Tiger Grouper

A slender, fast-swimming grouper patterned in pale, tiger-like bars, more mobile and open-water than the bulkier groupers it shares reef habitat with. Like most large groupers it is a protogynous hermaphrodite — individuals mature first as female and some later transition to male — a life history that makes spawning aggregations especially vulnerable to overfishing.

Reef slopes, walls and drop-offs

Active, fast-swimming predator; protogynous hermaphrodite that forms spawning aggregations