Blotched red or olive with yellow margins to the pectoral fins. It changes colour quickly and can look like two different fish in a minute.
To about 90 cm, blotched in red, olive or brown with a fine dark pattern, and bright yellow margins to the pectoral fins. Those margins are the reliable character: the fish changes ground colour within a minute and the yellow does not go.
It is a reef and wall grouper, taken by the same fisheries and with the same slow growth as the rest of the family. It is a recorded cause of ciguatera in parts of its range, which is a toxin accumulated up the food chain from algae and which cooking does not destroy. That is a reason not to eat a large one, not a reason to avoid one in the water.
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.
