---
title: Greasy Grouper (Epinephelus tauvina)
scientific_name: Epinephelus tauvina
common_name: Greasy Grouper
taxon: Groupers
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-11-07T15:16:13.616Z
updated: 2026-08-13T12:53:42.013Z
tags: Greasy Grouper, Epinephelus tauvina, Groupers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/greasy-grouper
---

# Greasy Grouper (*Epinephelus tauvina*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Groupers (*Epinephelidae*)
- **Size:** up to 1 m
- **Depth:** 1-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Coral and rubble, resting in caves and under ledges
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- pale gray-brown body covered in orange-brown spots, evenly sized
- five faint dark bars that show when the fish is disturbed
- no dark saddle on the tail stalk, which separates it from its lookalikes
- length up to 1 m

A pale grouper covered in evenly sized orange-brown spots, up to 1 m (3 ft), resting under a ledge or in the mouth of a cave with its head out. It is one of a knot of similar spotted groupers that even guides argue about, and the useful negative is the tail stalk: this one has no dark saddle on it.

It is an ambush predator with a suction strike, taking fish and crustaceans in a single lunge from cover, and it holds a home range it will occupy for years.

Like the rest of the genus it matures as a female and changes sex later, so the biggest fish on a reef is the male, and spear fishing that targets size removes the breeding males first. Recovery then depends on females converting, which takes years.

It is farmed across Asia and heavily fished throughout its range. Large individuals carry ciguatera in some regions, which is a recurring problem for a fish this valuable at market.

## Also known as

- **English:** greasy grouper, Estuary Rock-cod, Giant Grouper
- **French:** Loche Mouchetee, Loche mouchetée, Merou Loutre
- **Spanish:** Mero Lutria
- **Japanese:** ヒトミハタ, Hitomihata
- **Chinese:** Ju-shi-ban-yu, Zhu-gao-ban, 巨石斑魚
- **TAH:** faroa

## Scientific synonyms

- *Cephalopholis tauvina* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Epinephalus tauvina* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Epinephelus chewa* Morgans, 1966
- *Epinephelus elongatus* Schultz, 1953
- *Holocentrus pantherinus* Lacepède, 1802
- *Perca tauvina* Forsskål, 1775
- *Serranus goldiei* MacLeay, 1882
- *Serranus jansenii* Bleeker, 1857
- *Serranus pantherinus* (Lacepède, 1802)

## 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/greasy-grouper)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*