FAU Institutional Repository http://purl.fcla.edu/fau/fauir This paper was submitted by the faculty of FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. Notice: ©2003 World Aquaculture Society. This published manuscript is available at www.was.org and may be cited as: Tucker, J. W., Jr. (2003). Grouper culture. World Aquaculture Magazine, 34(3), 32-36, 38-39, 57-59. JOHN W. TUCKER, JR.1,2 Groupers are classified in 14 genera most species continueto stay nearsmall grouper (E. akaara), yellow grouper (E. of the subfamily Epinephelinae, which caves for security. Wild grouper larvae at awoara), squaretail grouper (E. comprises at least half of the 449 species first eat copepods and other small zoop­ areolatus), and king grouper. Minor spe­ in the family Serranidae. Throughout lankton, then larger crustaceans like am­ cies are: blackspotted grouper (E. mostwarm and temperate marine regions, phipods and rnysidshrimp. Wildjuveniles amblycephalus), brownmarbled grouper serranids are highly valued for food, and and adults eat mainly fish, crabs, shrimp, (E.fllscogllftatus, Figures I and 3), sixbar both small and large species are kept in mantis shrimp, lobsters, and molluscs. grouper (E. sexfasciatus), bluespotted aquariums. Maximum size ranges from More than 20 grouper species have grouper (E. trimaculatus), longfin grou­ about 12em total length (TL) for western been raised commercially, mostly by per (E. quoyanusy, kelp grouper (E. Atlantic Serranus species and the Pacific growing out captured wildjuveniles in the bruneus), polka-dot grouper (Cromileptes creole-fish (Paratuhias colonusi to more Southeast Asian region. FAa (2002) re­ altivelis),leopardcoraltrout tPlectropomus than 4 m TL (~440 kg) for the king grou­ ported that 9,488 tons of groupers and sea Ieopardus, Figure 4), barred-cheek per, giant grouper, groper, or brindlebass basses worth US$65,339,000 were grown coraltrout (P. maculatus), squaretail (Epinephelus lanceolatus). out in Taiwan (5,053), Thailand (2,150), coraltrout (P. areolatus), honeycomb Ages (months)atwhichsome western Malaysia (1,217), Indonesia (1,159), grouper (E. merra), camouflage grouper Atlantic serranids reach 454 g in nature Hong Kong (523), Philippines (167), (E. polyphekadion), and greasy grouper are: Goliath grouper (E. itajara) about 12, Singapore (Ill), Kuwait (6) and Brazil (E. tauvina). For farming in the southeast­ black grouper (Mycteraperca bonaci) 17, (2) during 2000. Sadovy (2001) estimated ern U.S. and Caribbean region, Nassau gag grouper (M. micralepis) 18, red grou­ that for the late 1990s about 60 million groupers (Figure 5), gags (Figures 6 and per (E. moria) 27, and black sea bass juveniles grown out per year resulted in 24), black groupers (Figure 7), and (Centropristis striata, subfamily 23,000 tons of live table-size groupers Goliath groupers (Figure 8) seem to have . Serraninae) 51. Nassau groupers (E. sold in Southeast Asia; however, at least good potential. Dusky tEpinephelus striatus) reach 500 mm (about 2.5 kg) in hundreds of millions of wild grouper ju­ marginatusy and white groupers 4-5 yr and Goliath groupers reach 500 ram veniles were caught and sold each year, tEpinephelus aeneus) have been investi­ (about 2.7 kg) in about 2 yr. Maximum so mortality from capture and transporta­ gated in the Mediterranean. reported sizes are: 1,220 ram TL and tion had to be very high and wasteful. De­ Wild groupers tend to be very easy to about 27 kg for Nassau groupers, 1,518 spite improvements in recentyears, only catch, especially species that form large mm for black groupers, 1,290 mm for 20,000-80,000 juveniles are produced aggregations for spawning like the Nassau gags and about 2,500 ram and 320 kg for annually by hatcheries throughout the re­ grouper. This grouper historically was the Goliath groupers. Nassau groupers live gion, not counting those in Taiwan most important through most of the Car­ for at least 29 yr, black groupers 33 yr, (Sadovy 2001). About two-thirds of the ibbean islands and coastal reefs, but has gags 21-22 yr, red groupers 25 yr and groupers grown outin Taiwan were from beenoverfishedtocommercial extinction Goliath groupers 37 yr. hatcheries. In 1998,about half of the grou­ in manyareas. Both commercial andrec­ Juveniles and adults of some grouper pers farmed there had been raised from reational harvests are now prohibited in species live in coastal waters and estuar­ wildjuveniles (Cesar et al. 2000).In 2000, the U.S. The gag and red grouper, because ies, but others prefer the cleaner waters Taiwanese hatcheries produced 300,000 of their abundance and availability to the ofoffshore reefs. Eggs are planktonic ­ brownmarbled groupers and 2 million fishery, are economically the most impor­ single. non-adhesive and buoyant at nor­ king groupers (Chan 2001). King grou­ tant species in the U.S. They and many mal salinities. Larvae of most species per culture has just been developed in the other grouper species throughout the spend at least their first few weeks drift­ lastfew years andis continuing atastrong world have been overfished, leading to re­ ing with the oceanic plankton. As they rate. ducednumbers andreduced averagesize. become juveniles, groupers settle to the The primary farmed Asian species Once grouper production reaches a high bottom, usually in shallow water, where (Sadovy 2001) have been: orangespotted enough level, aquaculture will help pro­ they can find hiding places. Then, until orestuary grouper (E. coioides, Figure I) tect wild stocks by reducingfishing pres­ severalcentimeterslong, theyhide almost and Malabar grouper (E. malabaricus, sure. constantly. Theirboldness increases with Figure 2). Other major species are: In some areas wherewildjuveniles are size and they move to deeper water, but duskytailgrouper (E. bleekeri), redspotted caught for growout, supplies (catch-per- 32 SEPTEMBER 2003 ()pf :<'C I Ag. 2. Malabar grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus) broodstock in Thailand. