Leatherjacket

About this species

The unicorn leatherjacket is a filefish of the family Monacanthidae, found around the world in subtropical oceans between latitudes 43° N and 35° S, at depths down to 50 m. Its length is up to 76 cm.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Unicorn leatherjacket”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 39 records
February: 47 records
March: 107 records
April: 140 records
May: 77 records
June: 84 records
July: 63 records
August: 102 records
September: 109 records
October: 81 records
November: 41 records
December: 27 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 16–89 m · Deepest record: 287 m

0–10 m: 23 records
10–20 m: 14 records
20–30 m: 34 records
30–40 m: 51 records
40–50 m: 45 records
50–60 m: 44 records
60–70 m: 34 records
70–80 m: 30 records
80–90 m: 35 records
90–100 m: 13 records
100–110 m: 7 records
110+ m: 12 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 17–29 °C

16–18 °C: 1 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 6 records
22–24 °C: 6 records
24–26 °C: 19 records
26–28 °C: 632 records
28–30 °C: 230 records

Photos

(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Pauline Walsh Jacobson · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Pauline Walsh Jacobson · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Pauline Walsh Jacobson · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Doug Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Leonardo Breder Passalacqua, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Leatherjacket, Unicorn filefish, Unicorn leatherjacket, Batfish, Filefish, leatherjacket, Leubiem putéh, Rough Leatherjacket, Smooth leatherjacket, Triggerfish, Trigger Fish Durgon, Unicorn Fiiefish, unicorn filefish, Unicornfilefish, Unicorn File-fish, Unicorn Filefish, unicorn leatherjacket, Unicorn Leather-jacket, Unicorn Leather Jacket, Unicorn leatherjacket fileffish, Unicorn leatherjacket filefish, Yellow-finned Leatherjacket

Names in 9 more languages

German: Einhorn-Feilenfisch
Spanish: Cachúa, lija barbuda, Puerco de altura
Filipino: Papakol, Tiwarik
French: Bourse licorne, Bourse loulou
Indonesian: Ikan Sukang
Japanese: Usubahagi, ウスバハギ
Korean: 객주리
Thai: ปลางัวหางตัด
Simplified Chinese: 一角剝, 光復魚, 剝皮魚, 单角革鲀, 單角革單棘魨, 單角革魨, 狄仔魚, 白達仔, 薄葉剝

Other scientific names: Aluetera monocerus, Alutarius amphacanthoides, Alutarius macracanthus, Alutera cinerea, Alutera guntheriana, Alutera monocera, Alutera monoceros, Aluteres berardi, Aluterus anginosus, Balistes monoceros, Balistes serraticornis, Monacanthus anginosus

Similar species

Scrawled filefish
Aluterus scriptus
Broom filefish
Amanses scopas
Honeycomb filefish
Cantherhines pardalis
Barbeled leatherjacket
Anacanthus barbatus
Flower-coral Filefish
Acreichthys radiatus
Aiptasia-eating Filefish
Acreichthys tomentosus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
7,985 open-data records from 1758 to 2024.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.