By Daniel Jones Blue Groper

Where they live (As Shown to the right) The Red is where the Eastern Blue Groper lives and the blue is where the Western Blue Groper. The range of the Eastern Blue Groper goes from Hervey Bay, South Queensland, to Wilson Promontory, Victoria. The range of the Western Blue Groper is from Houtman Abrolhos in Western Australia to East Melbourne. Blue Gropers are territorial, which means they stay in the same area for most of their lives. (See 'Blueback' page 20).

Appearance Blue gropers have: Peg teeth, heavy scales, a large tail, and very thick lips. Blue Gropers can grow to be gigantic in size and can intimidate snorkelers with their large mouths ('Blueback', page 13-17) Adult females are brown to greenish- yellow. Adult males are bright blue. This is where blue gropers got there name from.

Body features Blue gropers start their lives as females, and as their body matures, they either stay as females or become males. The Western blue gropers are much larger than the eastern blue Groper. They can grow up to 1.7m long and way up to 40kg. It is very rare to find a blue Groper of this size.

Interesting facts The Western Blue Groper can live up to 70 years. They become adults when they are about 15 – 20 years old. Western Blue Gropers live with one male, up to two females and several young ones as a family. The male fish is always the largest one in the group. If a male disappears from the family, then one of the females can take the male’s place by changing gender and colour. Western Blue Gropers eat small crustaceans that hide in the algae on the bottom of the sea, and meat of an abalone ('Blueback', page 21)

Bibliography "Blue Groper (2001) (Visited 19/4/2013) 'Blue Groper', Google Images (Visited 19/4/2013) phttp:// p Tim Winton (1997), Blueback, Penguin Group (Australia), Melbourne, Victoria.