Mottled grouper

The mottled grouper (Mycteroperca rubra) is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Habitat

The mottled grouper is a demersal species which occurs over rocky reefs and adjacent sandy substrates as deep as 200 metres (660 ft). It tens to be commoner at shallower depths from 1 to 30 metres (3.3 to 98.4 ft) in the eastern Mediterranean. It readily takes to artificial reefs such as shipwrecks off Sicily. Juveniles are usually found in shallower inshore waters. It feeds on molluscs and small fishes. It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, the transition from female to male happens when they are nine years oold and have attained a total length of 53 centimetres (21 in). The females reach sexual maturity at a total length of about 27 to 32 centimetres (11 to 13 in) around four and five years of age. Spawning aggregations have been recorded off Israel, Senegal, Turkey and Corsica.

Distribution

The mottle grouper is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Mediterranean Sea. In the eastern Atlantic, it is found from southern Portugal and Spain, along the western coast of Africa as far south as Angola. It was formerly found in the southern Mediterranean from southern Spain and Morocco to Egypt and Israel but it has been expanding its range and is now found as far north as Provence in France and the Adriatic Sea. It is absent from the Black Sea and records from the Macaronesian Islands are misidentifications of Island grouper (Mycteroperca fusca) and records from Brazil are similarly misidentifications of the comb grouper M. acutirostris.