The slender grouper (''Anyperodon leucogrammicus'') 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 c ...

, 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 An ...

and sea basses. It is the only species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

''Anyperodon''. It is found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region.

Systematics

Recent molecular analyses based on five genes show that ''Anyperodon leucogrammicus'' is included in the same clade as species of ''

Epinephelus ''Epinephelus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, groupers from the subfamily Epinephelinae, part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. They are predatory fish, largely associated with reefs and are found ...

''. Consequently, the species should be included in ''Epinephelus'' as ''Epinephelus leucogrammicus''.

Description

The slender grouper is a medium-sized fish growing to a length of about . The head occupies 40% of the total length and the mouth is large, with the lower jaw longer than the upper jaw. There are no palatine teeth, a fact which distinguishes this species from other groupers. The basic colour is pale reddish-brown liberally dotted with orange spots which are closer together on the head. There are five pale silvery blue longitudinal lines running down either side, the lower 3 reaching the tail but the upper two breaking into irregular streaks. The dorsal fin has 11 spines and 14 to 16 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 8 to 9 soft rays. Juvenile fish have vivid blue and red longitudinal stripes.

Distribution and habitat

The slender grouper has a wide distribution in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. The range extends from the east coast of Africa and the Red Sea at 32°E to southern Japan and Australia at 171°W. It is found on coral reefs and seaward reef slopes and in lagoons at depths down to or occasionally . and can found in Andaman Sea.

Ecology

The slender grouper is

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other ...

, feeding mainly on other fish such as

goatfish The goatfishes are perciform fish of the family Mullidae. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mullus''. The family name and the English common name mullet derived from Lat ...

but possibly also on

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. Juvenile slender groupers are

aggressive mimics Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. Zoologists have repeatedly compared ...

of the red-lined wrasse, '' Halichoeres biocellatus'' and the silty wrasse, '' Halichoeres purpurescens''. They resemble them in appearance and in behaviour which lulls a potential prey fish into a false sense of security and enables the grouper to approach it without detection.Aggressive mimicry
The Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Retrieved 2012-04-19.

Status

The slender grouper is considered of "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This is because it has a very wide range and populations do not seem to be in decline. It is not fished commercially but is occasionally seen in the fish markets in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Utilization

* Fishery : Small Trade * Game: Angling

References

External links

* *

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q4650659, from2=Q2306626 Epinephelini Fish of Thailand Fish described in 1828