1991 Marbled grouper / Epinephelus fuseoguttatus, The world's first success

Brown-marbled Grouper,or Flowereod (Epinephelus Fuseoguttatus) is of Serranidae family and Epinephelinae sub-family. It is call "Black Spotted Grouper" in Chinese. The fish body is light grey with dense black spots and 5 dark saddle stripes on its back. At the tail fin there is a large black spot. It is also called brown spotted grouper or grey. It is generally known as Tiger Grouper. It is high value sea water species.

This is a carnivorous fish and it can adapt to wide range of salinity and temperature. It is suitable for cultivation both land side pond and net cage on sea water. It grows well in net cage cultivation in Southeast Asia countries , approximately 1 Taiwanese Catty per year. The land side pond cultivation in Taiwan can also reach 1 Taiwanese Catty per year. The difference from other cultivated groupers is not much.

This species is found in waters of Penghu, Taiwan. We import brood fish from Singapore for reproduction at the weight between 15 kg and 30 kg. By applying hormone treatment the brood can reach natural laying and fertilizing. The egg laying time is between 11:00 and 12:00 pm. In tail chasing the male is apparent and jumping. It ends in 30 minutes. After long term observation, it is found that one day before laying eggs ,this species does not consume food and the laying time is between 1st day and 4th day of lunar month, that is there is only 4 days for egg laying in a month，but the production is about 50 tails a day and can be as much as 150 kgs. It is different from th EL egg laying of Salmon Grouper.

Fertilized egg is transparent, separated, and floating and hatch takes 18 hours and 55 minutes under temperature of 27.8+/-0.5°CJ and salinity of 32ppt. The fry is about 1.68 mm long. After hatching, the fry floats at surface and starts food intake 60 hours later. The feeds include fertilized egg of oyster and small rotifers. When comparing cultivation in clear water and Algae pond, the later is better than the former one. The artificial cultivation of this species was successful in 1991 in our company and is currently in mass production. The success of cultivation of this species brought good economic gain to fishermen in Southeast Asia countries, as it is most suitable for cultivation in Southeast Asia, which has additional advantage in low damage rate in both air and sea shipping.