Which fish is this?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Pearlman

Contributor
Messages
1,049
Reaction score
332
Location
Bangalore
# of dives
200 - 499
Trying to ID this fish (not the bannerfish but the slender fish). Location - Indonesia, Depth - approx 20m.

FishID-Cycle.png


Thanks!
 
The other fish is some kind of lyretail grouper, I think.

03B65E6C-04C1-41AA-A32C-7B05199CEBC1.jpeg
 
Possibly a Freckled Grouper...
 
Anyways grouper it is .. just needed something to caption my video on instagram.

Thanks folks!
 
I don’t think so. Freckled grouper has rounded tail.

Yes, true. The Reef Fish book has a few examples that look like the fish in my video but the tail was rounded - otherwise unlike your examples both Starry and Freckled look similar in the book. This one has a Lyretail and white saddles - possibly a minor variation not documented.
So the only things we can be sure of are:

1. Its some kind of a Grouper - Most likely a Lyretail with color variation (your reference pic also has saddles)
2. its very tasty pan fried...
 
So that set me thinking - what prevents different fish from cross-breeding once the eggs are spawned? In this example a Starry Grouper could have fertilized a Lyretail Groupers eggs or vice versa to give a starry-lyretail?
 
Typically they have yellow edged. But the fish on your picture doesn’t have it.

View attachment 626570

At 20m, the yellow is long gone due to water color absorption.

Even if some light/strobe was used, the grouper seems to be far from the camera.

Based on that, you can't exclude the Lyretail grouper.
I think it can be a Lyretail grouper (with the expected colors, not a variation) but not well-lit.

Yes, true. The Reef Fish book has a few examples that look like the fish in my video but the tail was rounded - otherwise unlike your examples both Starry and Freckled look similar in the book. This one has a Lyretail and white saddles - possibly a minor variation not documented.
So the only things we can be sure of are:

1. Its some kind of a Grouper - Most likely a Lyretail with color variation (your reference pic also has saddles)
2. its very tasty pan fried...

It is neither a Starry (Epinephelus labriformis) nor a Freckled (Cephalopholis microprion) grouper, because, as you noted, the tail is completely different.
 

Back
Top Bottom