Coral grouper

Cephalopholis miniata

Fish
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth11–24 m
Water temperature23–29 °C
Best monthsJanuary, February, and March
How commonCommon

Photo credit: (c) Derek Keats, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

Cephalopholis miniata, commonly known as the coral grouper, coral hind, coral rock cod, coral cod, coral trout, round-tailed trout or vermillion seabass is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper of the family Epinephelidae. It is associated with coral reefs and occurs in the Indo-Pacific.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Coral grouper”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 603 records
February: 893 records
March: 786 records
April: 562 records
May: 392 records
June: 350 records
July: 328 records
August: 243 records
September: 295 records
October: 330 records
November: 329 records
December: 294 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 11–24 m · Deepest record: 100 m

0–10 m: 159 records
10–20 m: 1,468 records
20–30 m: 760 records
30–40 m: 60 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–29 °C

22–24 °C: 2 records
24–26 °C: 21 records
26–28 °C: 301 records
28–30 °C: 197 records

Photos

(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Pauline Walsh Jacobson · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ditch Townsend, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Coral grouper, Coral hind, bluespot rockcod, coral grouper, coral hind, Coral hind, Vermilion seabas, vermilion seabass

Names in 3 more languages

French: Ananas batard, Prude rouge, Vielle étoilée, Vieille de corail
Japanese: Yukatahata, ユカタハタ
Simplified Chinese: 條舅, 石斑, 紅格仔, 紅條, 紅鱠, 過魚, 青星九刺鮨, 青星九棘鱸, 青星九棘鲈

Other scientific names: Cephalopholis boninius, Cephalopholis formosanus, Cephalopholis maculatus, Cephalopholis miniatus, Cephalopolis miniatus, Epinephelus miniatus, Perca miniata, Pomacentrus burdi, Serranus cyanostigmatoides, Serranus miniatus, Serranus perguttatus

Similar species

Chocolate hind
Cephalopholis boenak
Blue-finned Rock Cod
Cephalopholis microprion
Blacktip grouper
Epinephelus fasciatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
3,750 open-data records from 1775 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.

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