A small pale grouper with dark spots, sitting on rock ledges and in the mouths of crevices.
To about 39 cm, common at 20, and to at least twenty-five years. Pale grey-brown with about nine dark bars running the full depth of the body, oblique pale bands on the head, a net of blue and orange spots, and a large dark patch immediately behind the eye. Juveniles look quite different: blue-grey with a pale lower head carrying orange spots and lines.
The flag cabrilla shares this ground and has irregular white mottling and a black tail-base saddle, with no bars. Nine full-depth bars and the patch behind the eye settle it.
One to seventy-five metres on rocky shores and coral, though the two sources disagree on the shallow limit. Described as perhaps the most abundant grouper in the region, but shy: expect it to move off rather than hold.
Females become males. Spawning peaks in July and August in the Gulf of California. FishBase and STRI both prefer “Pacific graysby” to the name used here.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
