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Growth of the Checkered Puffer Sphoeroides Testudineus: Postscript to Papers by Targett and Pauly &Logles*

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Growth of the Checkered Puffer Sphoeroides Testudineus: Postscript to Papers by Targett and Pauly &Logles* Fishbyte 9(1): 19-22 Growth of the Checkered Puffer Sphoeroides testudineus: Postscript to Papers by Targett and Pauly &logles* DANIEL PAULY InternatiolUlI Center for I11!!ng Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) MC P.O. Box 1501, Makati Metro Manila, Philippines Abstract thussomehowdefeating thepurposeofthatpartof our paper. This is corrected in this note, in which the J.Ingles and D. Pauly presented at the Fourth IntP.mational Coral opportunity is taken also to present some related ReefSympositm\ a seasonally oscillating growth curve for the puffer information on S. testudineus <Fig. 1). SphoaoidtS testudinals ITetraodontidae), based on length-frequency data collected in 1974 in Florida byT.E. Targett, but forgot to include the corresponding growth parameters In the ensuing publication. l These are given here (11.._ =30, K= 0.51 year , C = 0.7, and WP =0.05), Materials and Methods along with some related biological information on the species. The length-frequency data of Targett (1979) were analyzed using the Compleat ELEFAN software of Introduction Gayanilo et aI. (1988). Noattemptwas made to estimate mortality from the Pauly and Ingles (1981), in a paper devoted to the size-frequency data at hand because adult fish were growth and mortality of coral reef and other tropical reported by Targett (1979) to leave the seagrass bed, fishes illustrated seasonally oscillating growth curves where sampling occurred, to spawn in deeper waters. thro~gh (then a relative novelty) an analysis oflength­ This was also the reason whyL_ was fixed at 25 cm SL( frequency data on the checkered puffer Sphoeroides corresponding to 30 em TL, i.e., to the maximum testudineus (Linne, 1758) from Biscayne Bay, Florida reported size (Table 1). (Targett 1979). All other infonnation on S. testudineus presented I noted only recently that we forgot to include the below was extracted from the literature (Table 2). relevant growth parameters in the paper in question, I 'Ie",. Fi g. l.l11c cl1L'Ckcrcd puffcrflsh Sphoeroid~ lesludinals (Unnacw, 1758), TctraodonUdac(adapled from Beebe and Tee-Van 1928 and Guitart 1978). Note lhat this fish can cl1ange its shape by pumping ItseU up with water or air, hence several of Its names. 'ICLARM Conlribution No. 771. August 1991 19 Table 1. Growth parameters and performance Index (.p')" offour species of tetraodontlds. Species LJTL,an) K (yeal"'l) .p' Remark/Source Contususl richd 18.9 0.326 2.07 nus study·, based on TabJc 1 ~ 12.5 0.362 1.77 in Habib (1977) LAgocephaIus scderatus 18.0 1.50 2.69 Chan and Uew (1986), using ELEFAN I SphaeToides maeulatus ~ 28.2 0.607 2.68 Laroche and Davis (1973) if 24.5 0.620 2.57 Sphaeroides testudineus 30.0 0.51 2.66 This study, based on Targett (1978) '.p'::: log10K + 2logL_ (pauly and Mmi.ro 1984). b'The genus name UTa1lllstoma, used by Habib (1977) is taxonomically not "available" and shouldbe replaced b)' the one used here. <von Bertalanffy equation fitted to length-at-age data, (weighted by n) using the ETAL J program ofGaschiitz et al. (1980). Table 2. Morphological relationships and other features of checkered puffer Sphoeroides tesludineus. Item Source TL ='1.20 SL Shipp (1974) W::: 0.0821 (TL)2.87 (em, g) This study' W ::: 0.000023 (TL)2.991(dry season; em, g) Colmenero et al. (1982) W ::: 0.000047 (LS)2.8:l9(rainy season; em, g) Colmenero et al. (1982) Fecundityb::: 0.0001(SL)2.7~ (em), and Targett (1979) Relative fecundity ::: 1.146 eggs/g body weight Maximum size::: 30 cm (prob. TL) Shipp (1978) Mean size at first maturity> 13 cm(TL) Colmenero et al. (1982) Spawning season::: late spring to early fall Targett (1979) (in Biscayne Bay, Florida) Food: mainly benthic crustaceans, bivalves and gastropods Targett (1978), ~olmenero et al. (1982) Highly toxic Breta (1939), Yudkin (1944), Halstead (1978) Forms large aggregates (but not schooling) Halstead (1978), Shipp (1978) Enters river mouths Colmenero et a1. (1982) Caught by traps, seines and dynamite Beebe and Tee-Van (1928) Used to poison cats and dogs Shipp (1978) 'SL in mm, Win g (as also used below); recomputed from data in Fig. 1 ofTargett (1979) (which includes an erroneous equation) and two length/weight data pairs in Beebe and Tee-Van (1928). bNumber of yolked eggs in nine ~~ ranging from 127 to 178 mm SL. 20 Flshbyle 20 15 , ..... 