The Biggest Grouper in the Family - Giant Grouper and Atlantic Goliath Grouper

Giant grouper is one larger fish and can be surprising.

Grouper are among popular fish that been captivated and farmed here in South East Asia include Malaysia. Within the family of grouper they are few giants that we are about to discover – these types of groupers will be harder to be caged as a farm fish.

Grouper is a fish from a large family of fish Epinephelinae and there all over the world with different genera. There are two species of giant groupers a famous giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) and Atlantic goliath grouper or Itajara (Epinephelus Itajara). Unlike other big fish these giants are usually found in shallow waters that are not very deep (up to 100 m) and also commonly farmed in brackish waters.

Giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) also known as brindlebass, brown spotted cod, bumblebee grouper or grouper or Queensland in Australia. In fact, this fish also has a local name, in Sabah it is known as ‘keratang’. The giant grouper fish inhabit the waters of the Pacific to the Indo-Pacific waters. It has also been caught near Pulau Sembilan in the Straits of Malacca and weigh up to 180 kg in January 2008. This fish has a high price and for a fish weighing 200 kg can fetch up to RM11,000.

Giant Grouper can be found in shallow water.

Atlantic Goliath Grouper take shelter behind the coral.

Atlantic Goliath face to face with diver.

While in contrast with the Atlantic goliath grouper or itajara (Epinephelus Itajara) whose name itself suggests its distribution in the Atlantic Ocean, their distribution is in the vicinity of the Atlantic tropical waters of the Florida Keys, Bahamas, and most areas of the Caribbean, coastal areas of Brazil, and sometimes also caught in New England in Massachusetts. They also can be found in the waters of the Eastern Atlantic, in the vicinity of the Congo and Burundi. Unfortunately Atlantic goliath grouper volume has reach the level of Critically Endangered according to the list (IUCN 3.1) may be due to the effects of overfishing in those areas.

Both these giant grouper fish can reach a size of up to 2.5 meters and there is such a reach up to 360 kg (790 lb.). Due to the large size of the mouth of said fish can consume large prey like sharks, turtles, lemon sharks and divers also attacked. Food-eating other species of fish are shrimp and crab, other fish, squid and aggressive species like barracudas.

Another type of grouper, and they come in many shapes and sizes .

Common grouper farmed by fish farmers.

Since grouper has a high potential in the market it has also become the choice for industrial fish farming in cages in addition to bass fish. But the fish-farmed fish are not from the giant grouper species. Grouper farming industry in the cage is made ​​between a successful industry in our SE Asian countries as an example is a grouper fish farm owned by Mr. Johari in Jertih, Besut, Terengganu . Apart from the start as workers now Mr. Johari also producing their own fish fry for other farmers. Congratulations!