Abu El-Regal, M.A.; Ditty, J.G. Development and Seasonal Variations of the Larvae of Three Mesopelagic Fishes near Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. Fishes2023, 8, 500.
Abu El-Regal, M.A.; Ditty, J.G. Development and Seasonal Variations of the Larvae of Three Mesopelagic Fishes near Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. Fishes 2023, 8, 500.
Abu El-Regal, M.A.; Ditty, J.G. Development and Seasonal Variations of the Larvae of Three Mesopelagic Fishes near Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. Fishes2023, 8, 500.
Abu El-Regal, M.A.; Ditty, J.G. Development and Seasonal Variations of the Larvae of Three Mesopelagic Fishes near Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. Fishes 2023, 8, 500.
Abstract
This work aims to describe the early life history and the length frequency distribution of larval stages of three mesopelagic species collected near coral reef areas in the Red Sea. Larvae were collected monthly using a plankton net (500 µ) from three coastal coral reef areas surrounding Sharm El-Shekikh on the Egyptian Red Sea coast between January and December 2015. The identification of larvae was based on the author’s experience and other literature. The larvae of this species were divided into preflexion, flexion, and postflexion based on the flexion of the notochord and they were also categorized according to their size into relevant size classes. Mesopelagic fishes were represented in the collection by four species belonging to four families; Vinciguerria mabahiss (Family: Phosichthyidae), Benthosema pterotum (Family: Myctophidae), Astronesthes martensii (Family: Stomiidae; subfamily: Astronesthidae) and Trichiurus sp. (Family Scombridae). In general, a total of 3678 larvae were collected, of which 1191 belonged to mesopelagic species. The most abundant species was V. mabahiss with 677 larvae that constituted 18% of total larvae collected. The second most abundant species was B. pterotum that was represented by 485 larvae (13%). A. martensii was represented by the lowest number of larvae (29 larvae, 2%). Most larvae of the three species were in preflexion stage and more abundant in the cooler months of the year between November and April. The high number of preflexion larvae at the time may indicate the spawning of the three species in the colder times of the year.
Keywords
mesopelagic fish; larvae; development; Red Sea; spawning
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Aquatic Science
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
