pomadasys commersonnii

ANIMALIA / CHORDATA / ACTINOPTERYGII / PERCIFORMES / HAEMULIDAE / POMADASYS / COMMERSONNII

Pomadasys commersonnii (Lacepède, 1801)

indigenous NE

Report Error Export Excel

Morphological description

Spotted grunter have a silvery body that is brownish dorsally and pale below with numerous dark spots. There is also a single dark spot on the rear edge of the opercula. Spots are absent in small juveniles (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

Global distribution

Tropical and warm temperate western Indian Ocean from India to False Bay in WC (Smith and Heemstra 1991, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

SA distribution

WC, EC, KZN, MOZ Entire eastern seaboard of SA (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004). No population differentiation was observed between genetic samples from the EC to KZN, indicating that the different regions along the SA coast are highly connected (Klopper 2005).

Movement

Spotted grunters are resident and despite making seaward migrations to spawn, spotted grunters are largely resident to one estuary (Cowley et al. 2012). Acoustic telemetry studies have confirmed extreme residency by juveniles in both permanently open and intermittently open estuaries (Childs et al. 2008, O'Connell 2008). Extreme weather events (with sharp barometric pressure drops) can displace resident individuals from their home estuaries (Cowley et al. 2012).

Trophic strategy

Adults feed on estuarine fish, crustaceans and molluscs and the relative importance of the dominant prey varies between estuaries (Marais 1984, Hecht and van der Lingen 1992, Webb 2002).Juveniles in the Great Fish Estuary juveniles (< 300mm TL) mostly consumed the benthic amphipod Grandidierella lignorum (63%) but also sand prawn (31%) (Webb 2002) and in Durban harbour, juveniles diet included bivalve siphon tips, benthic crustaceans and polychaetes (Graham 1994).

Reproduction

Spotted grunter are gonochorist (Wallace 1975b). Breeding starts in August to December in KZN. Spawning not recorder in EC (Webb 2002). In KZN breeding/spawning occurs in coastal waters adjacent to estuary mouths and in harbours (Wallace 1975b, Connell 2012). Not yet confirmed from EC and WC waters (Webb 2002). However, ripe running individuals have been recorded from the Breede Estuary in WC (SJ Lamberth and JD Filmalter pers. comm.).

Biome

Inshore

Occurrence records map

This map contains point-based occurrences at different locations

iNaturalist: Data partners records: DNA:

Residence status

Occurrence in African countries and South African provinces. Residence status indicates if a taxon is indigenous, endemic, or alien in a specific region. This data is based on specimen records and literature.

FSA

BOT

NAM

ESW

LES

KZN

Absent

Indigenous

Endemic

Naturalised

Invasive

Ricky Taylor

Names and Sources

Common Name	Language
Spot Grunter	En
Spotted Grunter	En
Gespikkeldeknorder	En
Gespikkelde-Knorder	Af
Smallspot Grunter	En
Tiger
Spotty
Knorhaan
Inkolokolo

Classification

KINGDOM Animalia

PHYLUM Chordata

CLASS Actinopterygii

ORDER Perciformes

FAMILY Haemulidae

GENUS Pomadasys

SPECIES commersonnii

No results found for Pomadasys commersonnii (Lacepède, 1801)

Uses

Very important recreational angling species in estuaries throughout its distribution from the Breede Estuary to Kosi Bay (Baird et al. 1996, James et al. 2001, Mann et al. 2002, Pradervand et al. 2003, Cowley et al. 2004, King 2005, Potts et al. 2005). Also an important species in estuarine-based subsistence fisheries (Potts et al. 2005, Napier et al. 2009) and illegal gill net and trap fisheries (Kyle 1986, 1999, Mann 1995, Mwanyama et al. 1999). Less important in the coastal shore fishery (Bennett et al. 1994, Brouwer et al. 1997, Pradervand and Govender 2003, Pradervand 2004, King 2005, Pradervand et al. 2007) and skiboat fishery (Brouwer and Buxton 2002, Dunlop and Mann 2013). Occasionally taken in the recreational spearfishery (Mann et al. 1997b, Lloyd et al. 2012) and as a bycatch of inshore trawlers on the Thukela Banks (Fennessy 2000).

10 results for Pomadasys commersonnii (Lacepède, 1801)

Records
View map of all occurrence

Narrow your results

Year

2013 (1)

2015 (1)

2020 (3)

2021 (2)

2022 (3)

Province

eastern cape (4)

kwazulu-natal (4)

western cape (2)