Mugil Cephalus (Linnaeus, 1758)
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and for a world without hunger Aquaculture Department Cultured Aquatic Species Information Programme Mugil cephalus (Linnaeus, 1758) I. Identity V. Status And Trends a. Biological Features VI. Main Issues b. Images Gallery a. Responsible Aquaculture Practices II. Profile VII. References a. Historical Background a. Related Links b. Main Producer Countries c. Habitat And Biology III. Production a. Production Cycle b. Production Systems c. Diseases And Control Measures IV. Statistics a. Production Statistics b. Market And Trade Identity Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758 [Mugilidae] FAO Names: En - Flathead grey mullet, Fr - Mulet à grosse tête, Es - Pardete Biological features Body cilindrical, robust. Head broad, its width more than width of mouth cleft; adipose eyelid well developed, covering most of pupil; upper lip thin, without papillae, labial teeth of upper jaw small, straight, dense, usually in several rows; mouth cleft ending below posterior nostril. Two dorsal fins; the first with 4 spines; the second with 8-9 soft rays; origin of first dorsal fin nearer to snout tip than to caudal fin base; origin of second dorsal fin at vertical between a quarter and a half along anal fin base. Anal fin with 8 soft finrays. Pectoral fins with 16-19 rays; pectoral axillary about one-third length of fin. Pyloric caeca 2. Scales in leteral series 36-45. Colour back blue/green, flanks and belly pale or silvery; scales on back and flanks usually streaked to form longitudinal stripes; dark pectoral axillary blotch. View FAO FishFinder Species fact sheet Images gallery FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Collecting wild flathead grey mullet fry from the Mediterranean shore of Egypt Mugil cephalus nursery pond, near Port Said, Egypt Catch pond serving two nursery ponds Harvesting flathead grey mullet Profile Historical background Flathead grey mullet has been farmed for centuries in extensive and semi-intensive ponds in many countries. Subsistence farming in ponds and enclosures has been traditional in the Mediterranean region, South East Asia, Taiwan Province of China, Japan and Hawaii. Traditional vallicoltura methods employed for raising mullet are now advanced, especially in Italy. Flathead grey mullet is a very important aquaculture species in Egypt, where its farming has been traditional in the hosha system in the delta region for centuries. Since the early 1960s, flathead grey mullet has also been cultured in semi-intensive ponds with tilapia and carps in Egypt. In the Russian Federation mullet aquaculture has been practised in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions since 1930. This species was first introduced to be cultured with carp in Israel in 1957. In the Philippines, mullet has been raised with milkfish since 1953. The intensive culture of mullet in Hong Kong was successful in fertilized ponds with the traditional practice of carp polyculture since 1940. It has been reported that mullet have been farmed in India since ancient times; for example, it has been extensively cultured in Bengal, Madras and Kerala since 1947. However, does not report this in its statistical return to FAO; production is presumably 'hidden' within the category 'Osteichthyes'. Flathead grey mullet is also cultured in Korea and is considered as an important foodfish in the southwest region. In Taiwan Province of China, nearly 40 percent of the total commercial production (fisheries and aquaculture) of Mugil cephalus has been pond reared since the 1960s, being cultured with carp in ponds. In the United States of America, mullet has been cultured as bait fish since the 1940s. Small-scale trials of mullet vulture have been carried out in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Main producer countries Main producer countries of Mugil cephalus (FAO Fishery Statistics, 2006) Habitat and biology Mugil cephalus is cosmopolitan in the coastal waters of most tropical and subtropical zones. In the western Atlantic Ocean, it is found from Nova Scotia, Canada south to Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico. It is absent in the Bahamas and the Caribbean Sea. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the striped mullet occurs from the Bay of Biscay (France) to South Africa, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The eastern Pacific Ocean range includes southern California south to Chile. The flathead grey mullet is catadromous, frequently found coastally in estuaries and freshwater environments. Adult mullet have been found in waters ranging from zero salinity to 75‰, while juveniles can only tolerate such wide salinity ranges after they reach lengths of 4–7 cm. Adults form huge schools near the surface over sandy or muddy bottoms and dense vegetation and migrate offshore to spawn in large aggregations. The larvae move inshore to extremely shallow water, which provides cover from predators as well as a rich feeding ground. After reaching 