 to 5 years.

How did the bluespotted cornetfish reach the Mediterranean?

From the Red Sea through the Suez Canal. Golani’s note from 2000 reports the first three Mediterranean specimens from the coast of Israel and attributes their presence to migration from the Red Sea via the canal. Citing a 2013 study by Bariche and colleagues that documented an old capture in Lebanon, the CIESM Atlas also notes that isolated introductions may have happened earlier. According to Bernardi and colleagues, it took the species about 130 years to enter the Mediterranean; once there, it spread across the whole basin, from Israel to Spain, by 2007.

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