The bluestriped grunt (''Haemulon sciurus''), also known as the boar grunt, golden grunt, humpback grunt, redmouth grunt, or yellow grunt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grunt belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Haemulidae Haemulidae is a family (biology), family of fishes in the order (biology), order Perciformes known commonly as grunts. It is made up of the two subfamily, subfamilies Haemulinae (grunts) and Plectorhynchinae (sweetlips), which contain about 133 ...

. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean.

Description

The bluestriped grunt has a deep, almond-shaped body with a moderately convex dorsal profile. Its upper jaw extends to underneath the centre of the eye. The scales above the lateral line are enlarged, whereas those underneath it are arranged in a diagonal pattern. It has a continuous

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

with a small to medium-sized notch in its centre. The dorsal fin contains 12 spines and 16-17 soft rays, while the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

contains 3 spines and 9 soft rays. The overall colour of this species’ head and body is yellow broken by thin, longitudinal blue stripes. Also, a distinctively arched stripe occurs below each eye. The spiny part of the dorsal fin is yellow, the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin and the

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

are dark, the

is sooty yellow, and the

pelvic The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). ...

and

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s are whitish. The inside of the mouth is a vivid red. The small juveniles, below lengths of have obvious

melanophores Chromatophores are cells that produce color, of which many types are pigment-containing cells, or groups of cells, found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods. Mammals and birds, in contrast ...

on their

caudal peduncle Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

s, and as the fish grows, these grow, too, forming a dark stripe starting just behind the eye and running to the caudal peduncle. Once a length of is attained, the fish changes to the adult colouration. This species attains a maximum total length of , although is more typical.

Distribution

The bluestriped grunt is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

south along the coast of the United States to the Bahamas. They extend into the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

from the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

north as far as

Cedar Key Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 687, down from 702 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of ...

and from

Tuxpan Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano, for Enrique Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 89,557 and of the municipality was 154,600 inhabitants, ...

in Mexico along the northern coasts of the Yucatan Peninsula to northwestern Cuba, and in all of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

Habitat and biology

The bluestriped grunt is found in shallow water, at depths between . It is common in

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...

, reefs, and beds of

sea grass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

. The adults aggregate in small schools over coral and rocky beds, especially in the vicinity of drop-offs. The juveniles are very common among beds of turtle grass (''

Thalassia testudinum ''Thalassia testudinum'', commonly known as turtlegrass, is a species of Marine (ocean), marine seagrass in the family Hydrocharitaceae. It forms meadows in shallow sandy or muddy locations in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Turtle gras ...

'') in shallow waters. They forage in sea-grass beds and mangroves searching for smaller fishes, crustaceans, and bivalves. Foraging occurs at night; they rest in the day in rocky areas. The

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

behaviour of the bluestriped grunt is little known, but is known to take place from January to April in the Caribbean Sea. The larvae settle into sea-grass beds at lengths that range from as they grow into juveniles. These fish often display open-mouthed, head-on pushing each other backwards, and they also produce a grunting noise using pharyngeal teeth. They are preyed on by larger fish such as sharks and groupers, and among their known

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

is the

monogenea Monogeneans, members of the class Monogenea, are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they ...

n, '' Encotyllabe spari''.

Systematics

The bluestriped grunt was first formally described in 1803 as ''Sparus sciurus'' by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

George Shaw (1751-1813), with the type locality given as the

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''sciurus'' means "squirrel", squirrelfish being one of the vernacular names of this species at the time, presumably because of its production of grunts.

Utilisation

The bluestriped grunt is caught using hook and line, traps, and seines. The catch is not recorded separately for this species. The flesh is normally sold fresh. It is rare in the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade but is more common in

public aquarium A public aquarium () or public water zoo is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, which houses living aquatic animal and aquatic plant, plant specimens for public viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, ...

displays due to its size.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1948330

blue striped grunt The bluestriped grunt (''Haemulon sciurus''), also known as the boar grunt, golden grunt, humpback grunt, redmouth grunt, or yellow grunt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grunt belonging to the family Haemulidae. It is found in the weste ...

Fish of the Gulf of Mexico Fish of the Caribbean Fish of the Western Atlantic