In the eastern Atlantic, it is found from southern Portugal and Spain, along the western coast of Africa as far south as Angola.

[1] The mottled grouper is a demersal species which occurs over rocky reefs and adjacent sandy substrates as deep as 200 metres (660 ft).

It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, the transition from female to male happens when they are nine years oold and have attained a total length of 53 centimetres (21 in).

These include the diplectanid monogenean Pseudorhabdosynochus regius on the gills [5] and the philometrid nematode Philometra inexpectatata in the gonad.

[4] The mottled grouper was first formally described in 1793 as Epinephelus ruber by the German naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723-1799) with the type locality given as "Japan", probably an error for Europe or the Mediterranean.