Common Name: Thousandspot Grubfish

Distribution: Uncommon in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region: from the Maldives to the Pitcairn Group, north to the Ryukyu Islands and south to New Caledonia. In Australia recorded from Shark Bay and Exmouth in Western Australia, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland south to northern New South Wales.

Ecological Notes: Frequents areas of seaward reef, usually on sand or rubble between coral or rocks. Depth range 3 – 50 m.

Additional Notes: Best recognized by the busy blotched pattern over the back, close-set series of brown to orange blotches behind the eyes on top of the head, and white blotch on the tail. Similar Parapercis clathrata has grouping of small spots below and behind the eye. Feeds on benthic invertebrates and small fishes. Grows to 18 cm. 

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.356.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=parapercis+millipunctata. Accessed 22/06/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Parapercis-millipunctata.html. Accessed 22/06/18.