Hydrocynus brevis (a tigerfish, no common name) Ecological Risk Screening Summary

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, August 2011 Revised, December 2018, February 2019 Web Version, 4/26/2019

1 Native Range and Status in the United States Native Range From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Africa: only in the Sahelo-Sudanese river basins [Paugy 2003], including Nile River [Burkina- Faso], [Lake] Chad basin [Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria], Niger River basin [Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria], Volta River [Burkina-Faso, Ghana], River [Mali, Senegal] and Gambia River [Gambia, Senegal] [Paugy 1984, 1990].”

From Azeroual et al. (2010):

“RANGE DESCRIPTION This is a wide-ranging species, found from Senegal to , and throughout the Nile [, Ethiopia].

Northern Africa: It is present but rare in this region. It used to be caught from Lower Egyptian Nile to Luxor, now restricted to Lake Nasser [Egypt, ] (also known as Lake Nubia).

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Northeast Africa: It is found in the Ghazal and Jebel systems, Sudan, as well as Baro River, Ethiopia.

Western Africa: This species is known from Chad, Niger/Bénoué, Volta, Senegal and Gambia [river basins].”

Status in the United States No established populations or introductions have been reported in the United States. No record of this species in trade in the United States was found.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has listed the tigerfish, brevis, as a prohibited species. Prohibited nonnative species (FFWCC 2019), "are considered to be dangerous to the ecology and/or the health and welfare of the people of Florida. These species are not allowed to be personally possessed or used for commercial activities."

Means of Introductions in the United States No introductions in the United States have been reported.

Remarks Information searches were conducted using the valid name Hydrocynus brevis.

2 Biology and Ecology Taxonomic Hierarchy and Taxonomic Standing According to Fricke et al. (2019), Hydrocynus brevis (Günther 1864) is the current valid name for this species. It was originally described as Hydrocyon brevis Günther 1864.

From ITIS (2018):

“Kingdom Animalia Subkingdom Bilateria Infrakingdom Deuterostomia Phylum Chordata Subphylum Vertebrata Infraphylum Gnathostomata Superclass Class Teleostei Superorder Ostariophysi Order Family Alestiidae Genus Hydrocynus Species Hydrocynus brevis (Gunther, 1864)”

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Size, Weight, and Age Range From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Max length : 86.0 cm TL male/unsexed; [Ita 1984]; max. published weight: 8.3 kg [Paugy 1990]”

Environment From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Freshwater; pelagic; potamodromous [Riede 2004].”

Climate/Range From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Tropical”

Distribution Outside the United States Native From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Africa: only in the Sahelo-Sudanese river basins [Paugy 2003], including Nile River [Burkina- Faso], [Lake] Chad basin [Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria], Niger River basin [Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria], Volta River [Burkina-Faso, Ghana], Senegal River [Mali, Senegal] and Gambia River [Gambia, Senegal] [Paugy 1984, 1990].”

From Azeroual et al. (2010):

“RANGE DESCRIPTION This is a wide-ranging species, found from Senegal to Ethiopia, and throughout the Nile [Egypt, Ethiopia].

Northern Africa: It is present but rare in this region. It used to be caught from Lower Egyptian Nile to Luxor, now restricted to Lake Nasser [Egypt, Sudan] (also known as Lake Nubia).

Northeast Africa: It is found in the Ghazal and Jebel systems, Sudan, as well as Baro River, Ethiopia.

Western Africa: This species is known from Chad, Niger/Bénoué, Volta, Senegal and Gambia [river basins].”

Introduced Hydrocynus brevis has not been reported as introduced or established anywhere outside of its native range.

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Means of Introduction Outside the United States Hydrocynus brevis has not been reported as introduced or established anywhere outside of its native range.

Short Description From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Diagnosis: eye <60% of interorbital space; massive profile specially [sic] on anterior part [Paugy 1990, 2003]. Three scale rows between lateral line and scaly process at pelvic-fin bases; rakers of first gill arch poorly developed; snout-dorsal fin length/snout-ventral fins length different from one; adipose fin grey or black [Paugy 2003]. Inferior lobe of caudal and anterior end of anal fin red-orange [Paugy 1990].”

Biology From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Hydrocynus species are piscivorous, but may also eat Caridina and insects [Bailey 1994]. Affinities: easily distinguished from two other species in West Africa from the number of scale- rows below lateral line, which is 3 instead of 2 [Paugy 2003].”

Human Uses From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Fisheries: commercial”

Diseases According to Poelen et al. (2014), Hydrocynus brevis is known to have the following parasites: Tenuisentis niloticus, Rhabdochona aegyptiacus, Monascus typicus, Tubulovesicula lindbergi, Siphodera ghanensis, and Dinurus gizae.

No records of OIE-reportable diseases were found for Hydrocynus brevis.

Threat to Humans From Froese and Pauly (2018):

“Harmless”

3 Impacts of Introductions

Hydrocynus brevis has not been reported as introduced or established anywhere outside of its native range.

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4 Global Distribution

Figure 1. Known global distribution of Hydrocynus brevis. Locations are in northern Africa. Map from GBIF Secretariat (2018).

5 Distribution Within the United States

Not reported from the United States.

