---
title: Lyretail Grouper (Variola louti)
scientific_name: Variola louti
common_name: Lyretail Grouper
taxon: Groupers
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-26T22:52:33.647Z
updated: 2026-08-12T22:35:56.130Z
tags: Lyretail Grouper, Variola louti, Groupers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/groupers/lyretail-grouper
---

# Lyretail Grouper (*Variola louti*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Groupers (*Epinephelidae*)
- **Size:** up to 83 cm
- **Depth:** 3-300 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Clear outer reef and drop-offs, patrolling rather than perched
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- deep crescent tail with a broad yellow margin all along the trailing edge
- red to orange-brown body covered in small blue-violet spots
- yellow edges on the other fins too, and a yellow patch behind the pectoral
- length up to 83 cm

Red-brown, spotted violet, with a crescent tail edged in a clean yellow band that is visible at any distance. That tail is the fastest identification of any grouper here - the rest of the family carries rounded or square tails, and this one is cut like a mackerel's.

The shape follows the habit. Where the hinds perch on coral heads and ambush, this fish patrols a stretch of outer reef in open water and runs prey down, which needs a tail built for continuous swimming rather than a two-length pounce.

It is one of the reef fishes most often implicated in ciguatera. Large individuals concentrate the toxin from the food chain below them, the poison survives cooking, and this species is on the do-not-eat list across much of the Indo-Pacific - which is unusual for a fish this valuable at market.

All of them mature as females and the largest become males, so a big lyretail is decades of growth in one animal, and a reef stripped of the largest fish loses its males first.

## Also known as

- **English:** lunartail grouper, Lunar Tail Rock Cod, yellow-edged lyretail
- **Hebrew:** וריולה סיסית
- **French:** Loche croissant queue jaune, Mérou croissant de lune, Mérou croissant queue jaune
- **Italian:** Cernia dalla coda lunata
- **German:** Mondsichel-Juwelenbarsch
- **Spanish:** Mero Luna Creciente
- **Portuguese:** Garoupa-papagaio
- **Dutch:** Maanstaartjuweelbaars
- **Polish:** wariola żółtobrzeżna
- **Czech:** kanic měsíční
- **Japanese:** バラハタ, Barahata
- **Chinese:** 侧牙鲈, 側牙鱸, 星鱠
- **Russian:** Радужная вариола
- **DA:** Stor månehalebars
- **FIJ:** donu damu
- **MAL:** ചെഞ്ചീര ചമ്മം, ചെന് ചേരചാമ്മാം, Chencheerachammam
- **MLG:** Tsaramaso
- **MSA:** Kerapu bara, Kerapu merah
- **SW:** Chewa
- **TAH:** ho'a
- **TH:** ปลากะรังหางวงเดือนธรรมดา

## Scientific synonyms

- *Epinephelus louti* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Labrus punctulatus* Lacepède, 1801
- *Perca louti* Forsskål, 1775
- *Serranus cernipedis* Miranda Ribeiro, 1913
- *Serranus flavimarginatus* Rüppell, 1830
- *Serranus longipinna* Swainson, 1839
- *Serranus louti* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Serranus luti* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Serranus melanotaenia* Bleeker, 1857
- *Serranus phaenistomus* Swainson, 1839
- *Serranus punctulatus* (Lacepède, 1801)
- *Serranus roseus* Valenciennes, 1828
- *Variola longipinna* (Swainson, 1839)
- *Variola melanotaenia* (Bleeker, 1857)
- *Variola punctulatus* (Lacepède, 1801)

## Range

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

---

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