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 1. Asian red snapper (lutjanus argentimaculatus), orangespotted Fig. 3. Female brownmarbled grouper grouper (Epinephelus coioides) and (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) two days brownmarbled grouper (Epinephelus before spawning at Palau. (Photo by fuscoguttatus) being grown out in John Tucker) Singapore. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 4. Leopard coraltrout (plectropomus leopard us) at Palau. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 6. Gag (Mycteroperca microlepis) in Florida. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 5. Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) at Grand Cayman. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 7. Black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci) at Grand Cayman. (Photo by John Tucker) Fig. 8. Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) in Florida. (Photo by Lewis Bullock, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) WORLD AQUACULTURE 33 unit-of-effort) have decreased in recent years (Johannes et at. 1998). especially near Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China (Sadovy 200 I). Possible fac­ tors include not only overfish­ ing of juveniles but also over­ fishing of adults, habitat loss, toxic pollutants, and popula­ tion cycle variations. In other areas, supplies of juveniles Fig. 9. Concrete raceways (3.0 x 12.2 x 1.0 m Fig. 10. Spawning cage (5 x 5 x 3 m deep) in deep) in which wild and reared Nassau which polka-dot groupers (Cromileptes altivelis) have been relatively constant, groupers (Epinephelus striatus) spawned in spawned, between Singapore and Mataysia. despite 20 or more years ofcol­ Florida. (Photo by John Tucker) (Photo by John Tucker) lecting. As groupers grow in nature, their numbers naturally decrease. Harvesting smallju­ veniles has less impact than harvesting a similarnumber of larger fish, and is less likely to be a determining factor of population size. The more that a given grouper population is limited by predation or lack of habitat for fish larger than those' caught for growout, the less the impact ofsuch catches will be'. If heavy losses natu­ Fig. 11. A 26-m' concrete larvai rearing tank at Fig. 12. Concrete iarval rearing tanks, each 50 rally occur after the collected the National institute of Coastai Aquacuiture, m', in Japan. (Photo by John Tucker) stage, then protecting a num- Thailand. (Photo by John Tucker) ber of the fish on farms actu­ ally could increase the total numbers available for harvest. At least, if collection of mod­ erate numbers is small com­ pared to those lost to natural mortality, significant losses of wild stocks would not result. Therefore, traditional grouper fanning in Asia (i.e. wild grou­ pers grown in ponds or cages) has been encouraged by some environmental organizations. Fig. 13.A 50-m' concrete iarvai rearing tank in Fig. 14. Concrete larvai rearing tanks in Taiwan, But at the same time, grouper Japan (from the group in Fig. 12). (Photo by usuaity shaded when iarvae are stocked. hatchery technology needs to John Tucker) (Photo by John Tucker) be perfected, because the wild supply does fluctuate and there is no guarantee that it will continue in­ delinitely. Survival ofcollectedjuveniles also must be improved. Shipping of infected wild or reared juveniles to distant growout areas has Fig. 15. The main bay of transferred diseases, especially viral and Lamma Island (southwest at parasitic ones. There are strong move­ Hong Kong, in background), ments to have national and international which contains houseboats regulations and agreements enacted to and a fairiy iarge number oi reduce and eventually prevent such prob­ fish cages. (Pilato by Joiln Tucker) lems. In 1998, there were about 600 grouper 34 SEPTEMBER 2003 hatcheries and farms in Taiwan, produc­ and larger ponds (Figure ing 5,000-7,000 tons/yr. 90 percent of 16) have been used for which was orangespotted and Malabar growout. Good environ­ groupers (Cesar et al. 2000). The large mental control is espe­ number of participants, strong govern­ cially importaut for both ment support, intense research and spe­ broodstock and larvae, cialization, availability of large areas of but not as critical for the coastal land and mass production ofeggs other stages. are factors contributing to the Taiwanese Brood'locl, success. Most groupers that Culture Methods have been studied will mature within 2-6 yr Facilities (Tucker 1998).