The Pinecone Fish Monocentris Japonicus {Houttuyn), a First Live Record from the Red Sea

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ISRAEL JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Vol. 24, 1975, pp. 194-196 THE PINECONE FISH MONOCENTRIS JAPONICUS {HOUTTUYN), A FIRST LIVE RECORD FROM THE RED SEA CHAIM KROPACH The Heintz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory, P.O. Box 469, Elat, Israel The first live Monocentris japonicus {Houttuyn) from the Red Sea was trapped at 3m depth near the Heintz Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory at Elat on 7 .IV.1974. It died after a month in captivity, and was presented to the Zoological Museum, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (No. HUJ-F 7077). Its standard length is 44 mm and its body depth 30 mm. It was identified by J.R. Paxton, The Australian Museum, Sydney. A second live specimen was observed (not collected) in a 30 m dive at Mersa el Muqabila, 25 km S of Elat, on 22.VI.1974. Only two dead specimens were previously found on shores in the Gulf of Elat (=Gulf of 'Aqaba): one is in the collection of Dr. M. Dor (Dor, 1970), the other, a dried-out fish, is in the zoological collection of Oranim, the School of Education of the Kibbutz movement, University of Haifa. M japonicus is slightly armored and has prominent dorsal and ventrolateral spines {Plate I). Alive, it is bright yellow, with black patches which cover most of the body and the eye. A nocturnal luminous fish, it has under the chin two pinhead-size light organs with luminous symbiotic bacteria. The characteristics of the bacteria, as well as the structure of the light organs, were described by Yasaki {1928). M japonicus is the most widely distributed species of the Monocentridae, a small family which, depending on authority, comprises one genus (Weber and Beaufort, 1929), four (Galvan, 1965), or two genera (Paxton, pers. commun.). This species is reported from West and East Australia, Japan, China, the Philippines, Timor Sea, Andaman Sea, Mauritius, Sr Jth Africa and East Africa, at depths of 35-200 m (Yasaki, 1928; Weber and Beaufort, 1929; Smith, 1950; Paxton, pers. commun.). The nearest record to the Gulf of Elat is from Delagoa Bay, Mozambique. The presence of M japonicus in the Red Sea is not unexpected in view of the broad distribution of the species. Though the fish fauna of the Red Sea has a significant endemic component, the majority of the fishes in the sea are tropical Indo-Pacific species{Fowler, 1956;Botros, 1971). I wish to thank J. R. Paxton, I. Karplus, J. E. Randall and M. Dor for their help and comments. Received 19 January 1976 and in revised form 2 Apri11976 Printed June 1976 194 Vol. 24, 1975 PINECONE FISH FROM RED SEA 195 PLATE I The pinecone fish, Monocentris japonicus (Houttuyn) (HUJ-F 7077). Top, alive in aquarium. Bottom, alive, out of water. Both ca. X 2. .

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