Islands and off Australia. In the Western Pacific Ocean its range extends from Japan and South Korea in the north south to Australia and east as far as the Solomon Islands. In Australia, it is distributed from Shark Bay in Western Australia along the northern coast and as far south as northern New South Wales, including the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Habitat and biology The longfin grouper is found on silty reefs in coastal waters at depths of less than . It is a sedentary species which feeds on worms, smaller fishes and crustaceans. This species is a protogynous hermaphrodite and the females become sexually mature at around and when they are 1.8 years old. The change in sex to males takes place when they have attained a total length of around . The long and fleshy pectoral fins appear to be used to support the fish's body as it rests on the substrate. Taxonomy The longfin grouper was first formally described as Serranus quoyanus in 1830 by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes (1794-1865) with the type locality given as New Guinea. The specific name honours the French naval surgeon, zoologist and anatomist Jean René Constant Quoy (1790-1869) who, with Joseph Paul Gaimard, reported this species. Utilisation The longfin grouper is of some value to fisheries in Hong Kong and Taiwan, occurring in the live reef fish food markets of Hong Kong and probably on other regions of southeast Asia. The small juveniles are caught in the summer and the larger fish are caught using gill nets, hand-lines and traps. Once caught the wild hatched juveniles are grown-out in cages in southeast Asia, albeit on a small scale. References External links Epinephelus Fish described in 1830