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First record of ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernuus (Percidae), in the , Adriatic drainage system of and

by

Jakov DUL¸I¶ (1), Branko GLAMUZINA (2) & Pero TUTMAN (1)

RÉSUMÉ. - Premier signalement de la grémille, Gymnocephalus N cernuus (Percidae), dans le marais de Hutovo Blato, système de Hutovo E Blato drainage adriatique de Bosnie-Herzégovine. W BiH S Le 23 mars 2000, deux Gymnocephalus cernuus ont été captu- rés dans le marais de Hutovo Blato (lac Deran). Cette capture est la première pour le système hydrographique adriatique de la Bosnie- Herzégovine et, jusqu’à présent, la plus septentrionale pour cette espèce en Europe. Jelim Key words. - Percidae - Gymnocephalus cernuus - MED - Adriatic Lake Drijen drainage system - First record. River Neretva River Lake Orah Lake Deran Ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernuus (Linnaeus, 1758), is a demersal freshwater and brackish species. It inhabits , quiet pools and Croatia Donje Blato Londza margins of streams preferring deep water (to 10 m) with deposits of Stream Adriatic Sea sand and gravel. This species is distributed in Europe from France BiH to eastern Siberia and to Kolyma River (Kottelat, 1997) and it is recently established in lakes in USA, Lake Superior (Slade and Italy Border of the Natural Park Kindt, 1992) and Lake Huron (Ogle, 1998) and Scotland with of Hutovo Blato adverse ecological impacts after introduction (Maitland et al., 1983). Ruffe has also been introduced to several European water Figure 2. - Location of the Natural park Hutovo Blato. [Localisa- tion du parc national de Hutovo Blato.] bodies outside of its native range in Italy, North Wales, England, Norway, Germany, France, Switzerland and Croatia (Gerstmaier and Romig, 1998). It is native to all of Europe except for along the ture was 11.3°C. The specimens were identified according to Vuko- Mediterranean, western France, Spain, Portugal, parts of Scandina- vi¢ (1977). The Hutovo Blato wetland is one of the most important via, and parts of Great Britain (Kottelat, 1997). The present contri- parts of the Neretva River delta in . This bution describes the first record of the ruffe in the Hutovo Blato park area (74 km2) (Fig. 2) is situated 20 km inland from the Adri- wetland (Adriatic drainage system of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and atic Sea, along the frontier between Bosnia and Herzegovina and according to that the southernmost record in Europe. Croatia. On 23 March 2000, two specimens of ruffe (specimen 1: total length TL = 110 mm, weight W = 26.2 g; specimen 2: TL = 114 mm, W = 23.3 g) (Fig. 1) were captured by trammel net (mesh size 18/20 mm) in the Hutovo Blato wetland (Lake Deran) (Fig. 2) at a DESCRIPTION OF HUTOVO BLATO SPECIMENS depth of 1 m at muddy bottom. The specimens were deposited in Morphometric and meristic characters are presented in table I. the ichthyological collection of the Institute of oceanography and All counts, measurements and descriptions are comparable with in Split (catalogue number IOR 300). The water tempera- those of Vukovi¢ (1977). Dorsal fins are fused. It has large spiny dorsal and anal fins. It has slightly down turned mouth and lack of the scales on its head. Colour is olive brown on the back with dark spots and pale sides. Gymnocephalus cernuus was previously recorded, as Acerina cernua (Linnaeus, 1758), in the Black Sea drainage system of Bos- nia and Herzegovina (Vukovi¢, 1977). Ruffe was described as pro- lific breeder, aggressive feeder and inter- and intraspecific competi- tor (Ogle, 1998; Adams and Maitland, 1998; Selgeby, 1998). Its Figure 1. - Gymnocephalus cernuus (110 mm TL) from Hutovo discriminate requirements and selected life history traits Blato, Bosnia and Herzegovina. [Gymnocephalus cernuus (110 mm have been conducive to invasion. Control of the spread of the ruffe TL) du Parc national de Hutovo Blato, Bosnie-Herzégovine.] should be considered as a high priority in such a sensitive ecosys-

(1) Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, PO Box 500, 21000 Split, CROATIA. [[email protected]] (2) University of , Aquaculture Department, ¶ira Cari¢a 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, CROATIA. [[email protected]]

Cybium 2005, 29(2): 205-206. First record of Gymnocephalus cernuus in Adriatic drainage system DUL¸I¶ e t a l .

