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King Grouper

The goliath grouper is the king of the reef, growing upwards of 1000 pounds. In this photo you can see a school of cigar minnows staying close to its side in an effort to avoid predators.

Photo by Douglas David Seifert

“I found this goliath grouper, with its massive mouth and swirling mane of silver fish, lurking in a shipwreck off Jupiter, Florida. The cigar minnows are clustering around it to protect themselves from other predators such as trevally, a type of fish.� Groupers feed mainly on crustaceans such as lobsters. The goliath grouper is the largest reef fish in the Atlantic, up to 2.5 metres long and weighing up to 363 kilogrammes. But its size has not protected it from being fished almost to extinction in the Atlantic. Though the species is now protected under Florida law, large individuals such as this one are still rare.”

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