Eastern blue gropers can be distinguished from other reef fish, like rock blackfish, drummer and luderick, by our slow movement using just our pectoral fins (the fins behind the gills).

A member of the wrasse family, we change colour and sex as we grow. As a juvenile, the female is brown to green-brown. At about 35 cm (1 kg), she matures to the adult female and turns to red-brown. At around 60cm (5 kg), sometimes smaller, the adult female turns into a male and the colour changes to blue or grey-blue. The male can reach 1 metre in length.

As you can see I'm male.

Check out this photo of a blue groper. Click on it for a bigger image.

Our eyes are small and we have these yellow or orange squiggly lines around them. Our body is thick, and we've got a big tail and thick lips.

Our teeth, which are like pegs, are strong and we can eat a variety of invertebrates (creatures without back bones), such as sea urchins, cunjevoi, crabs, mussels and other molluscs.

Up to six or seven of us may form a school. At night we don't do much. We rest in reef crevices.

We're found from Hervey Bay in Queensland to Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. There's also a western blue groper, which is found from Victoria to southern Western Australia.

Want to read a great story about a blue groper? Click on the book cover to read some of the author Tim Winton's book Blueback.