The red hind (''Epinephelus guttatus''), also known as the koon or lucky grouper in Caribbean vernacular, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Epinephelinae which is part of the family

Serranidae Serranidae is a large family (biology), family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers (subfamily Epinephelinae). Although many species are small, ...

, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean where it ranges from the eastern United States to Brazil. It is the most common species of '' Epinephelus'' in the Caribbean.

Description

The red hind has a robust, compressed body which is deepest at the origin of the dorsal fin, the standard length being 2.7 to 3.1 times the depth. The gill cover has three flat spines on its margin. The preopercle has a finely serrated margin and protrudes slightly near its lower edge. The dorsal fin contains 11 spines and 15-16 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 8 soft rays. It has a slightly convex tail. This species is greenish grey to light brown on its upper body fading to white on the lower body, with many well-spaced dull orange-red to brown spots covering the head, body and fins. There are five indistinct oblique bars made up of darker spots on the flanks. This species attains a maximum total length of , although they are more commonly around in length, and the maximum published weight is .

Distribution

The red hind is found in the Western Atlantic. Its range extends from Bermuda and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and along the eastern coast of the United States 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 ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. Its range is said to extend south as far as Brazil but there are no confirmed records from south of Venezuela.

Habitat and biology

Red hinds inhabit coral reefs and rocky bottoms, the females remain close to the bottom, while the males patrol and defend an area from other males overlapping the home ranges of one to five female. Mantis shrimps make up over 15 percent of their diet. Crabs are the most common item on their diet, and fishes like Bluehead Wrasse, ''Thalassoma bifasciatum''; Boga, ''Inermia vittata''; goatfishes and small morays are included. Although they prefer shrimps and octopuses. Red Hind are protogynous hermaphrodites, changing from females to males during a stage in their life cycle. What triggers the change is unknown. In Puerto Rico, the fish gather in or near familiar spawning grounds along sections of the insular shelf during a one to two week period in association with the lunar cycles of January and February. In 1992, a tagged Red Hind traveled more than ten miles, crossing over water 600 feet deep, bypassing other aggregations, to spawn at a particular site. Not much is known about the species' early life stages. Though, on rare occasions, one to two inch juveniles are sighted sneaking about near cover on patch reefs in moderate depths. Most adults live for ten to eleven years.

Taxonomy

The red hind was first formally described as ''Perca guttata'' by

Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the 10th edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' in 1758.

Utilisation

The red hind is one of the most valuable commercial species in the Caribbean in terms of the numbers and total weight of landings. It is caught with spears, hook and line and traps. It is an esteemed food fish and, among other grouper species, it is exported from Mexico to the United States. It is also valued by recreational fisheries.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Epinephelus Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Fish of the Caribbean