Table I. - Morphometric measurements (in mm) and meristic counts Acknowledgements. - We are thankful to Nikola Zovko (Head of of Gymnocephalus cernuus from the Hutovo Blato. [Caractéristi- the Natural Park Hutovo Blato) for his support in investigation. ques morphométriques (en mm) et méristiques des deux Gymnoce- phalus cernuus capturés dans le Parc naturel de Hutovo Blato.] Parameter Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Total length (TL) 110 114 REFERENCES Standard length (SL) 101 97 Predorsal length (Lpd) 35 31 ADAMS C.E. & P.S. MAITLAND, 1998. - The ruffe population in Preanal length (Lpa) 65 63 Loch Lomond, Scotland: Its introduction, population expan- sion, and interaction with native species. J. Great Lakes Res., Preventral length (Lpv) 36 34 24: 249-262. Prepectoral length (Lpp) 32 33 GERSTMAIER R. & M. ROMIG, 1998. - Die Süßwasserfische Dorsal fin length (Ld) 54 51 Europas: für Naturfreunde und Angler. 368 p. Stuttgart: Anal fin length (La) 12 15 Franckh-Kosmos Verlag. GLAMUZINA B., TUTMAN P., BUNTI¶ I., BARTULOVI¶ V. & Pectoral fin length (Lp) 20 21 A. CONIDES, 2002. - Qualitative composition of ichthyofauna Ventral fin length (Lv) 22 25 of wetland Hutovo Blato. In: Project LIFETCY 1999/BIH035 Caudal fin length (Lc) 21 23 (Bunti¢ I., ed.), pp. 38-44. : Ministarstvo graditeljstva, prostornog ure∂enja i za≈tite okoli≈a HN∏-K. [in Croatian] Max. body depth (Tmax) 23 28 KOTTELAT M., 1997. - European freshwater .Biologia , 52 Min. body depth (Tmin) 8 10 (Suppl. 5): 1-271. Head length (H) 27 28 MAITLAND P.S., EAST K. & K.H. MORRIS, 1983. - Ruffe Gym- Eye diameter (hor.) (O) 8 8 nocephalus cernua, new to Scotland, in Loch Lomond. Scott. Natur., 1983: 7-9. Interorbital length (Io) 6 6 OGLE D.H., 1998. - A synopsis of the biology and life history of Preorbital length (Po) 8 10 ruffe. J. Great Lakes Res., 24: 170-185. Dorsal fin rays (D)XII, 12 XIV, 12 SELGEBY J., 1998. - Predation by ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus) Anal fin rays (A) II, 5 II, 6 on eggs in Lake Superior. J. Great Lakes Res., 24: 304- 308. Pectoral fin rays (P) 12 13 SLADE J. & K. KINDT, 1992. - Surveillance for ruffe in the upper Ventral fin rays (V) I, 5 I, 5 Great Lakes, 1992. Completion report. 8 p. Ashland Wisconsin: Caudal fin rays (C) 18 18 USFWS Resources Office. Lateral line (scales) 37 38 TUTMAN P., GLAMUZINA B., BARTULOVI¶ V. & I. BUNTI¶, Gill rakers (total) 12 12 2002. - Endemic ichthyofauna of wetland Hutovo Blato. In: Project LIFETCY 1999/BIH035 (Bunti¢ I., ed.), pp. 45-48. Mostar: Ministarstvo graditeljstva, prostornog ure∂enja i za≈tite okoli≈a HN∏-K. [in Croatian] tem like Hutovo Blato wetland. Ichthyofauna of Hutovo Blato is VUKOVI¶ T., 1977. - Fishes of the Bosnia and Herzegovina. very specific since out of the 22 species recorded (Glamuzinaet al., 197 p. : IGKRO Svjetlost. 2002) eight are endemic (Tutman et al., 2002) and there is a high possibility that ruffe could affect some of them (Kottelat, 1997). There is also a high possibility that ruffe enters the waters of Neret- va River and affects its estuarine ichthyofauna as already reported for the pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus in the same area (Zovko, Reçu le 10 juin 2004. pers. comm.). Accepté pour publication le 17 septembre 2004.

206 Cybium 2005, 29(2)