Roberto Pillon, Italien
Info
Under favorable conditions, this solitary creature can weigh up to 50 kilograms and hunts all kinds of reef dwellers.
The large predator also likes to search for food on the adjacent sandy bottoms of the reefs.
A particularly magnificent photo of a grouper with a cuttlefish in its mouth can be admired here:
https://canalmarmenor.carm.es/inventario-ecologico/fauna/gitano-abadejo-mycteroperca-rubra/
Adult animals have a reddish-brown coloration, but animals with black and light gray spots on their bodies can also be observed.
Most groupers have a rounded tail fin, but not Mycteroperca rubra, whose tail fin is straight, sometimes with tapered tips.
Some fish have a black stripe above the upper jaw.
Juvenile groupers are found in shallow coastal waters with mangroves, one of the best-known nurseries of all.
The small perch have a black saddle patch on the caudal peduncle.
Mycteroperca rubra is a protogynous hermaphrodite, and the sex change from female to male occurs at the age of nine.
Spawn collections of this species have been observed in Israel (Aronov and Goren 2008), Senegal (J-P. Barreiros pers. communication 2016), in the Mediterranean region of Turkey (P. Francour pers. communication 2016) and in Corsica (Cottalorda et al. 2012).
Since the large perch lives solitarily, it is not the focus of the commercial fishing industry.
Etymology: The species name “rubra” means “red” and refers to the body color of adult animals.
Synonyms:
Cerna macrogenis Sassi, 1846 · unaccepted
Epinephelus ruber Bloch, 1793 · unaccepted
Mycteroperca scirenga (Rafinesque, 1810) · unaccepted
Serranus armatus Osório, 1893 · unaccepted
Serranus emarginatus Valenciennes, 1843 · unaccepted (synonym)
Serranus nebulosus Cocco, 1833 · unaccepted
Serranus tinca Cantraine, 1833 · unaccepted (ambiguous synonym)
Sparus scirenga Rafinesque, 1810 · unaccepted
The large predator also likes to search for food on the adjacent sandy bottoms of the reefs.
A particularly magnificent photo of a grouper with a cuttlefish in its mouth can be admired here:
https://canalmarmenor.carm.es/inventario-ecologico/fauna/gitano-abadejo-mycteroperca-rubra/
Adult animals have a reddish-brown coloration, but animals with black and light gray spots on their bodies can also be observed.
Most groupers have a rounded tail fin, but not Mycteroperca rubra, whose tail fin is straight, sometimes with tapered tips.
Some fish have a black stripe above the upper jaw.
Juvenile groupers are found in shallow coastal waters with mangroves, one of the best-known nurseries of all.
The small perch have a black saddle patch on the caudal peduncle.
Mycteroperca rubra is a protogynous hermaphrodite, and the sex change from female to male occurs at the age of nine.
Spawn collections of this species have been observed in Israel (Aronov and Goren 2008), Senegal (J-P. Barreiros pers. communication 2016), in the Mediterranean region of Turkey (P. Francour pers. communication 2016) and in Corsica (Cottalorda et al. 2012).
Since the large perch lives solitarily, it is not the focus of the commercial fishing industry.
Etymology: The species name “rubra” means “red” and refers to the body color of adult animals.
Synonyms:
Cerna macrogenis Sassi, 1846 · unaccepted
Epinephelus ruber Bloch, 1793 · unaccepted
Mycteroperca scirenga (Rafinesque, 1810) · unaccepted
Serranus armatus Osório, 1893 · unaccepted
Serranus emarginatus Valenciennes, 1843 · unaccepted (synonym)
Serranus nebulosus Cocco, 1833 · unaccepted
Serranus tinca Cantraine, 1833 · unaccepted (ambiguous synonym)
Sparus scirenga Rafinesque, 1810 · unaccepted