10 E ~ .r; o ­c C) "C.... C "C 20 c c CJ) - I~ 10 o M J A Fig. 2. Seasonally oscillating growth rurve of checkered puffer Splwaoides t~s!Udinals caughtoffBiscayne Bay, Florida_ Above:cu.rve superimposed on the length-frequency data (Targett 1979); note "doubling up" of the dataset and sample sizes (n =67, 66, _). Below: "restructUred" length­ frequency data, as computed and used internally by ELEFAN I. Dark histograms represent frequendes that are part of "peaks", open histograms represent "troughs" separating peaks (modified from Pauly and Ingles 1981). Results and Discussion of (mean monthly) SST in Biscayne Bay reach 7-8°C (Rivas 1968) and are thus sufficient to generate thc observed value of C (Fig. 3). Thecheckered pufferorturtle-headed globefish (Fig. Another neat feature of the growth curve in Fig. 2 is 1) has a broad distribution, ranging from the western its origin, which falls in late summer, Le., in the peak coast ofFlorida in the north, throughout the Caribbean spawning season, thus suggesting that to == O. nnd beyond Sao Paulo, Brazil, in the south (Shipp 1978; Publishedinformationon the growthoftclraodonlids Santos 1982).Some ofitscommonnamesare: "compere appears to be scarce, and Table 1 summarizes what I corotuche", "foufou sans piquant" in French; "pez could assemble on this subject. globo", "tambor'(, "xpu", "tamboril corrotucho" or Notethecloseness ofthe estimate of $' obtained here "tamboril rayado" in Spanish; and ''baiacu-mirim'' in for S. testudineus W =2.66) to the mean of the three $' Portuguese (Shipp 1978; Colmenero eta1. 1982; Guitart values W ='2.65) for S. maculatus and L. sceleratus, a , 1978; Santos 1982). species earlier included in the genus Sphoeroides The growthofS. testudineus inBiscayne Bay, Florida, (Halstead 1978). This contrasts strongly with the <1>' is described by the parametersSL_=25 cm (TL =30'cm), values for C. richei, otherwise similar to the other two K =0.51 yearl , C = 0.7, and WP =0.05 of the seasonally species in Table 2. oscillating version of the von Bertalanffy growth Notealsothestrongdiffererice ingrowthparameters equation (Paulyand Gaschiitz 1979; Somers 1988) (Fig. and growth performance between female and male 2). tetraodontids,with thefcmalcsgrowing''better'',inspitc As might be seen, the growth reduction in winter is oftheirstrongerproductionofgametes.Thisparadoxon substantial: C =0.7 correspqnds to a 70% reduction of is disC\Jssed in Pauly (1989). the growth rate that would have occurred had it not Table2presents variousinfonnationon S. testudineus, been for the seasonal oscillations (Pauly and Gaschiitz which is very abundant in lagoons and inshore wa ters 1979).On theotherhand,thesummer-winterdifferences of the Southern Gulf of Mexico (Yanez-Arancibia et a1. Augusl1991 21 • en C .Q 1.2 • • ;g • U en o 1.0 -----------------,• .t: I I ~ • • I 0. 0.8 I- Sphoeroldes o testudlQeus ~ I 0-6 r­ .. • ~ • en I • I o 0,4 • I -- I eu • I "0 I ::I I ;: 0.2 a. • I Fig. 3.Relations between the amplitude(0 ofseasonal E • I growth oscillations in fish, penaeid shrimp, and squid ~ I I III and thesummer-wintertemperature dUference oftheir o 2 4 l5 8 10· 12 14 habitat. Values of C = >llmply a period of no growth, Difference between summer and winter not discussed here and which occurs only in tropical freshwater and high latitude habitats (modified from tem,:>erotures (OC) Longhurst and J'auly 1987). 1982; Colmenero etaI. 1982; GuiIIen etaI. 1985) and the Halstead, B.W. 1978. PoisonoU3 andvenomousmarine animals of the Caribbean Sea (Shipp 1978). This only emphasizes the world. Rev. ed.• The Darwin Press, Princeton, 1043 p. + 283 plates. general uselessness of this species and its equally toxic Laroche, J.L and}. Davis. 1973. Age, growth and reproduction of the relatives·, reputed, moreover, to make a certain partof northern puffer, Sphoeroides maculaoo. U.s. Fish. Bull. 71: 955­ man's anatomy a "frequent target of their attacks" 963. (Halstead 1978). Longhurst, A.R and D. Pauly. 1987. Ecology of tropical oceans. Academic Press, San Diego, California. Pauly, D. 1989. On thc sex of fish and the gender of scientists. NagiJ, References ICLARM Q. 12(2): 8-9. Pauly,D. and G.Gaschiilz.1979.Asimplemethod for fitting oscilia ting Beebe, W. and J. Tee-Van. 1928. The fishC9 of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, length growth data, with a program for pocket Cllculators. with a summaryoftheknownspecies ofmarinefish ofthe Island International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Coundl of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Zoologica 10: 1-279. Meeting 1979/G:24. Demersal Fish CUee. 26 p. Br~ta, F. 1939. Contribution i\ l'~tude des poissons v~n~neux. Bull Pauly, D. and J. Ingles. 1981. Aspects of the growth and mortality of Lab. Maritime Dinard 12(21): 5-52- exploited coral reef fishes, p. 89-98. In E. Gomez, c.E. Birkeland, Chan,E.H.and H.C. wew.1986.Astudyon tropicalspecies <Malaysia). R.W. Buddemeyer, R.E. Johannes, J.A. Marsh and R.T. Tsude Report to theInternational Development Research Centre,IDRC (eds.) Prcx:eedings of the Fourth International Coral Reef 3-A-83-1905, Singapore. 64 p. Symposium. Vol. 1. Manila, Philippines. Colmenero, L.M., A. Yai'lez-Arancibia and F. Amezcua Linares. 1982­ Pauly, D. and J.L Munro. 1984.Oncemore on growth comparisons in Taxonomia,biologiay ecxllogia delos tetraodontid09de1a La guna fish and invertebrates. Fishbyte 2{l): 21. de Terminos, sur del Golfo de Mexiro (Pisces, Tetraodontidae).
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