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Young Dusky Grouper, Epinephelus marginatus, the yellowbelly rock cod or yellowbelly grouper, 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. This species is the best known grouper species of the Mediterranea Sea and North Africa coast. Epinephelus marginatus is a very large, oval-bodied and large-headed fish with a wide mouth which has a protruding lower jaw. The head and upper body are coloured dark reddish brown or greyish, usually with yellowish gold countershading on the ventral surfaces; the base colour is marked by a vertical series of irregular pale greenish yellow or silvery grey or whitish blotching which is normally rather conspicuous on the body and head; the black maxillary streak varies in its markedness; dark brown median fins; distal edges of the anal and caudal fins and also often pectoral fins have narrow white terminal bands; the pelvic fins are black towards their tips while the pectoral fins are dark reddish-brown or grey; the margin of spiny dorsal fin and basal part of the pectoral fins are often golden yellow in colour. There are eleven spines and 13–16 soft rays in the dorsal fin. This species can grow up to 150 cm in standard length but is more often 90 cm. giovane cernia bruna
Young Yellowbelly rock cod – Dusky Grouper – Giovane Cernia bruna – Epinephelus marginatus – www.intotheblue.it
Epinephelus marginatus has two disjunct distribution centres, the main one is in the eastern Atlantic from the west coast of Iberia south along the western coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope, extending east into the south-western Indian Ocean, as far as southern Mozambique, with doubtful records from Madagascar and possibly Oman. It is found throughout the Mediterranean too. The second population occurs in the south western Atlantic off the coast of South America in southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina, In the eastern Atlantic it is not normally found further north than Portugal but there have been rare records from the Bay of Biscay and in the English Channell as far north as northern France, Great Britain and Ireland. Epinephelus marginatus is demersal, normally found in and around rocky reefs from surface waters down to as much as 300 metres in depth. It often occurs in the vicinity of beds of Posidonia sea grass. Juveniles are generally found more inshore than the adult fish, even being found in rock pools. Where they are protected, in marine nature reserves and no take zones, both adults and juveniles occur in shallow waters, but the depths at which juveniles are found is always shallower than the preferred depths of adults.
Young Yellowbelly rock cod – Dusky Grouper – Giovane Cernia bruna – Epinephelus marginatus – www.intotheblue.it
Epinephelus marginatus adults are solitary and territorial, preferring areas with a rocky substrate but both adults and juveniles will enter brackish waters, such as estuaries. Their main food is molluscs, crustaceans and octopuses. But as they grow larger other fish form an increasingly important part of their diet, with reef fish being preferred. Epinephelus marginatus is a protogynous hermaphrodite, meaning that all fish begin adult life as females but as they grow larger and older they develop into males. They attain sexual maturity at quite a late age, females begin to breed when they are around five years of age, and then between their 9th and 16th years they change into males, most commonly at 12.
(extract from Wikipedia)