5 cm in length, these young mullet move into slightly deeper waters. Flathead grey mullet is a diurnal feeder, consuming mainly zooplankton, dead plant matter, and detritus. Mullet have thick-walled gizzard-like segments in their stomach along with a long gastrointestinal tract that enables them to feed on detritus. They are an ecologically important link in the energy flow within estuarine communities. Feeding by sucking up the top layer of sediments, flathead grey mullet remove detritus and microalgae. They also pick up some sediment which functions to grind food in the gizzard-like portion of the stomach. Mullet also graze on epiphytes and epifauna from seagrasses as well as ingest surface scum containing microalgae at the air-water interface. Larval flathead grey mullet feed primarily on microcrustaceans. Copepods, mosquito larvae, and plant debris have been found in the stomach contents of larvae under 35 mm in length. The amount of sand and detritus in the stomach contents increases with length, indicating that more food is ingested from the bottom substrate as the fish matures. Trials on the artificial propagation of flathead grey mullet have been carried out, but most of the commercial aquaculture production of flathead grey mullet still depends on fry collected from the wild, which is cheaper. Production Production cycle FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Production cycle of Mugil cephalus Production systems Seed supply Most of the flathead grey mullet fry used in commercial aquaculture are collected from the wild, especially in the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean, Saudi Arabia and Gulf States and South East Asia. Seed produced through artificial propagation is used on a limited scale in Italy and Hawaii. During the autumn and winter months adults migrate to the sea in large aggregations to spawn. Fecundity is estimated as 0.5–2.0 million eggs per female, depending upon the adult size. Hatching occurs about 48 hours after fertilization, releasing larvae approximately 2.4 mm long. When the larvae are 16–20 mm, they migrate to inshore waters and estuaries, where they can be collected for aquacultural purposes during late August to early December. Shoals of fry are collected by fine seine nets, transported in seawater to hapas or shore aggregation tanks for a few hours. They are then transported by trucks to separate nursery units, or nursery facilities in grow-out farms. On arrival, they need to be acclimatized, especially in terms of salinity; this takes place over several hours, during which water from the nursery pond is gradually added and mixed with the transport water. Mortality rates of up to 100 percent can occur during the following two weeks if this process is neglected or not properly carried out before stocking fry into the nursery. Hatchery production Full-scale commercial production of Mugil cephalus is not yet common. Induced spawning and production of fry has been achieved on an experimental and semi-commercial basis in the United States of America and Taiwan Province of China, and the production of mullet fry on a limited scale for aquaculture has been reported in Italy, Israel and Egypt. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department In these systems large numbers of sexually mature individuals (over two years of age, 32–50 cm long and 1.0– 2.1 kg each) are kept under optimum environmental conditions with limited physical disturbance. Prior to spawning, fish are kept at 32–35‰ and 12–15 °C. Ripe fish are selected and placed in plastic or fibreglass tanks filled with seawater saturated with oxygen at a 2–3:1 male:female ratio shortly before spawning. Females are injected with regulated and successive doses (2–3 injections) of pituitary gonadotropin. Females spawn 12 hours after the last injection. Spawning is heralded by a violent quivering of the male, which liberates sperm as a response of the release of eggs. Eggs are produced at a rate of 650–850/g female body weight. Mullet eggs are spherical (880–980 µm) and transparent, with a smooth surface and a single large oil globule making the egg extremely buoyant. Eggs are carried with the overflow of water, sieved and transferred to incubation jars. Eggs are incubated at a temperature of 22–24 °C in seawater (30–32‰) saturated with oxygen. Hatching takes place after 50–64 hours. After hatching, the larvae are transferred to fibreglass indoor tanks and fed with live food (rotifers, and later with Artemia nauplii). Larvae are kept in indoor tanks for 14 days, and then transferred to larger tanks until they reach 10–2 mm before transport to outdoor nursery ponds. Nursery After acclimatization, fry are stocked in earthen nurseries at high densities (up to 125/m²), where they depend mainly on natural food. From 2.5 to 5.0 tonnes/ha of animal manure are added to the soil before filling with water; then chicken manure and chemical fertilizers (usually phosphate and nitrates) are added in suitable amounts on a weekly basis to keep secchi disc readings of 20–30 cm.