Areolate grouper

About this species

The areolate grouper, also known as the yellowspotted rockcod, areolate rockcod, green-spotted rock-cod, squaretail grouper or squaretail rock-cod, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It inhabits coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. They are produced through aquaculture and commercially fished. They currently face no threats to their survival.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Areolate 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: 74 records
February: 68 records
March: 40 records
April: 112 records
May: 84 records
June: 112 records
July: 80 records
August: 522 records
September: 889 records
October: 742 records
November: 266 records
December: 59 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 39–90 m · Deepest record: 185 m

0–10 m: 13 records
10–20 m: 15 records
20–30 m: 41 records
30–40 m: 211 records
40–50 m: 449 records
50–60 m: 559 records
60–70 m: 372 records
70–80 m: 325 records
80–90 m: 469 records
90–100 m: 132 records
100–110 m: 112 records
110+ m: 41 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 3 records
24–26 °C: 38 records
26–28 °C: 564 records
28–30 °C: 15 records

Photos

(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Zach Johnson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ditch Townsend, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ditch Townsend, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Areolate grouper, Areloate grouper, Areolated Grouper, areolate grouper, Areolate Rock Cod, Flat-tail Cod, Green-spotted Rock-cod, Green-spotted Rock Cod, Grouper, Indonesian Grouper, Spotted Grouper, Squaretail Grouper, Squaretail Rock-cod, Squaretail Rockcod, Squaretail Rock Cod, Yellow Spot Rock Cod, yellowspotted rockcod, Yellow-spotted Rock-cod, Yellow-spotted Rockcod

Names in 7 more languages

Spanish: Mero Areolado
Filipino: Sigapo
French: Loche aréolée, Merou areole, Mérou aréolé, Vieille maconde
Japanese: Omon-hata, Omonhata, オオモンハタ
Korean: 대문바리
Thai: ปลากะรังลายเม็ดพริกไทย, ปลากะรังลายหางตัด
Simplified Chinese: 寶石石斑魚, 流氓格仔, 白尾鱠, 石斑, 糯米格仔, 過魚

Other scientific names: Bodianus melanurus, Ephinephelus areolatus, Epinephelus angularis, Epinephelus craspedurus, Epinephelus waandersii, Perca areolata, Serranus angularis, Serranus celebicus, Serranus glaucus, Serranus waandersii

Similar species

Blacktip grouper
Epinephelus fasciatus
Honeycomb grouper
Epinephelus merra
Garrupa
Epinephelus coeruleopunctatus
Orange-spotted grouper
Epinephelus coioides
Brown-marbled grouper
Epinephelus fuscoguttatus
Starspotted grouper
Epinephelus hexagonatus

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).
3,505 open-data records from 1775 to 2022.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.