STUDIES ON TAXONOMY AND ECOLOGY OF SOME FISH LARVAE FROM THE GULF OF AQABA By Tawfiq J. Froukh Supervisor Dr. Maroof A. Khalaf Co-Supervisor Professor Ahmad M. Disi Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biological Sciences Faculty of Graduate Studies University of Jordan May 2001 ii This thesis was successfully defended and approved on: Examination Committee Signature Dr. Maroof Khalaf, Chairman ……....……………………………… Ph.D. of Fishery Sciences Prof. Ahmad Disi, Co-Supervisor ..….....……………………………… Prof. of Vertebrate Zoology Prof. Omar Al-Habbib, Memebr ………………………………………. Prof. of Animal Physiology Prof. Naim Ismail, Memebr ………………………………………. Prof. of Aquatic Invertebrate Dr. Mohammed El-Zibdeh, Memebr ………………………………………. Ph. D. of Fish Aquaculture ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii The First thanks are to Allah for every thing. This work was undertaken with financial support of the frame of the multilateral project “Red Sea Program on Marine Sciences in the Gulf of Aqaba and northern Red Sea” (RSP), which is conducted in close cooperation between the Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Bremen, Germany and the Marine Science Station (MSS), Aqaba, Jordan. I would like to thank Dr. Maroof Khalaf and Prof. Ahmad Disi for their supervision this dissertation. They introduced me to the Marine Science Station (MSS)-Aqaba, and made the present study possible. I’m greatly indebted to them for their full assistance regarding all logistic, administrative, and scientific issues. Special thanks to Prof. Omar AL-Habbib, Prof. Naim Ismail and Dr. mohammed EL- Zibdeh for their valuable comments to my work. Prof. Ahmad Abu-Hilal, the previous director of the MSS, Dr. Mohammed Badran, the current director of MSS, Dr. Salim Al-Moghrabi, and Dr. Tariq Al-Najjar from MSS provided valuable discussions, which assisted in this project. Thanks for all of them. I would like to express my thanks to Prof. Hempel, the previous director of ZMT and to Dr. Richter, the secretary of RSP, for their international coordination. Special thanks to Marc Kochzius for his providing the light traps, support, and advices through out this research. Thanks to Prof. Harb Hunaiti, Dr. Saeed Damhoreh and Dr. Hisham Alhelo from University of Jordan for their helping in the statistical analysis. I would like also to express my thanks to all the Jordanian and German colleagues from MSS and ZMT for their help, encouragement and their friendly collaboration, especially Khaled Al-Sokheny, Nidal Odat, Ahmad Al-Sabi, Wael Al-Zerieni, Riyad Manasreh, Mohammed Rasheed, Fuad Al-Horani, Saber Al-Rosan, Mark Wounch, Iris Kotter, Sabina Kadler, Britta Monkies, Ousama Al-Oukhailie, Sowdod Al-Khateeb, and Yazan Salah. Thanks to the employees of MSS for their help during the research especially Tariq Al- Salman, Omer Al-Momani, Yousef Jamal, Khaled Al-Tarabeen, Ali Abed Aljabbar, Hussien AL-Najjar, and Abdullah Abu-Talib. Finally I would like to extend my special thanks to my family for their continuous support, encouragement and for their love. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgment…………………………………...……………………………….…… iii Table of Contents……………..…………………………………………………………. iv List of Tables………………...……………………………………………………….…..vii List of Figures……………...…………………………………………………………….viii Appendix. ………...………………………………………………………………………xii Abstract……...…………………………………………………………………………....xv 1- INTRODUCTION………...……...…………………………………………………….1 1.1 General Introduction 1 1.2 Aims of this Study 2 1.3 Gulf of Aqaba 2 1.4 Terminology 3 2- LITERATURE REVIEWS…………………………………………………………....5 2.1 Taxonomical Studies: 5 2.1.1 The Red Sea and Other Oceanic Water 5 2.2 Ecological and Biological Studies: 18 2.2.1 The Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba 18 2.2.2 Other oceanic waters 18 2.3 Review of the Methods Utilized in the Identification of Fish Larvae 21 3- MATERIALS AND METHODS…………...………………………………………...23 3.1 Field Work (Collection) 23 3.1.1 Light Traps 23 3.1.2 Plankton Net 27 3.2 Laboratory Work 27 3.2.1 Preservation 27 3.2.2 Drawing 27 3.2.3 Staining 27 3.2.4 X-Ray 29 3.3 Characters Used In Larval Description 29 3.3.1 Body Shape 29 3.3.2 Head 29 v 3.3.3 Eye 30 3.3.4 Gut 30 3.3.5 Head Spination 30 3.3.6 Pigments 30 3.3.7 Morphometrics and Meristics Measurements 30 3.4 Identification Guide 31 3.5 Statistical Analysis 32 3.5.1 Species Composition Measurements 32 3.5.2 Species Diversity Measurements 32 4- RESULTS………………………………………….…………………………………..40 4.1 Clupeiformes 49 4.1.1 Clupeidae 49 4.2 Lophiiformes 50 4.2.1 Antennariidae 50 4.3 Gobiesociformes 51 4.3.1 Gobiesocidae 51 4.4 Gasterosteiformes 52 4.4.1 Syngnathidae 52 4.5 Scorpaeniformes 52 4.5.1 Scorpaenidae 52 4.6 Perciformes 53 4.6.1 Apogonidae 53 4.6.2 Lutjanidae 62 4.6.3 Serranidae 62 4.6.4 Pempherididae 64 4.6.5 Plesiopidae 65 4.6.6 Pseudochromidae 65 4.6.7 Carangidae 66 4.6.8 Pomacentridae 67 4.6.9 Labridae 74 4.6.10 Blenniidae 74 4.6.11 Tripterygiidae 78 vi 4.6.12 Gobiidae 79 4.6.13 Chaetodontidae 79 4.6.14 Siganidae 81 4.6.15 Acanthuridae 81 4.6.16 Scombridae 82 4.7 Pleuronectiformes 83 4.7.1Bothidae 83 4.8 Tetraodontiformes 84 4.8.1 Ostraciidae 84 4.8.2 Diodontidae 85 4.9 Stomiformes 86 4.9.1 Phosichthyidae 86 5- DISCUSSION…………………….