The largest bony fish on a coral reef, reaching well over two metres. Adults are dark and heavy; juveniles are boldly blotched and look like a different animal.
To about 2.7 m and several hundred kilograms, and the largest bony fish on a coral reef. Adults are dark brown-grey with faint mottling and a very large mouth; the head looks small for the body until the fish turns. Juveniles are completely different, boldly blotched in yellow and black, and are regularly taken for another species.
It lives in caves, under ledges and inside wrecks on tropical reef, and it feeds by opening a very wide mouth suddenly, which takes the prey in with the water rather than by chasing it. Small sharks and turtles have been recorded in the stomach. It is long-lived and slow to mature, which is the usual combination behind a collapsed population, and it is protected in Queensland. On the Great Barrier Reef and in the Coral Sea a large one is a rare sighting and is normally the same individual on the same site.
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.
