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Coral Trout
Plectropomus leopardus (Lacepède, 1802)
A Coral Trout at a depth of 19m, "The Cod Hole", Ribbon Reefs north of Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, June 2002. The fish is being cleaned by a Striped Cleaner Wrasse. View larger image.
A Coral Trout at a depth of 12m, reef at Cormorant Pass, Great Barrier Reef off Lizard Island, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.
A Coral Trout at a depth of 14m, "The Cod Hole", Ribbon Reefs north of Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, December 1999. View larger image.
The Coral Trout is usually red to greenish brown. The median fins (glossary) and upper two thirds of the head and body have numerous small dark-edged blue dots. The median rays of the caudal fin often have a white margin.
The colouration can vary with time of day, the surrounding habitat and the type of activity the fish is pursuing. The middle image shows a fish with colouration often seen in Coral Trout at rest. The fish in the upper two images are being cleaned by Striped Cleaner Wrasse (view fact sheet).
This species grows to 75cm in length.
It occurs in tropical marine waters of the Indo-West Pacific.
In Australia the Coral Trout is known from north-western Western Australia, around the tropical north and south to the southern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
The 1986 paper of Randall and Hoese (see further reading) was responsible for solving major problems with the taxonomy of the genus Plectropomus.
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Allen, G.R. & R. Swainston. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 201.
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Paxton, J.R., D.F. Hoese, G.R. Allen & J.E. Hanley. 1989. Zoological Catalogue of Australia Vol.7 Pisces Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Survey. Pp. i-xii, 1-665.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
- Randall, J.E. & D.F. Hoese. 1986. Revision of the Groupers of the Indo-Pacific genus Plectropomus (Perciformes: Serranidae). Indo-Pacific Fishes. 13: 1-31.
