Balistoides was first proposed as a genus in 1935 by the English ichthyologist Alec Fraser-Brunner with Balistes viridescens designated as its type species.

[2] B. viridescens had originally been described in 1801 by the German naturalists Marcus Elieser Bloch and Johann Gottlob Schneider with its type locality not given.

Nevertheless, its type locality is Mauritius, as the description was based on Bernard Germain de Lacépède's Baliste verdatre.

The scales above the base of the pectoral fin and the gill slit are very enlarged and form a flexible tympanum.

[7] The smallest of the two species in this genus is B. viridescens with a maximum total length of 75 cm (30 in) while the maximum published total length of B. conspicillum is 50 cm (20 in),[8] Balistoides triggerfishes are found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans from the eastern coast of Africa east as far as the Tuamotus and Line Islands, south to northern Australia and north to southern Japan.