A fast open-water grouper, and the fish that hunts cooperatively with moray eels.
To about 70 cm, olive-brown to bright orange-red with small dark-edged blue spots scattered over the body and fins, a slender body and a squared-off tail. Colour varies widely between individuals and with depth, from pale grey-brown to strong red. Unlike the reef-bound Cephalopholis it hangs above the substrate and moves fast.
It is one of a small number of fish known to recruit another species to a hunt: it signals to a giant moray or a humphead wrasse with a headstand and a rapid head shake at the spot where prey has taken cover, and takes what is flushed into open water. The behaviour has been described in detail from Red Sea and Great Barrier Reef work and is reported from this region too. It is a major commercial and live-trade target and its abundance tracks fishing pressure closely. Recorded from about 3 to 50 m.
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.
