---
title: Crescent Grunter (Terapon jarbua)
scientific_name: Terapon jarbua
common_name: Crescent Grunter
taxon: Tigerperches
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-27T15:32:56.972Z
updated: 2026-08-13T15:12:57.678Z
tags: Crescent Grunter, Terapon jarbua, Tigerperches, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tigerperches/crescent-grunter
---

# Crescent Grunter (*Terapon jarbua*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Tigerperches (*Terapontidae*)
- **Size:** up to 36 cm
- **Depth:** 0-20 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Very shallow sand, surf zone and brackish lagoons
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- silver body with three or four curved dark stripes arching from head to tail
- black blotches on the tail lobes and the spiny dorsal fin
- in the wash of the shoreline, in water sometimes a few centimeters deep
- length up to 36 cm

A silver fish crossed by three or four curved dark stripes that arch from the head to the tail like drawn bows, with black blotches on the tail lobes. Up to 36 cm (14 in), and it lives where nothing else does: the wash at the edge of a beach, sometimes in a few centimeters of water.

It talks. The name grunter is literal - muscles vibrate against the swim bladder and produce a grunt audible in air when the fish is landed, used in disputes and when alarmed.

Young fish are partly scale-eaters. Juveniles approach larger fish and strike the flank to knock scales loose and eat them, a habit shared with the queenfish and a handful of unrelated families, before switching to whole prey as they grow.

It handles fresh and brackish water well enough to run up rivers, and it is one of the first fish to recolonize a lagoon after a flood. That toughness, plus a taste for shallow disturbed water, makes it a common catch off beaches everywhere in the warm Indo-Pacific and an easy fish to see without a boat.

## Also known as

- **English:** Jarbua terapon, Tiger Perch, Crescent Grunter
- **French:** Violon jarbua, Relégué
- **German:** Grunzender Tigerbarsch, Bogenstreifen-Tigerbarsch, Dreistreifen-Tigerbarsch
- **Spanish:** Trompetero media luna
- **Dutch:** tijgerbaars
- **Czech:** bručoun křivopruhý
- **Japanese:** コトヒキ, Kotohiki
- **Chinese:** 細鱗鯻 彎紋釘公 花身雞魚, 花身雞魚, 花身鯻
- **Russian:** Трёхполосый терапон
- **AF:** Doornvis
- **DA:** Jarbua
- **ID:** Kerong-Kerong
- **KO:** 살벤자리
- **TGL:** Gagaong
- **TH:** ปลาข้างตะเภาลายโค้ง
- **VI:** Cá Ong

## Scientific synonyms

- *Coius trivittatus* Hamilton, 1822
- *Grammistes servus* (Bloch, 1790)
- *Holocentrus jarbua* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Holocentrus servus* Bloch, 1790
- *Pterapon trivittatus* Gray, 1846
- *Sciaena jarbua* Forsskål, 1775
- *Stereolepis inoko* Schmidt, 1931
- *Terapon servus* (Bloch, 1790)
- *Terapon timorensis* Quoy & Gaimard, 1824
- *Therapon farna* Bleeker, 1879
- *Therapon jarboa* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Therapon jarbua* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Therapon servus* (Bloch, 1790)

## Range

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

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/tigerperches/crescent-grunter)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*