No photo available
Yellow-edged lyretail (lyretail grouper)
Variola louti
Valid name.
- English
- Yellow-edged lyretail (lyretail grouper)
- Scientific
- Variola louti
- Dhivehi
- ކަނޑުހާKandu haa
- Maximum size
- About 80 cm
- Depth and habitat
- Outer reef slopes and channels, about 3 to 250 m (usually below 15 m)
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2016
Description
A slim, brightly coloured grouper, red to orange-red covered in small pink, lilac or blue spots, with a deeply crescent-shaped tail and yellow edges to the fins. It hunts fish and crustaceans in mid-water above the reef. Like many groupers it starts life as a female and later changes to male. It has been linked to ciguatera poisoning in some parts of the Pacific.
In the Maldives
Common on Maldivian outer reefs and caught in the reef-fish handline fishery. Covered by the Maldives Grouper Fishery Management Plan (2020), which sets minimum landing sizes for groupers.
Sources
- fishbase.se /summary/Variola-louti.html
- fao.org /4/AD471E/AD471E00.htm
- fishbase.se /comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=5354&GenusName=Variola&SpeciesName=lo
- dv.wikipedia.org /wiki/ކަނޑުހާ
- leap.unep.org /en/countries/mv/national-legislation/maldives-grouper-fishery-managem
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Variola_louti_by_Jacek_Madejski.jpg
Dhivehi name source: FishBase common names (country: Maldives) (Latin); Thaana from Dhivehi Wikipedia (fish articles derived from the MRS 1997 Dhivehi edition).