Small-scaled terapon

About this species

Terapon puta, the spiny-checked grunter, three-lined grunter, small-scaled banded grunter, small-scaled terapon, squeaking perch or two-lined grunter, is a species of fish from the Indo-Pacific region, it is a member of the grunter family, Terapontidae. It has also spread into the eastern Mediterranean Sea from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal, a process known as Lessepsian migration.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Terapon puta”, 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: 13 records
February: 14 records
March: 36 records
April: 13 records
May: 9 records
June: 12 records
July: 11 records
August: 8 records
September: 11 records
October: 31 records
November: 9 records
December: 14 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–28 m · Deepest record: 40 m

0–10 m: 10 records
10–20 m: 17 records
20–30 m: 9 records
30–40 m: 1 records
40–50 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 6 records
24–26 °C: 38 records
26–28 °C: 80 records
28–30 °C: 58 records

Photos

(c) Nick Tobler (Cowturtle), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ashwin Srinivasan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sameer Shaik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Small-scaled terapon, small-scaled banded grunter, small-scaled terapon, Smallscaled Terapon, Spiny-checked Grunter, Spinycheek Grunter, squeaking perch, Three-lined Grunter, two-lined grunter

Names in 2 more languages

Spanish: Terapon de tres líneas
Thai: ปลาข้างลายเรียว

Other scientific names: Authistes argenteus, Authistes puta, Autisthes argenteus, Autisthes puta, Coius trivittatus, Therapon puta

Similar species

Largescaled therapon
Terapon theraps
Jarbua terapon
Terapon jarbua
Amniataba caudavittata
Helotes sexlineatus
Fourlined terapon
Pelates quadrilineatus
Silver grunter
Mesopristes argenteus

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).
832 open-data records from 1829 to 2012.
Species data updated October 31, 2026.