---
title: Camouflage Grouper (Epinephelus polyphekadion)
scientific_name: Epinephelus polyphekadion
common_name: Camouflage Grouper
taxon: Groupers
conservation_status: VU - Vulnerable
published: 2024-11-07T10:17:51.339Z
updated: 2026-08-21T15:41:25.092Z
tags: Camouflage Grouper, Epinephelus polyphekadion, Groupers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/camouflage-grouper
---

# Camouflage Grouper (*Epinephelus polyphekadion*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Groupers (*Epinephelidae*)
- **Size:** 90 cm
- **Depth:** 1-50 m
- **Max age:** 42 yrs
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef and lagoons, near shelter
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** VU - Vulnerable

## How to recognise it

- head and body covered in close-set dark brown spots and blotches
- heavy-bodied, up to 90 cm
- usually motionless beside a coral head or in the mouth of a cave
- large mouth set at an upward angle

A grouper does not chase anything down. It sits still, sometimes for an hour, and then the water in front of it disappears.

The strike is a suction event. The fish drops its lower jaw, flares its gill covers and expands the floor of its mouth all at once, and the volume inside the head increases so fast that water is pulled in through the open mouth at high speed, carrying whatever was in front of it. The whole thing takes about twenty milliseconds. A prey fish that has begun to react is already inside.

That is why the mouth on these fish is so large and why the head looks oversized in proportion to the body: the mouth is not a pair of jaws for gripping, it is the aperture of a pump, and how much water it can move sets how big a meal it can take. It also explains the sitting: the pump has a range of about one body length, so everything depends on the prey coming to the grouper rather than the other way around.

This one is built for exactly that, dark brown spots over the whole body and head, up to ninety centimeters, waiting beside coral. Large groupers concentrate ciguatera and this species appears in the records, so it is best left where it is.

## Also known as

- **English:** camouflage grouper, Smooth Flowery Rock-cod, small toothed rockcod
- **Arabic:** Hamoor
- **French:** Loche crasseuse, Loche marbrée, Mérou camouflage
- **German:** Getarnter Zackenbarsch, Marmor-Zackenbarsch
- **Spanish:** Mero Marmoleado Enano, Mero Disfrazado
- **Portuguese:** garoupa-mascarada
- **Dutch:** Gemarmerde Tandbaars
- **Japanese:** マダラハタ, Madarahata
- **Chinese:** 清水石斑魚, 石斑, 罔仔
- **TGL:** Lapu-lapung lupot, Alatan, Kaltang
- **TH:** ปลากะรังลายพราง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Epinephelus dispar* (Playfair, 1867)
- *Epinephelus goldmani* (Bleeker, 1855)
- *Epinephelus microdon* (Bleeker, 1856)
- *Epinephelus polyhekadion* (Bleeker, 1849)
- *Epinephelus polyphekaidon* (Bleeker, 1849)
- *Serranus dispar var. b* Playfair, 1867
- *Serranus goldmanni* Bleeker, 1855
- *Serranus microdon* Bleeker, 1856
- *Serranus polyphekadion* Bleeker, 1849

## Range

Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/camouflage-grouper)*
*Updated: August 21, 2026*