1/10/2024 0 Comments Rock codmarginatus traditionally gather to spawn include the Medes Islands Marine Reserve in Spain, off Lampedusa in Italy and Port-Cros National Park in France, all in the Mediterranean fishermen in Brazil suspect there are aggregations off the coast of Santa Catarina but so far none has been definitely found. During the breeding season small clusters of a few tens of individuals form at specific spawning sites, an exception to their normally solitary existence. In some populations the presence of large female fish suggests that not all females change sex. The fish start to transform into males at a length of 65 cm, although most change sex when they are between 80 and 90 cm in total length. 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. 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. But as they grow larger other fish form an increasingly important part of their diet, with reef fish being preferred. Their main food is molluscs, crustaceans, and octopuses. Biology Įpinephelus marginatus adults are solitary and territorial, preferring areas with a rocky substrate but both adults and juveniles will enter brackish waters, such as estuaries. 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. Juveniles are generally found more inshore than the adult fish, even being found in rock pools. It often occurs in the vicinity of beds of Posidonia sea grass. Habitat Įpinephelus marginatus is demersal, normally found in and around rocky reefs from surface waters down to as much as 300 metres in depth. 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 Channel as far north as northern France, Great Britain and Ireland. The second population occurs in the south western Atlantic off the coast of South America in southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina. It is found throughout the Mediterranean too. Epinephelus marginatus in the Mediterranean Distribution Įpinephelus 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. This species can grow up to 150 cm in standard length but is more often 90 cm. There are eleven spines and 13-16 soft rays in the dorsal fin. 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. This species is the best known grouper species of the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa coast.Įpinephelus marginatus is a very large, oval-bodied and large-headed fish with a wide mouth which has a protruding lower jaw.
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