Black spots on white, a concave head, and a juvenile that swims like a leaf.
A grouper to about 70 cm, white to pale grey covered in small round black spots, with a steeply concave head profile, a humped back and small fins — a silhouette unlike any other grouper in the region. Juveniles carry fewer, larger spots on a whiter ground and are among the more sought-after small subjects on a muck site.
The juvenile swims with a rocking, flapping motion close to the bottom, drifting head down and rolling from side to side in a way usually described as leaf mimicry — the same solution the juvenile sweetlips and the rockmover wrasse have arrived at. Adults are ambush predators of small fish and crustaceans around structure. The species is heavily fished for the live reef food trade, which takes it while it is small, and it is listed as Vulnerable; it is also farmed. Recorded from about 2 to 40 m, on muck sites usually around wrecks, pilings and rubble rather than on open sand.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
