Bastard grunt
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
A silver eastern Atlantic grunt that makes an audible noise with its swim bladder when it is landed — which is where the family name comes from.
Safety: injury while handling fish — minor injury.
A grunt grunts. *Pomadasys incisus* grinds its pharyngeal teeth and amplifies the sound with its swim bladder, and a freshly landed fish makes a noise loud enough to be heard clearly — which is unusual enough on European rock to be worth expecting rather than being startled by.
It is a moderately deep-bodied silver fish with a slightly arched back, faint yellowish or golden longitudinal shading along the flank, and a dark spot at the upper edge of the gill cover. FishBase records 53.5 cm and an age of seven years, demersal in marine and brackish water over a depth range of 10 to 100 m, from Angola north to Spain and through the Mediterranean. The Spanish and Portuguese name across much of that range is `roncador` — the snorer.
It is a bottom feeder over sand, mud and the mixed ground beside rock, taking crustaceans, worms and small molluscs, and it is taken on ordinary baited bottom tackle from moles, harbour walls and beaches. It shoals, so a mark either has them or does not.
A caution about its range. It is a fish of the African and Iberian coasts and the Mediterranean, and it is **not** in the annotated checklist of the marine fishes of the Azores — so a report naming a grunt in that archipelago is a report to check rather than one to build on.
Identification
No photograph of Bastard grunt has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Pomadasys incisus
- Family
- Haemulidae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa, North Africa
- A dark spot at the upper rear edge of the gill cover, on an otherwise plain silver fish.
- Faint yellowish or golden longitudinal shading along the flank, strongest on fresh fish and fading fast.
- A moderately deep body with a slightly arched back and a small mouth set low.
- It grunts audibly when landed, which nothing else on the same ground does.
- FishBase records a maximum of 53.5 cm and an age of 7 years.
Size
- Typical
- 150–400 g (5–14 oz)
- Large
- 600 g–1 kg (1.3–2.2 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 53.5 cm and an age of 7 years
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal in marine and brackish water over a depth range of 10 to 100 m, over sand, mud and mixed ground adjacent to rock. Medium resilience. It shoals rather than holding territory.
Not detailed on the FishBase record for this species and not supplied from the family. The seven-year maximum age is the useful fact in the same territory: a short-lived, fast-turnover shoaling fish, which is the pattern behind its abundance where it occurs at all.
Feeding and senses
Takes crustaceans, worms and small molluscs from and just above soft and mixed bottom, feeding by picking with a small low-set mouth. Ordinary baited bottom tackle with hooks scaled to that mouth is what catches it.
Bottom-oriented feeding by sight and scent, and — unusually — sound: the family is vocal, and grunts are known to produce and respond to sound, which is one of the few European shore fish for which that is worth mentioning at all.
Through the year
Present year-round through the warmer parts of its range, moving with temperature at the northern edge of it. Its presence at any given mark is a matter of whether a shoal is there.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: Angola to Spain ; in the Mediterranean
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A standard shore and light boat capture along the Iberian, north-west African and Mediterranean coasts, taken on baited bottom rigs from moles, harbour walls and beaches over sand and mixed ground. It is eaten across its range. Its range is worth knowing as well as its appearance: it is an African and Iberian fish, and it is absent from the Azores checklist.
Handling and returning
Stiff dorsal spines and a sharp gill-cover edge on a lively fish that is also making a noise. Fold the dorsal and grip across the flank, unhook with pliers, and keep fingers clear of the operculum.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
The spiny dorsal punctures a hand closed carelessly over the back, and the rear edge of the gill cover is sharp.
What reduces it: Fold the dorsal flat and grip across the flank behind the head, and unhook with pliers.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Pomadasys incisus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Pomadasys incisus, assessed 04 February 2009.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished — tackle, method and the ground it is taken over.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 2 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Spotted grunter
Pomadasys incisus reaches 53.5 cm and runs from Angola to Spain and through the Mediterranean; Pomadasys commersonnii reaches far larger in southern African estuaries. Both grind their pharyngeal teeth and amplify the sound with the swim bladder, which is what the family name records.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Inshore ground
Recorded as demersal in marine and brackish water over a depth range of 10 to 100 m from Angola to Spain and through the Mediterranean, over soft and mixed bottom rather than reef.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Pomadasys incisus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
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