French grunt

Haemulon flavolineatum, the French grunt, banana grunt, gold laced grunt, open-mouthed grunt, redmouth grunt, or yellow grunt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grunt belonging to the family Haemulidae. It inhabits tropical through warm-temperate regions between the southern Caribbean and the southeast U.S., within the western Atlantic Ocean.

Habitat

H. flavolineatum is found at depths between 1 and 60 m (3 ft 3 in and 196 ft 10 in), where it can form large aggregations involving thousands of individuals, over rocky areas and coral reefs. They may stay under ledges or near elkhorn coral. The juveniles are frequently found in large numbers sheltering in sea grass beds in protected bays, lagoons, and other coastal waters. They are mainly nocturnal and emerge at night to feed on benthic invertebrates such as molluscs, crustaceans, and polychaetes, foraging over sand flats and among sea-grass beds. They have pelagic eggs and larvae, but little is known about their reproductive habits. The larvae remain so for 2 weeks before settling among the sea grass.

Distribution

H. flavolineatum is found in the western Atlantic Ocean from South Carolina and Bermuda in the north, along the coast of the United States to the Bahamas, into the southern Gulf of Mexico including the Florida Keys, from Tuxpan in Mexico eastwards along the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula to northwestern Cuba, and south into the Caribbean Sea as far as Trinidad.