Red V-Tail Grouper

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Aggressive   • Maximum Size: 11"
• Minimum Tank Size: 90 gallons   • Water Conditions: 74-82° F, dKH 8-12, sg 1.020-1.025, pH 8.1-8.4
• Diet: Carnivore   • Origin: Indo-Pacific
• Family: Serranidae   • Species: Groupers   • Aquarium Type: Fish Only

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The Red V-Tail Grouper (Cephalopholis urodeta) is found living near coral reefs and rocky areas of the sea floor throughout the Indo-Pacific from India to the Hawaiian Islands. They are a popular grouper species within the aquarium hobby due to their beautiful red color, moderate size and relative ease of care.

They are often sold by a variety of common names including the Flag Fin Grouper, Flag Tail Grouper, Banded Tail Sea Bass, Red Flag Grouper, Darkin Hind Grouper and Coral Cod. Red V-Tail Groupers do well within the aquarium environment as they have a very hardy disposition and a maximum size of about 10 to 11 inches, which makes them well suited for aquariums in the 90 to 110 gallon range or larger. Their smaller max size also makes them easier to pair with tank mates as their smaller mouths make them less of a risk to consume medium size or larger fish mates.

Despite being a larger fish species, the Red V-Tail Grouper appreciates plenty of live rock with large caves and rock crevices for them to rest on and swim about. In the wild the Red V-Tail Grouper exists as an ambush predator where they find rocky caves and overhangs in which they perch awaiting to ambush smaller fish and invertebrate species. While they require adequate swimming room, they are never found too far from the coral reef, which is there main source of food and protection from larger predators.

Since Red V-Tail Groupers eat large meaty items, they create a lot of waste products, therefore it is important to have a very strong biological filter setup to handled the load this and other large predator species put on a filter system. This species should only be kept with other large semi-aggressive to aggressive fish species, as they will eat any fish or ornamental invertebrates that they can fit in their mouth. They can be aggressive towards other larger fish, but are usually not too bad in this regard in comparison to other larger grouper species found within the aquarium hobby.

Red V-Tail Groupers are a carnivorous fish species, thus there diet is made up entirely of meaty items ranging from live fish, shrimp, clams, mussels, krill or other marine meaty items. They should be fed larger meaty items twice a day, as much as they will consume with in a 3 to 5 minutes. They will eat fish or ornamental invertebrates that will fit in their mouth.