Graysby

The graysby (Cephalopholis cruentata) is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is in the family Serranidae which also includes the anthias and sea basses. It is found in the western Atlantic. It is associated with reefs and is a quarry species for commercial and recreational fisheries.

Graysby

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Serranidae
Genus: Cephalopholis
Species:
C. cruentata
Binomial name
Cephalopholis cruentata
(Lacepède, 1802)
Synonyms[2]
  • Sparus cruentatus Lacepède, 1802
  • Epinephelus cruentatus (Lacepède, 1802)
  • Petrometopon cruentatum (Lacepède, 1802)
  • Petrometopon cruentatus (Lacepède, 1802)
  • Serranus nigriculus Valenciennes, 1828
  • Serranus coronatus Valenciennes, 1828
  • Serranus apiarius Poey, 1860
  • Bodianus stellatus Blosser, 1909

Description

The graysby has an oblong-shaped, robust body with a long snout and, when the mouth is closed, a slightly protruding upper jaw and a bony protruberance at the maxilla. The dorsal profile of the head is flat or slightly convex between its eyes. The majority of the teeth are movable.[3] The dorsal fin contains 9 spines and 13-15 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 8 soft rays.[2] The rounded peropercule has fine serrations on its margin but has no spines or notches,[3] the operculum or gill cover has 3 flat spines, the central spine being the largest and upper spine is longer than the lowest.[2] The caudal fin is rounded[4] while the pelvic fins are shorter then the pectoral fins.[2] The body is covered in rough scales[4] and there are 69-81 scales in the lateral line.[3] The head, body, and fins are grey, brown or olive in colour and are covered with orange-brown spots and there are normally four spots along their upper back,[4] underneath the dorsal fin[2] which can change colour between black and white.[3] The maximum recorded total length for this species is 42.6 centimetres (16.8 in), although they are more commonly around 20 centimetres (7.9 in), and the heaviest specimen recorded was 1.1 kilograms (2.4 lb).[2] A white stripe runs from the tip of the lower jaw, between the eyes and on to the nape.[5]

Distribution

The Graysby is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. It is found from Cape Fear, North Carolina and Bermuda south to the Caribbean coast of South America.[1] Claims of this species being recorded from Brazil require confirmation.[3]

Habitat and biology
Pseudorhabdosynochus meganmarieae is a parasite of the graysby

The graysby inhabits Thalassia beds and coral reefs. In the Gulf of Mexico, they are found on rocky reef ledge in depths greater than 27 metres (89 ft). A solitary and secretive species, they usually stay near hiding places during the day. They prefer to remain within a small area of the home range of about 2,120 square metres (0.52 acres), especially during the day. The graysby is a nocturnal predator, adults feed mainly on fishes, with preference on Chromis multilineata, juveniles feed on shrimps. These fishes are protogynous hermaphrodites they all start life as female to male becoming males in their middle age.[4] Sex change takes place at 4 or 5 years old and at lengths of 20 to 23 centimetres (7.9 to 9.1 in). The change in sex occurs straight after the spawning period in August and September.[2] The males vigorously guard a harem which have an average of one male to six female. When spawning, a female will releases between 260 and 600 eggs and the male then releases his milt to fertilise them. They can live for up to 13 years.[4]

It is parasitized by Pseudorhabdosynochus meganmarieae.[6]

Taxonomy

The graysby was first formally described in 1802 as Sparus cruentatus by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825) with the type locality given as the Antilles and Bahamas.[7]

Utilisation

The graysby is a quarry species for both commercial fisheries and for anglers. It makes up 11% of the commercial reef-fish catch in Curacao and it was taken by line, trap and spear fisheries in Honduras in the past but constitutes only a small part of the total reef-fish catchin Honduras. It is common around Cuba where it is not an important quarry species for fisheries.[1] In the United States the fisheries for this species fall under the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the both commercial and recreational fisheries have a close season which runs from 1 January to 30 April.[8]

gollark: Unless they have a warrant, you can apparently just tell them to go away and they can't do anything except try and get one based on seeing TV through your windows or something.
gollark: But the enforcement of it is even weirder than that:- there are "TV detector vans". The BBC refuses to explain how they actually work in much detail. With modern TVs I don't think this is actually possible, and they probably can't detect iPlayer use, unless you're stupid enough to sign up with your postcode (they started requiring accounts some years ago).- enforcement is apparently done by some organization with almost no actual legal power (they can visit you and complain, but not *do* anything without a search warrant, which is hard to get)- so they make up for it by sending threatening and misleading letters to try and get people to pay money
gollark: - it funds the BBC, but you have to pay it if you watch *any* live TV, or watch BBC content online- it's per property, not per person, so if you have a license, and go somewhere without a license, and watch TV on some of your stuff, you are breaking the law (unless your thing is running entirely on battery power and not mains-connected?)- it costs about twice as much as online subscription service things- there are still black and white licenses which cost a third of the price
gollark: Very unrelated to anything, but I recently read about how TV licensing works in the UK and it's extremely weird.
gollark: "I support an increase in good things and a reduction in bad things"

References
  1. Rocha, L.A. (2018). "Cephalopholis cruentata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T132761A46916787. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T132761A46916787.en. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  2. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2019). "Cephalopholis cruentata" in FishBase. December 2019 version.
  3. "Species: Cephalopholis cruentata, the Graysby". Shorefishes of the Greater Caribbean online information system. Smithsonian Tropical research Institute. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  4. "Graysby". Mexican-fish.com. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  5. Heemstra, P.C. & J.E. Randall (1993). FAO Species Catalogue. Vol. 16. Groupers of the world (family Serranidae, subfamily Epinephelinae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of the grouper, rockcod, hind, coral grouper and lyretail species known to date (PDF). FAO Fish. Synopsis. 125 (16). FAO, Rome. pp. 38–39. ISBN 92-5-103125-8.
  6. Kritsky, Delane C.; Bakenhaster, Micah D.; Adams, Douglas H. (2015). "Pseudorhabdosynochus species (Monogenoidea, Diplectanidae) parasitizing groupers (Serranidae, Epinephelinae, Epinephelini) in the western Atlantic Ocean and adjacent waters, with descriptions of 13 new species". Parasite. 22: 24. doi:10.1051/parasite/2015024. ISSN 1776-1042. PMC 4536336. PMID 26272242.
  7. Eschmeyer, W. N.; R. Fricke & R. van der Laan (eds.). "Sparus cruentatus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  8. "Graysby regulations". South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  • Photos of Graysby on Sealife Collection
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