Coal grunter

Care at a glance

Overview

The coal grunter is a big, bold Australian native with plenty of personality and a short temper, best kept singly or with large, robust tankmates that can stand up to it. It swims in the middle of the water, learns to beg at feeding time, and will bully or eat smaller, weaker fish, so it suits a large community tank of around 600 liters or more built around similarly tough species. Give it a spacious layout with rock, wood, and open swimming room, plus strong filtration and good water movement. It is an unfussy, greedy eater that takes pellets, prawns, mussel, earthworms, and other meaty foods. Keep only one unless the tank is very large, since it is intolerant of its own kind.

In the wild

The coal grunter lives in rivers across tropical northern Australia, favoring clear, flowing water and rocky pools, though it also turns up in more turbid, muddy stretches. It is used to warm water and cannot cope with cold. Keep it warm, from about 24 to 30 C, at a neutral pH between roughly 6.5 and 7.8, with clean, well-oxygenated, moving water. A layout of large smooth boulders, sturdy wood, and open channels matches its home and gives it territory to patrol. Robust plants can work, but expect them to be tested.

Good to know

Hephaestus carbo is a grunter in the family Terapontidae, reaching about 33 centimeters, with a deep, sooty-black body flecked with gold; juveniles are brighter, marked with yellow and orange and a reddish ring around the eye. Grunters get their name from the sound they make with the swim bladder. It is an egg scatterer that has been bred, though with some difficulty, spreading many small eggs over the bottom with no parental care. Its genus honors Hephaestus, the Greek god of the forge, and carbo is Latin for coal.

Did you know

Its name reads like a blacksmith's label: the genus Hephaestus is the Greek god of the forge, and the species name carbo is Latin for coal, both chosen for this fish's smoky black color.

Common questions

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