Roving coral grouper


The roving coral grouper is a species of fish in the family Serranidae. Other common names are violet coral trout and leopard grouper.

Subspecies

include:
This widespread but quite rare species can be found in the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Fiji. These fishes live in coral reef, in shallow lagoon and seaward reefs, at a depth range of 25 – 147 m.

Description

P. pessuliferus reaches a maximum length of 120 cm and at least 63 cm. These large fishes have massive bodies and heads with prominent eyes and characteristic large jaws and lips. Their pectoral and caudal fins are darker, sometimes brown, spotted with blue dots. They have very variable colors, from white or beige to red, with large, irregular, vertical, grayish bands. The whole body is covered with blue dots. They have seven to nine dorsal spines, 10-12 dorsal soft rays, three anal spines, and eight anal soft rays.
This species is rather similar to and often misidentified as Plectropomus maculatus.

Biology

This carnivorous species mainly feed on fishes and crustaceans. They sometimes engage in cooperative hunting with the giant moray, the humphead wrasse, or the big blue octopus.