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6 Climate Matching Summary of Climate Matching Analysis The Climate 6 score (Sanders et al. 2018; 16 climate variables; Euclidean distance) for the contiguous United States was 0.000, a low climate score. The range for a low climate score is from 0.000 to 0.005, inclusive. There were no areas of high match in the contiguous United States. Areas of medium and medium-low climate match were found in southern Arizona, the southern tip of Texas, the northern Pacific Coast and in southern Florida, while the rest of the contiguous United States had a very low match. Each state had an individually low climate score.

Figure 2. RAMP (Sanders et al. 2018) source map showing weather stations in northern Africa selected as source locations (red; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauitania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, , Sudan, and Togo) and non-source locations (gray) for Hydrocynus brevis climate matching. Source locations from GBIF Secretariat (2018). No georeferenced locations where available in Egypt.

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Figure 3. Map of RAMP (Sanders et al. 2018) climate matches for Hydrocynus brevis in the contiguous United States based on source locations reported by GBIF Secretariat (2018). 0 = Lowest match, 10 = Highest match.

The High, Medium, and Low Climate match Categories are based on the following table:

Climate 6: Proportion of Climate Match (Sum of Climate Scores 6-10) / (Sum of total Climate Scores) Category 0.000≤X≤0.005 Low 0.005

7 Certainty of Assessment Minimal information is available on Hydrocynus brevis. No introductions have been recorded anywhere outside of the native range. The certainty of assessment is low.

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8 Risk Assessment Summary of Risk to the Contiguous United States Hydrocynus brevis is a freshwater tiger-fish native to northern Africa. It is fished commercially. This species can be found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Sudan, and Togo. H. brevis has not been recorded anywhere outside of its native range, creating an uncertain history of invasiveness. The overall climate match for the contiguous United States was low. Small areas of medium match were found along the far southern border of the United States. The certainty of assessment is low due to lack of information. The overall risk assessment category for Hydrocynus brevis is uncertain.

Assessment Elements  History of Invasiveness (Sec. 3): Uncertain  Climate Match (Sec. 6): Low  Certainty of Assessment (Sec. 7): Low  Remarks/Important additional information: Hydrocynus brevis in on Florida’s prohibited species list.  Overall Risk Assessment Category: Uncertain

9 References Note: The following references were accessed for this ERSS. References cited within quoted text but not accessed are included below in Section 10.

Azeroual, A., M. Entsua-Mensah, A. Getahun, and P. Lalèyè. 2010. Hydrocynus brevis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T182658A7936630. Available: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/182658/7936630. (December 2018).

FFWCC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). 2019. Prohibited species list. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, Florida. Available: https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/prohibited-species-list/. (April 2019).

Fricke, R., W. N. Eschmeyer, and R. van der Laan, editors. 2018. Catalog of fishes: genera, species, references. Available: http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp. (December 2018).

Froese, R., and D. Pauly, editors. 2018. Hydrocynus brevis (Gunther, 1864). Fishbase. Available: https://www.fishbase.de/summary/Hydrocynus-brevis.html. (December 2018).

GBIF Secretariat. 2018. GBIF backbone : Hydrocynus brevis (Gunther, 1864). Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen. Available: https://www.gbif.org/species/2356188. (December 2018).

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ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System). 2018. Hydrocynus brevis (Gunther, 1864). Integrated Taxonomic Information System, Reston, Virginia. Available: https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=639 848#null. (December2018).

Poelen, J. H., J. D. Simons, and C. J. Mungall. 2014. Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24:148–159.

Sanders, S., C. Castiglione, and M. Hoff. 2018. Risk assessment mapping program: RAMP, version 3.1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

10 References Quoted But Not Accessed Note: The following references are cited within quoted text within this ERSS, but were not accessed for its preparation. They are included here to provide the reader with more information.

Bailey, R. G. 1994. Guide to the fishes of the River Nile in the Republic of the Sudan. Journal of Natural History 28:937–970.

Daget, J. 1954. Les poissons du Niger Supérieur. Mémoires de l'Institut français d'Afrique Noire 36:1–391.

Günther, A. 1864. Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing the families Siluridae, Characinidae, Haplochitonidae, Sternoptychidae, Scopelidae, Stomiatidae in the collection of the British Museum 5:1–455.

Ita, E. O. 1984. Kainji (Nigeria). Pages 43–103 in J. M. Kapetsky and T. Petr, editors. Status of African reservoir fisheries. CIFA Technical Paper 10:326.

Paugy, D. 2003. . Pages 236–282 in D. Paugy, C. Lévêque and G. G. Teugels, editors. The fresh and brackish water fishes of West Africa Volume 1. Coll. faune et flore tropicales 40. Institut de recherche de développement, Paris, France, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, France and Musée royal de l'Afrique Central, Tervuren, Belgium.

Paugy, D. 1990. Characidae. Pages 195–236 in C. Lévêque, D. Paugy, and G. G. Teugels, editors. Faune des poissons d'eaux douces et saumâtres de l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Tome I. Coll. Faune Tropicale n° XXVIII. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium, et O.R.S.T.O.M., Paris.

Paugy, D. 1984. Characidae. Pages 140–183 in J. Daget, J.-P. Gosse, and D. F. E. Thys van den Audenaerde, editors. Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa. ORSTOM, Paris.

Riede, K. 2004. Global register of migratory species - from global to regional scales. Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Final Report, R&D-Projekt 808 05 081, Bonn. 9