Honeycomb grouper

Appearance

"Epinephelus merra" reaches a maximum known length of 32 centimetres and it is one of the smaller fish species in the "Epinephelus" genus. This species has a long dorsal fin with eleven spines, 15-17 dorsal soft rays and 8 anal soft rays. The body is ocher to light brown, stocky, with an oval profile. It is covered by small brown hexagons with pale interspaces disposed on irregular darker diagonal bands and forming a network. These hexagonal spots are also present on all fins. The caudal fin is rounded and the interorbital area is flat, with a convex dorsal head profile. The eyes are globular, with red-brown to black pupils. The lower jaw is longer than the upper one and on the midlateral part of the lower jaw there are 2-4 rows of teeth.

Distribution

The Honeycomb grouper is one of the most common small groupers of the Indo-Pacific. It is widespread throughout the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific from South Africa to Pitcairn, north to southern Japan, south to Lord Howe Island. It is not present in the Red Sea, the Persian gulf, coastal India and Hawaii.

Behavior

These solitary groupers live in seaward reefs and in shallow lagoon, usually at depths less than 20 m., but they can reach about 50 m. Juveniles prefer reefs with staghorn corals. They mainly feed on fishes, crabs, shrimps and cephalopods, with and increase of piscivory with age. After the sexual maturity they are initially females and later they turn into males. Usually the groupers with a length of 16 cm are still females. These fishes usually spawn from January to April and the spawning begin 2 to 3 days before full moon and last about 3–4 days.