……………………………………………………88 5.1 Ecological Data 88 5.2 Light Traps and Plankton Net 91 5.3 Conclusion and Recommendation 91 6- REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………...93 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………103 Abstract in Arabic………………………………………………………………………. 114 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1 Schedule for the programmed timer 25 Table 3.2 GPS readings for the sites of collection 25 Table 3.3 Characteristics useful in identification of fish larvae 34 vii Table 4.1 The identified fish larvae during this study 41 Table 4.2 Relative abundances (RA) and Frequencies of appearance (FA) Of the collected fish larvae by the light traps from the six sites in Front of the MSS 43 Table 4.3 Species richness and equitability of the total fish larvae from the Gulf of Aqaba during May, 1999 to April, 2000 44 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 Gulf of Aqaba & Gulf of Suez, Red Sea 3 Figure 3.1 Light trap and its components 24 Figure 3.2 Marine Science Station, Aqaba, Jordan 26 Figure 3.3 Light traps location in two different depths 26 viii Figure 3.4 Stained blennid specimens 29 Figure 3.5 The major morphological characters and measurements of fish Larvae used in this thesis 33 Figure 4.1 Percentages of the total catch from the Gulf of Aqaba 40 Figure 4.2 Spatial variations in the relative abundance of the most abundant Families collected using light traps in front of MSS 44 Figure 4.3 Families percentages of the collected fish larvae 45 Figure 4.4 Temporal distributions(A-Per month, B-Per season) of the Collected fish larvae from May 1999 to May 2000 45 Figure 4.5 Comparison of the collected fish larvae during full and new moon 46 Figure 4.6 Comparisons between the most abundant fish larvae using light Traps from two different depths in front of MSS 47 Figure 4.7 Correlation between the seasons of the most collected families of Fish larvae with the average surface water temperature 47 Figure 4.8 Correlation between the seasons of the most abundant families of Fish larvae with the season of the zooplankton 48 Figure 4.10 Hierarchical clustering: Families similarities dendogram of the Collected samples using light traps from six sites in front of MSS 48 Figure 4.10 Spratelloides delicatulus 49 Figure 4.11 Antennariidae 51 Figure 4.12 Gobiesocidae 51 Figure 4.13 Corythoichthys species 1 52 Figure 4.14 Choridactylus multibarbus 53 Figure 4.15 Cheilodipterus novemstriatus 54 Figure 4.16 Archaemia species 54 Figure 4.17 Siphamia species 55 Figure 4.18 Apogon species 1 55 Figure 4.19 Apogon species 2 55 Figure 4.20 Apogon species 3 56 Figure 4.21 Apogon species 4 56 Figure 4.22 Apogon species 5 56 Figure 4.23 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 1 57 ix Figure 4.24 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 2 57 Figure 4.25 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 3 57 Figure 4.26 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 4 58 Figure 4.27 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 5 58 Figure 4.28 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 6 58 Figure 4.29 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 7 59 Figure 4.30 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 8 59 Figure 4.31 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 9 59 Figure 4.32 Apogon or Cheilodipterus species 10 60 Figure 4.33 Apogon or Apogonichthys or Fowleria or Siphamia species 1 60 Figure 4.34 Apogon or Apogonichthys or Fowleria or Siphamia species 2 60 Figure 4.35 Apogon or Apogonichthys or Fowleria or Siphamia species 3 61 Figure 4.36 Apogon or Apogonichthys or Fowleria or Siphamia species 4 61 Figure 4.37 Apogon or Apogonichthys or Fowleria or Siphamia species 5 61 Figure 4.38 Lutjanus species 62 Figure 4.39 Plectranthias winniensis 63 Figure 4.40 Epinephelus species 63 Figure 4.41 Parapriacanthus ransonnari 64 Figure 4.42 Pempheris species 64 Figure 4.43 Plesiops species 65 Figure 4.44 Pseudochromis species 66 Figure 4.45 Decapterus species 66 Figure 4.46 Amphiprion bicinictus 67 Figure 4.47 Dascyllus aruanus 68 Figure 4.48 Dascyllus marginatus 68 Figure 4.49 Dascyllus species 69 Figure 4.50 Pomacentrus species 1 69 Figure 4.51 Pomacentrus species 2 70 Figure 4.52 Pomacentrus species 3 70 Figure 4.53 Pomacentrus species 4 70 Figure 4.54 Chromis species 1 71 Figure 4.55 Chromis species 2 71 x Figure 4.56 Neopomacentrus species 1 71 Figure 4.57 Neopomacentrus species 2 72 Figure 4.58 Neopomacentrus species 3 72 Figure 4.59 Pomacentrid genus 1 72 Figure 4.60 Pomacentrid genus2 73 Figure 4.61 Pomacentrus or Chrysiptera species 73 Figure 4.62 Neopomacentrus or Chromis