The longhu grouper is a hybrid grouper bred from a female brown-marbled grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, commonly called tiger grouper) and a male giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus, commonly called dragon grouper); its Chinese name takes one character from each parent. Its official name in the Taiwan FDA Food Nutrition Database is “longhu shiban yu,” ID J0405102. Each 100 grams of edible portion contains 20.6 grams of crude protein and 3.8 grams of crude fat, provides 122 kcal, and carries a refuse rate of 63.0%. Taiwan first bred the fish in 2009, when a Pingtung farm did so under the guidance of the Fisheries Research Institute. According to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Statistical Yearbook for 2024 (ROC year 113), annual longhu grouper production reached 12,621 tonnes, or 73.4% of all grouper production, with Pingtung County first and Kaohsiung City second. This page explains where the longhu grouper comes from, the actual numerical differences from the giant grouper and the brown-marbled grouper, how to tell them apart by appearance, and which market names refer to it — and it clears up two common misnomers: “humpback grouper” and “pearl grouper.”
The longhu grouper is bred from a female brown-marbled grouper (tiger grouper) and a male giant grouper (dragon grouper), with its Chinese name taking one character from each parent. It is not a giant grouper, and it is not a humpback grouper. Its official name in the Taiwan FDA Food Nutrition Database is “longhu shiban yu” (ID J0405102), and each 100 grams contains 20.6 grams of crude protein and 3.8 grams of crude fat.
The Chinese name is completely literal — it simply takes one character from each parent.
The earliest academic record of the cross is Ch’ng & Senoo at Universiti Malaysia Sabah in 2008; in Taiwan it was first bred in 2009 by a Pingtung farm under the guidance of the Fisheries Research Institute (Agriculture Policy and Review, issue 204).
According to the Academia Sinica Taiwan Fish Database and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Food and Agriculture Education Information Platform, the common names for the longhu grouper include:
Most online articles comparing these three fish rely on adjectives such as “more expensive” or “bouncier.” Below we use the actual figures from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration’s Food Nutrition Database (new edition), per 100 grams of edible portion.
| Item (per 100 g) | Longhu grouper | Brown-marbled grouper (mother) | Giant grouper (father) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan FDA database ID | J0405102 | J0405401 | J0405501 |
| Official Chinese name | Longhu shiban yu (龍虎石斑魚) | Zongdian shiban yu (棕點石斑魚) | Andai shiban yu (鞍帶石斑魚) |
| Status | Hybrid (crossbred offspring) | Mother (female) | Father (male) |
| Crude protein (grams) | 20.6 | 19.1 | 19.1 |
| Crude fat (grams) | 3.8 | 3.7 | 8.2 |
| Energy (kcal) | 122 | No data | No data |
| Refuse rate | 63.0% | No data | No data |
Source: Taiwan FDA Food Nutrition Database (new edition), IDs J0405102 / J0405401 / J0405501. Entries marked “No data” are values the database does not provide; this page does not back-calculate estimates from other fields. Database values are single-sample reference figures, and actual composition varies with the individual fish and the farming conditions. The crude fat row (highlighted in yellow) is the single item with the widest gap among the three: the giant grouper’s 8.2 grams is more than double the longhu grouper’s 3.8 grams, and it is the main source of the difference in texture. Crude protein, by contrast, is close across all three.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Statistical Yearbook for 2024 (ROC year 113):
| Item | Volume | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Total grouper production | 17,204 tonnes | Output value NT$4.425 billion |
| Of which longhu grouper | 12,621 tonnes | 73.4% of the total; output value NT$3.107 billion |
| Pingtung County | 8,852.5 tonnes | 51.5% of total grouper production; first nationwide |
| Kaohsiung City | 4,445.5 tonnes | 25.8%; second nationwide |
All of Taiwan’s longhu grouper comes from inland saltwater ponds, not offshore net cages. The grow-out period is about a year, and the fish cannot tolerate water temperatures below 15°C, which makes cold snaps the biggest risk on the farming side and is also why prices swing more easily in winter.
The Taiwan FDA lists a refuse rate of 63.0% for the longhu grouper (skin-on, before preparation). Working from that figure:
| Whole weight | Edible flesh (approx.) | Serving guide |
|---|---|---|
| 400 grams | 148 grams | 1–2 servings |
| 600 grams | 222 grams | Main dish for 2–3 |
| 1,200 grams | 444 grams | About 4 servings |
These are conservative lower bounds derived from the refuse rate. When a whole fish is steamed at home the skin is eaten too and the meat around the bones gets picked clean, so the amount actually eaten is usually more.
These three misnomers circulate most widely in the market, and two of them will make you buy the wrong fish.
No. The humpback grouper’s formal Chinese name is tuobei lu (scientific name Cromileptes altivelis). Although it belongs to the same family, Serranidae, its genus is completely different from either of the longhu grouper’s parents, and it sells for far more per unit weight. Among the common names listed for the longhu grouper by the Academia Sinica Taiwan Fish Database and the Ministry of Agriculture platform, “humpback grouper” does not appear anywhere. The reason for the confusion is simple: in Chinese, laoshu ban (humpback grouper) and laohu ban (brown-marbled grouper) differ by a single character.
Only half right. “Pearl giant grouper” really is one of the longhu grouper’s market names. But the market also sells a separate fish called “pearl grouper” (also known as freshwater grouper), which is in fact the jaguar cichlid — a member of the cichlid family and a relative of tilapia, not a grouper at all, and it is listed as a separate item in the official wholesale markets. A name containing “pearl” does not mean it is the same fish.
