The roving coral grouper (''Plectropomus pessuliferus''), also known as the spotted coral grouper, is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

, a

grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

from the subfamily

Epinephelinae Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

which is part of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Serranidae The Serranidae are a large family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers (subfamily Epinephelinae). Although many species are small, in some ca ...

, which also includes the

anthias Anthias are members of the family Serranidae and make up the subfamily Anthiinae. Anthias make up a sizeable portion of the population of pink, orange, and yellow reef fishes seen swarming in most coral reef photography and film. The name Anthi ...

and sea basses. It is found in the Indo-Pacific, although the Red Sea taxon, ''P. marisrubri'', is regarded as a separate species by some authorities.

Description

The roving coral grouper has a body which is elongate and robust, with the standard length being 2.9 to 3.9 times the depth of the body. The preopercle is mostly rounded, with three large, downward pointing spines along the bottom half. The gill cover has two skin covered spines on either side of a naked central spine. The dorsal fin contains 7–8 spines and 10–12 soft rays while the anal fin contains 3 spines and 8 soft rays. The spiny part of the dorsal fin has a shorter base than the soft-rayed part. The

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

is a truncate in adults and emarginate in juveniles. The head, body, and fins are coloured brown to orange-red, with many small blue spots each with dark edges, some of these spots on thehead and flanks are elongated, normally vertically, with much less spotting on the lower body. There is often a blue ring around the eye, although this may be broken. This species attains a total length of .

Distribution

The roving coral grouper is a widespread but quite rare species can be found in the Indo-Pacific, from the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, south along the East African coast to Mozambique and Madagascar and east across the Indian Ocean to the

Coral Triangle The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in e ...

of the

Western Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Habitat and biology

These fishes live in coral reef, in shallow lagoon and seaward reefs, at a depth range of 25–147 m. This carnivorous species mainly feed on fishes and crustaceans. They sometimes engage in cooperative hunting with the giant moray (''

Gymnothorax javanicus The giant moray (''Gymnothorax javanicus'') is a species of moray eel and a species of marine fish in the family Muraenidae. In terms of body mass, it is the largest moray eel; however, the slender giant moray is the largest in terms of body leng ...

''), the humphead wrasse (''

Cheilinus undulatus The humphead wrasse (''Cheilinus undulatus'') is a large species of wrasse mainly found on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, Napoleon fish, Napoleonfish, ''so mei'' 蘇眉 (Cantonese ...

''), or the big blue octopus ('' Octopus cyanea'').Il pesce che quando va a caccia "balla" per chiamare rinforzi
in National Geographic

Taxonomy

The roving coral grouper was first formally described as ''Plectropoma pessuliferum'' by the American ichthyologist Henry Weed Fowler (1878–1965) with the type locality given as

Padang Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...

in Sumatra. Some authorities recognise '' Plectropomus marisrubri'', which Fishbase treats as a synonym of ''P. pessuliferus'', as a valid species., while others as treat it as a subspecies of ''P. pessuliferus'', ''P.p. maristrubri''. Phylogenetic analyses showed that ''P. pessuliferus'', which is a relatively small species and has with a distribution from the central Indian ocean to the

, is the sister species of the Leopard coral grouper (''P. leopardus'') and is not the closest relative of the Red Sea taxon, ''P.p. marisrubri''. File:Serranidae - Plectropomus pessuliferus marisburi.jpg, ''P. p. marisrubri'' File:Serranidae - Plectropomus pessuliferus marisburi-001.jpg, ''P. p. marisrubri'' File:Interspecific-Communicative-and-Coordinated-Hunting-between-Groupers-and-Giant-Moray-Eels-in-the-pbio.0040431.sv004.ogv, A Coordinated Hunting-between Groupers and Giant Moray Eels - video clip

Utilisation

The roving coral grouper is caught using spear, hand lines, gill nets and traps. In the Maldives, it is exported to southeast Asia for sale in the live reef fish trade and it is considered to be of high value.

References

External links

Sous les Mers

* {{DEFAULTSORT:grouper, roving coral roving coral grouper roving coral grouper Articles containing video clips