🐠 Yellow Edged Lyretail Grouper (Variola louti)
A Dramatic Colour Change Through Life • A Crescent Lyre Tail Edged in Yellow • A Hardy, Top-Predator Showpiece
 
📋 The Yellow Edged Lyretail Grouper, also known as the Lyretail, Coronation, or Cherry Grouper, or the Moontail Seabass, transforms dramatically through its life. At 10-15cm, juveniles show a broad black horizontal band with red-to-yellowish colouring above and whitish below, mid-sized fish turn an intense purple with bright blue spots, and adults deepen to a rich red-to-maroon body covered in spots, with the tail developing its namesake crescent "lyre" shape edged in yellow.
It lives across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to South Africa and the Pitcairn Islands, north to southern Japan and south to New South Wales, and it's at its most colourful when sourced from the Red Sea. It's relatively hardy and disease-resistant compared with some groupers, and it readily accepts most meaty foods.
It's a top predator that will swallow any fish small enough to fit in its mouth, including cleaner wrasse, and it grows up to 83cm (75cm is typical). Plan on at least 500L, and about 1,136L for a full adult, and keep just one per tank.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 A Dramatic Colour Change: Black-banded juvenile, purple-spotted subadult, red-maroon adult
🌙 A Yellow-Edged Lyre Tail: The crescent tail that gives it its name
💪 Hardy and Disease-Resistant: Readily accepts most meaty foods
📏 Up to 83cm: A showpiece for very large tanks
🪸 Not Reef Safe: Eats ornamental crustaceans and small tankmates