---
title: Giant Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus)
scientific_name: Epinephelus lanceolatus
common_name: Giant Grouper
taxon: Groupers
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-11-07T10:09:04.871Z
updated: 2026-08-11T21:34:35.945Z
tags: Giant Grouper, Epinephelus lanceolatus, Groupers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/giant-grouper
---

# Giant Grouper (*Epinephelus lanceolatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Groupers (*Epinephelidae*)
- **Size:** 180 - 270 cm
- **Weight:** 400 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Caves, wrecks and ledges on the reef, juveniles in shallow rubble
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- enormous, thick-bodied, gray-brown with darker blotches
- mouth wide enough to take a small shark
- juveniles boldly marbled black and yellow, unlike the adults
- usually resident in one cave or wreck

The largest bony fish on any coral reef: up to 2.7 m (9 ft) and 400 kg (880 lb), a slab-sided gray-brown grouper mottled with dark blotches, with a mouth wide enough to take a small shark. Juveniles look nothing like the adults, being boldly marbled in black and yellow.

It does not chase anything. The entire body is a pump: the grouper drops its lower jaw and flares the gill covers so fast that the volume of the mouth cavity multiplies in a fraction of a second, and the resulting inrush of water carries prey in whole. Reef sharks, rays, turtles and large crustaceans have all been recorded going down that way. There is nothing to bite through, so nothing has to be chewed.

One of these tends to become a landmark. They are territorial, extremely long-lived and attached to a single structure, so a wreck or a particular cave will have its resident giant grouper for decades, and the fish is known individually by every guide on that site. That habit is also why the species is Vulnerable: an animal that lives at a known address, grows slowly, matures late and is worth a great deal of money is not hard to remove.

Like most groupers it starts female and changes sex later, though the details for this species are poorly documented. It is farmed commercially, and the hybrid with the tiger grouper is now one of the most widely grown food fish in Asia.

## Also known as

- **English:** giant grouper, Mottled-brown sea bass, Brindle Bass
- **Arabic:** Hamour
- **Hebrew:** דקר ענק
- **French:** Loche géante, Mérou géant, Mérou lancéolé
- **German:** Riesen-Zackenbarsch
- **Spanish:** Mero Gigante de Queensland, Mero Lanceolade, Mero lanceolado
- **Turkish:** dev orfoz
- **Portuguese:** Garoupa fajardo, Garoupa-gigante
- **Dutch:** Donkere reuzentandbaars
- **Polish:** Itajara olbrzymia
- **Japanese:** タマカイ, Tamakai
- **Chinese:** 倒吞鱟, 槍頭石斑魚, 過魚
- **Russian:** Индоокеанский малоглазый групер
- **AF:** Briekwabaars
- **DA:** Queensland-bars
- **ET:** Suur kivikoha
- **FIJ:** 'Avu, Kavu
- **GUJ:** Wekhali, Wekhru
- **HU:** óriás fűrészes sügér
- **ID:** Kerapu lumpur
- **KAN:** Kolaji
- **KO:** 대왕바리
- **MAL:** Varaya kalawa, കലവ മീന്, വരയന് കലവ
- **MAR:** Gobra, Hekru, गोबरा
- **MLG:** Alovy
- **MSA:** Kerapu pertang, Kertang
- **SIN:** Hali valan kossa, Sellan kossa
- **SMO:** Ata'ata-uli, Vaolo
- **SW:** Chewa
- **TAH:** Hapuu reru, hapu'u rehu
- **TAM:** Komari kaleva, ௨ல்டா கலவா, Kalava
- **TEL:** Bontoo
- **TGL:** Kerapo, Puol
- **TH:** ปลาหมอทะเล
- **VI:** Ca mu song, Cá Mú song

## Scientific synonyms

- *Batrachus gigas* Günther, 1869
- *Holocentrus lanceolatus* Bloch, 1790
- *Oligorus goliath* De Vis, 1882
- *Oligorus terraereginae* Ramsay, 1880
- *Oligorus terrae-reginae* Ramsay, 1880
- *Promicrops lanceolatus* (Bloch, 1790)
- *Serranus abdominalis* Peters, 1855
- *Serranus geographicus* Valenciennes, 1828
- *Serranus goliath* Peters, 1855
- *Serranus lanceolatus* (Bloch, 1790)
- *Serranus phaeostigmaeus* Fowler, 1907
- *Stereolepoides thompsoni* Fowler, 1923

## Range

Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/giant-grouper)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*