---
title: Coral Grouper (Cephalopholis miniata)
scientific_name: Cephalopholis miniata
common_name: Coral Grouper
taxon: Groupers
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-26T23:17:55.043Z
updated: 2026-08-12T08:50:20.489Z
tags: Coral Grouper, Cephalopholis miniata, Groupers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/coral-grouper
---

# Coral Grouper (*Cephalopholis miniata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Groupers (*Epinephelidae*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Depth:** 2-150 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral-rich reef and drop-offs, perched on a coral head
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- bright orange-red body covered in small blue spots ringed darker
- rounded tail, rounded fins, no spines showing in outline
- sits on a perch and watches, rather than cruising
- length up to 50 cm

Orange-red and dusted with small blue spots, up to 50 cm (20 in), perched on a coral head with the whole body angled to watch. It is the most conspicuous grouper on a healthy reef here and the easiest to approach, which is why almost every diver has a photograph of one.

It recruits help. Groupers of this species and the related roving corals have been filmed swimming to a resting giant moray and shaking their heads at it in a rapid, unmistakable signal, then leading it to prey hidden in a crevice - and they do it more often when the prey is somewhere they cannot reach themselves. Once at the hole, the grouper can hold a headstand pointing at the spot, which is as close to pointing as anything outside the great apes gets. The work that established this was done on these reefs.

A male holds a territory containing several females and defends it against other males, and every one of them started as a female. Sex change happens on the way up the size ladder, which means the largest fish in a group is always the last one it can afford to lose.

It takes small fish and crustaceans in short ambush rushes from the perch, mostly in the first and last hours of daylight.

## Also known as

- **English:** coral grouper, bluespot rockcod, coral hind
- **French:** Vieille de corail
- **Czech:** kanic modroskvrnný
- **Japanese:** ユカタハタ, Yukatahata
- **Chinese:** 條舅, 石斑, 紅格仔
- **Russian:** Коралловая гарупа

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cephalopholis boninius* Jordan & Thompson, 1914
- *Cephalopholis formosanus* Tanaka, 1911
- *Cephalopholis maculatus* Seale & Bean, 1907
- *Cephalopholis miniatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Cephalopolis miniatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Epinephelus miniatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Perca miniata* Forsskål, 1775
- *Pomacentrus burdi* Lacepède, 1802
- *Serranus cyanostigmatoides* Bleeker, 1849
- *Serranus miniatus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Serranus perguttatus* De Vis, 1884

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/coral-grouper)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*