If you didn’t know any better, a full grown Neptune Grouper could come across as more of an Anthias than a grouper. The juvenile adult may be muted in coloration but mature adults sport a hot pink body which is ringed in brilliant yellow bands, a color scheme not unlike the polleni grouper or the spanish flag grouper, Gonioplectrus hispanus. Like many rare and super expensive live fish, Cephalopholis igarashiensis is a dweller of the deep with a depth range starting out 260 ft or 80 meters and bottoming out at over 800 feet. Very few specimens of Neptune Groupers have ever been caught and the largest known specimen had a recorded length of 17″. 
Strangely enough, like some other food fish which we highly prize in a living condition, you are more likely to find the Neptune Grouper on ice being sold at a fish market for $50 than as a living specimen which requires special decompression and transportation for a cost upwards of the $6000 that is being asked for the juvenile above. House of Fins in Greenwich CT is the high rolling LFS that is in posessionof the rare and pricey specimen. Very special thanks to Michael Moye for sharing these images with us and follow the break for more pics including living and iced adult specimens.