Ciguatera toxin (ciguatoxin) comes from algal toxins in coral-reef ecosystems and accumulates through the food chain in large wild coral-reef fish. The longhu grouper is raised in inland saltwater ponds and fed formulated feed, so it never enters that food chain. The official reference that can be cited is this: on 30 October 2024 Japan approved imports of Taiwan-farmed longhu grouper, precisely because trials by National Taiwan Ocean University confirmed that it contains no ciguatoxin.
The advertiser featured on this site, “YOUBAN 有斑,” supplies Taiwan-farmed longhu grouper, scaled, gilled and gutted, individually vacuum-packed and frozen, at roughly 400–1,200 grams per fish. That page has a full specification table, conversions between the different pricing units (per catty / per kilogram / per fish), six home-style recipes, thawing and storage instructions, and photographs taken at the farm. See YOUBAN’s full specifications and pricing
The longhu grouper is a hybrid grouper bred from a female brown-marbled grouper (commonly called tiger grouper) and a male giant grouper (commonly called dragon grouper); its Chinese name simply takes one character from each parent. Its official name in the Taiwan FDA Food Nutrition Database is “longhu shiban yu,” ID J0405102. Taiwan first bred it in 2009, when a Pingtung farm did so under the guidance of the Fisheries Research Institute, and it is now the single largest category of farmed grouper in Taiwan.
No — they are parent and offspring, not the same fish. The giant grouper (andai shiban yu) is the longhu grouper’s father. The easiest difference to verify is crude fat: per 100 grams the longhu grouper has 3.8 grams and the giant grouper 8.2 grams, a gap of more than double. For crude protein it is 20.6 grams for the longhu grouper and 19.1 grams for the giant grouper (Taiwan FDA TFND). In size, the giant grouper can grow past 100 kilograms, while the longhu grouper is usually marketed at around one and a half Taiwanese catties.
The brown-marbled grouper (zongdian shiban yu, J0405401) is the longhu grouper’s mother. Per 100 grams it has 19.1 grams of crude protein and 3.7 grams of crude fat, quite close to the longhu grouper’s 20.6 and 3.8. In practice the difference is mainly growth rate and supply: the longhu grouper grows faster and is produced in much greater volume, so both its availability on the market and its price stability are higher than the brown-marbled grouper’s.
No. The humpback grouper’s formal Chinese name is tuobei lu (scientific name Cromileptes altivelis); it is a completely different species from the longhu grouper and costs far more per unit weight. The common names listed for the longhu grouper by the Academia Sinica Taiwan Fish Database and the Ministry of Agriculture’s food and agriculture education platform are longhu shiban, balongdan, zhenzhu longdan and hudan — “humpback grouper” appears nowhere among them. The confusion usually arises because in Chinese, “laoshu ban” (humpback grouper) and “laohu ban” (brown-marbled grouper, the longhu grouper’s mother) differ by a single character.
It depends which name you mean. The longhu grouper’s common names do include “pearl giant grouper,” and that one does refer to this fish. But the market also sells a fish called “pearl grouper” or “freshwater grouper” that is in fact the jaguar cichlid (a cichlid and a relative of tilapia), not a grouper, and it is a separate item in the official wholesale markets. When buying, the official name is more reliable than the market name.
Taste is a matter of personal preference, so here we give only the verifiable composition figures: per 100 grams the longhu grouper contains 20.6 grams of crude protein and 3.8 grams of crude fat (Taiwan FDA, J0405102). It combines the fine-textured flesh of its mother, the brown-marbled grouper, with the thick skin of its father, the giant grouper, which is one reason it became the mainstream farmed grouper in Taiwan. In Taiwanese home cooking it is most often steamed, simmered in soup, or braised in soy sauce.
Using the refuse rate of 63.0% published by the Taiwan FDA: a 600-gram longhu grouper yields roughly 222 grams of edible flesh once the head, tail and bones are removed, enough for a main dish for 2–3 people; a 1,200-gram fish yields about 444 grams, enough for about 4. These are conservative lower bounds — when a whole fish is steamed at home the skin is eaten too and the meat around the bones gets picked clean, so the amount actually eaten is more.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Statistical Yearbook for 2024 (ROC year 113), Taiwan’s total grouper production was 17,204 tonnes, of which the longhu grouper accounted for 12,621 tonnes, or 73.4%. By county and city, Pingtung led with 8,852.5 tonnes (51.5%), followed by Kaohsiung with 4,445.5 tonnes (25.8%), and all of it comes from inland saltwater ponds.
Ciguatera toxin (ciguatoxin) comes from algal toxins in coral-reef ecosystems and accumulates through the food chain in large wild coral-reef fish. The longhu grouper is raised in inland ponds and fed formulated feed, so it never enters that food chain. The official reference that can be cited is this: on 30 October 2024 Japan approved imports of Taiwan-farmed longhu grouper, precisely because trials by National Taiwan Ocean University confirmed that it contains no ciguatoxin.
About a year, and the market size is usually around one and a half Taiwanese catties (about 900 grams). The longhu grouper cannot tolerate water temperatures below 15°C, which makes cold snaps the biggest risk on the farming side and is also why prices swing more easily in winter.
[Nature of this content] This page is an explanatory guide to a fish species; every nutrition and production figure is given with its source and database ID. Food Nutrition Database values are single-sample reference figures, are provided for dietary reference only, carry no medical efficacy, and cannot replace professional advice from a physician or a dietitian.
[AI material disclosure] The hero image at the top of the page is an AI-generated illustration created to show how the three species are related; it is not an actual photograph.
This page was last updated on 31 July 2026.