El serrano fish, its specific name is serrano scribe, it is a kind of elongated body, although more plump than that of serranus grouper, of which it is distinguished, also by the head, more pointed, and by the tail, truncated or rounded. The caudal peduncle of the Serrano fish is thick with a large mouth and the maxilla visible, without scales or supermaxilla.
The preopercle is entirely serrated and the operculum has three flat spines. The scales they are characteristically small, on the lateral line it is between 65 and 75.
La coloration makes this serranid an unmistakable species and undoubtedly beautiful, the back and part of the flanks are pink or pale brown, and have five and seven dark brown transverse stripes, a large blue spot, which becomes more evident with the age and size of the fish, occupies the ventral part of the flanks from in front of the anal fin, part of the caudal peduncle and the tail are yellow.
The head of these serranids is a veritable labyrinth of bluish sinuous lines reminiscent of Arabic writing. Despite its imposing appearance, this mountain fish rarely exceeds the 25cm length.
The serrano fish inhabit relatively shallow rocky bottoms and grasslands of seagrass. There seems to be a bathymetric segregation with serranus cabrilla. When both species are sympatrid, the density of the serranus scribe it tends to decrease with depth, while that of serranus cabrilla increases.
This segregation seems to be due to an exclusion by habitat, tending to minimize interspecific competition, given that when one of the two species is absent, or is very rare, the other does not entirely fill the gap, but rather presents a similar bathymetric distribution.
The serrano is a solitary and sedentary fish that fiercely defends its territory against other species. Like most serranids, he is a voracious hunter. de peces, which it lurks camouflaged on the bottom, although it also feeds on crustaceans, polychaetes and mollusks.