They can sometimes temporarily show large dark spots which overlay the normal body pattern.

There are gaps in this distribution and there are no confirmed records from the Comoros, the continental shelf between Oman and Cambodia, the East Indies, Taiwan and mainland Australia.

[4] The brownspotted grouper occurs over a wide range of habitats such as seagrass beds and outer reef slopes, as well as over mud bottoms.

The brownspotted grouper was first formally described as Serranus chlorostigma in 1828 by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes (1794-1865) with the type locality given as the Seychelles.

[10] E. chlorostigma is a member of a species complex comprising three species which are characterised by having a truncate or emarginate caudal fin, a body covered in dense spotting apart from their underparts, a slightly angular preopercle with slightly enlarged serrations at the angle, a straight upper edge to the gill cover and a similar count of gill rakers.

[3] The fish in the Red Sea, northwestern Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden are now recognized as a valid species, Epinephelus geoffroyi.