The Dusky Grouper is the best known grouper

Grouper

Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...

 of the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 and North Africa coast. It is said to have the best taste of all Mediterranean fishes.

Morphology

The Dusky Grouper has a big body with a big mouth. One long dorsal fin and a rounded tail. Its color varies from brown to green depending on the season and the age. It is green during its juvenile phase. The adult is upper brown with yellow spots and lower yellow. On the Operculum

Operculum (fish)

The operculum of a bony fish is the hard bony flap covering and protecting the gills. In most fish, the rear edge of the operculum roughly marks the division between the head and the body....

 there are three spines.

Habitat

The dusky grouper is a solitary fish. It likes to live alone in rocks, at depths from the coast to 300 meters, but it's rare to find it below 60 meters. It has a barometric distribution, where the younger specimens are found near the coast and the older ones at the depths.

It normally has one cave considered as home and several other caves as temporary refuges. Its home has a minimum of two exits, and a size slightly bigger than the grouper, so no bigger animal can enter in. In case of biting attack or other force to extract it, the grouper opens its mouth, and the operculum spines wedge it inside the cave.

It can be found in the Mediterranean, the African west coast and the coast of Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. It is rare in the waters of the western Indian ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

, Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, north of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

.

Reproduction

It is a protogynous hermaphrodite

Hermaphrodite

In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...

, i.e. the young are predominantly female but transform into males as they grow larger. Reproduction normally takes place between the summer months.

Nutrition

It feeds mainly on other fish, crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

s and octopus

Octopus

The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...

. It is very greedy and one of the major predators in the Mediterranean sea.

Fishing

In some countries the dusky grouper is considered a delicacy. Referring to its preference among restaurant guests, the Spanish say 'De la mar el mero y de la tierra el carnero' (From the sea the dusky grouper, from the land the lamb).

Size

It normally grows to lengths of between 50 and 100 cm, and between 3 to 10 kg. But it is not rare to find exemplars of more than 40 kg. It can grow up to 150 centimeters in length and 60 kilograms in weight.