Author: Valenciennes, 1828
Epinephelus alexandrinus Valenciennes, 1828
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Epinephelus fasciatus (Forsskål, 1775) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body rather elongate. D XI + 16-18; A III + 8-9; caudal fin slightly rounded in young, well emarginate in adults. Scales small, embedded in thick skin, over 90 in lateral line. Colour: young reddishbrown with 5-7 darker, longitudinal lines on body and 2 oblique dark lines on opercle; adult grey-brown; large specimens with a large golden blotch on side which disappears quickly after death. Size: to 140 cm SL, usually 50-80 cm.
Habitat: rocky and muddy bottoms to about 300 m. Often in small groups (chiefly young). Food: fishes and cephalopods. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic northward to Strait of Gibraltar, also southern Mediterranean. Elsewhere, southward to Nigeria.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Bertolini's (1933) and Sparta's (1935) materials belong to Mycleroperca rubra, not E. alexandrinus.
Otoliths (sagitta). Chaine, 1935: 148j pl. 12.