Striped Grunt, Haemulon striatum

Striped Grunt, Haemulon striatum. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, May 2022. Length: 16 cm (6.3 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, Sebastian, Florida.

Striped Grunt, Haemulon striatum. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, August 2017. Length: 16 cm (6.3 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Dominick Porcelli, Lighthouse Point, Florida.

Striped Grunt, Haemulon striatum. Fish caught from coastal waters off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, January 2022. Length: 22 cm (8.7 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of George Brinkman, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

The Striped Grunt, Haemulon striatum, is a member of the Grunt or Haemulidae Family, and is known in Mexico as ronco pinto. Globally, there are twenty-one species in the genus Haemulon, and all twenty-one are found in Mexican waters, fourteen in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific Ocean.

The Striped Grunt has an elongated cylindrical slightly compressed body that has a body depth that is 26% to 32% of standard length. They are gray to bluish dorsally that transitions to a silver ventrally with five bronze to brown stripes along the upper two-thirds of the head and body with the two lowest being the broadest. Their snout is yellow, the inside of the mouth is red, and their fins and clear. Their head is blunt with a slightly convex upper profile that has a short snout and eyes near the small mouth that ends under the center of the eyes that has two large pores on the underside of the chin. The anal fin has 3 spines and 7 to 9 rays; their caudal fin is forked; their dorsal fin is continuous with 13 spines and 13 or 14 rays. They have 28 to 34 gill rakers. The scales rows below the lateral line are oblique. They are covered with rough scales.

The Striped Grunt is found in dense mid-water schools over rocky reefs at depths between 10 m (35 feet) and 210 m (700 feet) and with the juveniles found in shallower water than the adults. They reach a maximum of 28 cm (11 inches). They for dense aggregations in mixed schools with Boga, Scads, Smallmouth Grunts and Tomtates during the day and disperse to feed as individuals on plankton and small crustaceans during the night. Reproduction is oviparous with fecundity ranges from 19,000 to 535,000 eggs. The Striped Grunt 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 Striped Grunt is a resident of Mexican waters of the Atlantic but has a limited range being found only from along the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Tuxpan, Veracruz to the Yucatán Peninsula and along the entire east coast of the Yucatán in the Caribbean.

The Striped Grunt is most likely confused with the Bronzestripe Grunt, Haemulon boschmae (dark spot at the base of caudal fin), the Smallmouth Grunt, Brachygenys chrysargyrum (yellow fins), and the Tomtate, Haemulon aurolineatum (dark spot at the base of the caudal fin).

From a conservation perspective the Striped Grunt is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are small in stature and of limited interest to most. They are caught as a by-catch by commercial trawl fisherman and utilized on a limited basis by the aquarium trade.