Gulf Coney

Hyporthodus acanthistius is a grouper of the family Epinephelidae, order Perciformes ^[1]. It ranges through the eastern Pacific from southern California to Peru, usually at 46 to 90 m depth, and grows to at least 100 cm total length ^[2]. It can be told by its dorsal fin with only 9 spines, of which the second, third and fourth are very long in adults ^[3]. Its global IUCN Red List category is Vulnerable ^[4].

Gilbert described it in 1892 as Bodianus acanthistius, from material taken at Cape Lobos in the Gulf of California, and Cephalopholis popino, which Walford described in 1936 from fish caught at Mazatlán, Mexico, is a synonym ^[2]. Because of its 9 dorsal spines, Jordan and Evermann erected the subgenus Enneistus for this species alone, and Jordan and colleagues raised it to a genus in 1930 ^[2]. The FAO grouper catalogue treated it as Epinephelus acanthistius ^[2], and today it sits in Hyporthodus, the genus it was moved to in 2007 ^[5],[1].

FAO calls it «Baqueta» in Spanish and «Rooster Hind» in English, and in the United States it is known as «Gulf Coney» ^[2].

The body is deep: its depth goes 2.4 to 2.6 times into the standard length and the head 2.3 to 2.4 times; the space between the eyes bulges, the preopercle is rounded with fine teeth on its edge, and the top margin of the gill cover is clearly curved ^[2]. The dorsal fin has 9 spines and 17 soft rays, and in adults spines two to four are very long, with the membrane between them cut deeply; the anal fin has 3 spines and 9 rays, each pectoral 18 or 19 rays, and the tail is rounded ^[2]. The pelvic fins start ahead of the lower end of the pectoral fin base and are shorter than the pectorals ^[2].

Head and body are deep red or brown, the pectorals are darker, and a conspicuous black streak runs above the upper jaw like a moustache ^[2]. The tips of the membrane between the dorsal spines are darker, and so is the scaleless outer part of the soft dorsal, anal and tail fins ^[2]. In DNA barcodes of specimens from northern Peru, the species' sequences differed from one another by at most 0.15 %, and the genetically closest species in the study, Alphestes multiguttatus, was 12.1 % away ^[6].

Similar species

• Hyporthodus niphobles: Hyporthodus niphobles has 11 dorsal spines instead of 9, without the long front spines, and its juveniles are reddish brown with white dots in rows and a black saddle-shaped blotch on top of the tail stalk ^[3].
• Epinephelus labriformis: Epinephelus labriformis has 11 dorsal spines, the third or fourth being longest, and a reddish brown body with a pale network, irregular white blotches and a black saddle-shaped blotch on top of the tail stalk ^[3].

It lives in the eastern Pacific from southern California to Peru, and it is a common species in the Gulf of California ^[2]. In Peru, specimens have been collected by divers on rocky reefs of the northern coast, inside a national marine reserve ^[6].

Although it is sometimes caught near the shore, it is normally found at 46 to 90 m depth ^[2]. In the Gulf of California it lives below about 45 m, mostly in muddy patches next to rocky reefs, and it spawns in groups over muddy bottoms ^[5]. Off Pacific Colombia it uses rocky reefs and sandy bottoms, and it has been recorded there between 18 and 119 m depth ^[7].

It reaches at least 100 cm total length ^[2]. In 109 fish from Pacific Colombia, caught by longline in Gorgona National Natural Park and nearby waters, total length ranged from 27.5 to 75 cm, averaging 51.7 cm, and weight from 250 to 5400 g ^[7]. Sectioned otoliths from 61 of those fish showed 2 to 18 growth rings: the fish with 2 rings measured 63 cm, and the 2 with 18 rings measured 75 and 72 cm ^[7].

According to the earlier studies that paper brings together, mean size at maturity off Pacific Colombia is 63.5 cm total length, and breeding shows several peaks in the second half of the year ^[7]. In the northern Gulf of California it breeds in spring and summer, in spawning aggregations ^[5].

In 2003, fin clips were taken at 5 spawning aggregations in the northern Gulf of California, and their DNA revealed only weak genetic structure: just the southernmost aggregation, at Puerto Libertad, stood slightly apart from the others ^[5]. The pattern that best fitted the data follows the currents of the spawning period, when a summer eddy turning anticyclonically can hold back the larvae of the other aggregations and stop them travelling south ^[5].

Off Pacific Colombia it overlaps across its whole range with Lutjanus argentiventris, and both species are taken in the same small-scale longline fishery ^[7].

Its global IUCN Red List category is Vulnerable ^[4].

In the northern Gulf of California its abundance fell quickly over the 2 decades before the study, and small-scale fishers pursue it above all during the spawning season ^[5]. The authors recommend stronger protection for the Puerto Libertad aggregation, which, judging by the direction of the currents, seems to send larvae northwards ^[5].

Off Pacific Colombia, the mean size caught by small-scale longlines is 51 cm total length, the lowest reported there since 1998, and smaller than the mean size at maturity of 63.5 cm quoted in the same paper ^[7].

It has some importance in the local fisheries of the Gulf of California, where it is taken by trawl and by hook and line ^[2]. FishBase lists it as a species of minor commercial interest ^[8].

Off Pacific Colombia it is a fish of economic value that small-scale fishers catch by longline, at sizes from 24 to 85.5 cm total length ^[7]. In the northern Gulf of California, small-scale fishers seek it above all during spawning, and the authors note that the high market value of groupers and the predictable time and place of their gatherings turn them into an easy catch ^[5].

In a study published in 2025, under a 2020 collecting permit from the Ministry of Production, fishes were collected by divers on rocky reefs in three zones of a national marine reserve in northern Peru: Isla Foca, the coast between Cabo Blanco and Los Órganos, and the reefs of Punta Sal in Tumbes; Hyporthodus acanthistius is among the species identified, although the article's text does not say in which of those zones it was found ^[6].