Common Name: Blacktip Rockcod
Distribution: Common in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, from the Red Sea and South Africa to the Pitcairn Islands, north to Japan and Korea, south to southern Queensland and Lord Howe Island. In Australia recorded from central Western Australia, across the tropical north to Torres Strait, the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, south to central New South Wales and including Lord Howe Island.
Ecological Notes: Frequents outer reef slopes, protected bays and lagoons. Depth from 4 to at least 150 m, usually below 15 m.
Additional Notes: Variable colouration from banded to pale, with distinctive red colouration on snout and forehead and black and white tips on dorsal fin. Banding not always evident, see pale specimen lower photograph. Feeds on a variety of small crabs, stomatopods, octopus and fishes. Grows to 40 cm.
References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.93.
Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Epinephelus+fasciatus. Accessed 26/05/18.
FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Epinephelus-fasciatus.html. Accessed 26/05/18.