Brown grouper
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Brown grouper ( Mycteroperca marginatus ) |
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| Mycteroperca marginatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Lowe , 1834) |
The brown grouper ( Mycteroperca marginatus , syn .: Epinephelus marginatus ) is a species of the genus Epinephelus belonging to the groupers . It lives in the reefs and rocky coasts of the eastern and western Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
The stock is threatened , mainly due to overfishing by commercial fishing . The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the species as Endangered (EN).
features
The brown grouper reaches a maximum length of over 1.5 meters, but usually remains under one meter long. The weight averages 12 kilograms. Like other groupers, it has a high-backed and slightly flattened body with a large head. The mouth is terminal and reaches under the eyes. The back and sides of the fish are brown to dark green with a yellow marbling, the belly is yellow.
Like other groupers, it has a gill cover with a jagged edge, which gave the fish their name. The body is covered with small comb scales . The dorsal fin is large and notched in the middle, it has 11 hard and 15 to 16 soft rays. The pelvic fins are on the chest with 16 to 18 rays, the anal fin has 3 hard and 8 to 9 soft rays.
distribution
The brown grouper is a reef and rock inhabitant widespread in the east and west Atlantic as well as in the Mediterranean , whereby it occurs mainly in subtropical regions. It is widespread in the eastern Atlantic from the Bay of Biscay to the coast of Angola and around the southern tip of Africa to Madagascar . In the western Atlantic, the distribution area extends from Bermuda to Brazil , Uruguay and northern Argentina .
Way of life
The fish are solitary, loyal to their location and form territories in reefs and rocky coasts at depths of 8 to 200 meters. They feed on mollusks , especially octopuses , crustaceans, and smaller fish.
The brown grouper is a Protogynous hermaphrodite , the initially female fish changes its sex accordingly from a body length of 40 to 80 centimeters and becomes a male animal. The spawning season in the north-east Atlantic extends from March to June, with the females releasing the spawn into the open water. The eggs drift pelagically with the current and hatch accordingly in the open water.
The brown grouper can live up to 50 years.
Systematics
The brown grouper was first described in 1834 by the Englishman Percy Roycroft Lowe and assigned to the genus Serranus . The species was later placed in the grouper genus Epinephelus . In a major revision of the grouper published in September 2018 , the brown grouper was placed in the genus Mycteroperca .
literature
- Andreas Vilcinskas : Fish. Central European freshwater species and marine fish from the North and Baltic Seas. BLV, Munich 2000; P. 154, ISBN 3-405-15848-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Epinephelus marginatus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012.1. Posted by: A. Cornish, M. Harmelin-Vivien (Grouper & Wrasse Specialist Group), 2004. Retrieved September 2, 2012.
- ↑ Ma, KY & Craig, MT: An Inconvenient Monophyly: An Update on the Taxonomy of the Groupers (Epinephelidae). Copeia 106 (3): 443-456. 2018. doi: 10.1643 / CI-18-055
Web links
- Brown grouper on Fishbase.org (English)