Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles, Juvenile. Fish provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, February 2014. Length: 4.8 cm (1.9 inches). Identification courtesy of H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles, Juvenile. Fish caught from coastal waters off Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, December 2015. Length: 20 cm (7.9 inches). The white spots will fade quickly.
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles, Juvenile. Fish caught from coastal waters within Bahia de Los Angeles, Baja California, December 2015. Length: 36 cm (14 inches). Catch, photograph, and identification courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles. Fish caught from coastal waters off Loreto, Baja California Sur, July 2016. Length: 90 cm (2 feet 11 inches). Weight: 14.1 kg (31 lbs). Chris has submitted this fish as a pending world record. Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles. Fish caught from coastal waters off Loreto, Baja California Sur, April 2016 by Captain Francisco and his son Enzl. Length: 1.00 m (3 feet 3 inches). Photograph courtesy of Pamela Pelger Bolles, Loreto.
Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles versus Gulf Coney, Hyporthodus acanthistius, color comparisons. Photograph courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.
The Star-studded Grouper, Hyporthodus niphobles, is a member of the Grouper or Epinephelidae Family, that is also known as the Snowy Grouper and in Mexico as baqueta ploma and estacol and in the greater Los Cabos area as estacuda. Globally, there are fourteen species in the genus Hyporthodus, of which seven are found in Mexican waters, four in the Atlantic and three in the Pacific Ocean.
The Star-studded Grouper has a robust, deep, oval compressed body. Their body depth is greatest at the dorsal fin origin. They are a uniform chocolate brown coloration. Juveniles are chocolate brown and covered with a series of white spots (pictured above). Their caudal and pectoral fins are lighter in color than their anal and pelvic fins. They have a dark brown band or mustache above their upper jaw and a thin line at the base of their tail, which are keys to identification. They have large heads and their rear nostril is larger than their front nostril. Their anal fin has 3 spines and 8 rays; and, their dorsal fin has 10 spines, the second being the longest, and 13 to 15 rays. They have 8 or 9 gill rakers on the lower arch and 15 to 17 gill rakers on the upper arch.
The Star-studded Grouper is a demersal species that is found within reefs and sandy bottoms at depths up to 457 m (1,500 feet). Adults are found in deeper waters than juveniles. They reach a maximum of 1.21 m (4 feet 0 inches) in length and 11.4 kg (25 lbs) in weight noting that the current IGFA record is only 98 cm (3 feet 3 inches) in length. As of January 1, 2023, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 15.5 kg (34 lbs 0 oz) with the fish caught from coastal waters off San Carlos, Sonora in April 2022. I also have a report of a 20 kg (43 lb 8 oz) fish that was caught off the Golden Reef, San Felipe, Baja California, in May 2015. And I have another report of a 23 kg (50.3 lbs) fish caught in coastal waters off San Felipe in May 2017. A Grouper Family Weight From Length Conversion Table has been included in this website to allow the accurate determination of a fish weight and a return to the ocean unharmed. They are voracious ambush predators feeding on small fish and benthic crustaceans. The Star-studded Grouper is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Star-studded Grouper is very similar in appearance and can be confused with the Gulf Coney, Hyporthodus acanthistius (9 dorsal spines, third, fourth and fifth being the longest; mustache above upper jaw) and the Olive Grouper, Epinephelus cifuentesi (wide body; 11 dorsal spines, second being the longest; no mustache).
From a conservation perspective the Star-studded Grouper is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are relatively small in stature and a rare incidental catch by recreational and subsistence fishermen but considered to be a quality food fish. They are a by-catch of the deep water shrimp trawlers in the central Gulf but too rare to be of commercial interest. Unlike most of the other now totally depleted Groupers found within the Sea of Cortez, their population remains fairly stable.