Common name: Blue-and-yellow grouper, Brown-spotted grouper, Brown-spotted rockcod, Coral cod, Coral trout, Estuary cod, Estuary grouper, Estuary rockcod, Goldspotted rockcod, Greasy cod, Greasy grouper, Green grouper, Malabar grouper, North-west groper, Orange spotted cod, Orange-spotted grouper

Japanese name: Chairomaruhata (茶色丸羽太)

Taiwan common name: 點帶石斑魚、石斑、過魚、紅花、紅點虎麻、紅斑、青斑

Chinese common name: 点带石斑鱼

Scientific name: Epinephelus coioides (Hamilton, 1822)

Nigiri sushi detail: Orange-spotted grouper (Chairomaruhata) Nigiri sushi

Feature:

Orange-spotted grouper (Chairomaruhata) is distributed along the Pacific coast south of Wakayama Prefecture, Taiwan, and the Indo-West Pacific region. It inhabits sandy bottoms of bays, coral reefs, and mangroves in brackish water. The body is thinner than the Sevenband grouper (Mahata) and similar to the Longtooth grouper (Kue).

It has brownish to reddish-brown spots 3 to 5 mm in size. It is a large species, exceeding 80 cm in length. The season is from winter to summer.

Its dark red meat (Chiai) is beautiful because of its red, clean, transparent flesh. It has little sweetness but has an extreme umami taste that one never gets tired of eating. It is treated as a high-class fish in the market. It is moderately soft and is eaten simmered, hot pot, sashimi, grilled with salt, etc. It is farmed in Okinawa, Taiwan, and Singapore.