Some Biological Aspects of the Porв€™S Goatfish, (Family: Mullidae) From

Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research (2013) 39, 261–266

National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research

http://ees.elsevier.com/ejar www.sciencedirect.com

Some biological aspects of the Por’s goatﬁsh, (Family: Mullidae) from Tripoli Cost of Libya

M.A. El-Drawany *

Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Egypt

Received 10 October 2013; revised 14 November 2013; accepted 21 November 2013 Available online 28 December 2013

KEYWORDS Abstract The age, growth parameters, spawning season, sex ratio, length at first sexual maturity Age; and fecundity of Por’s goatfish (Upeneus pori – Mullidae) caught from Tripoli coast in the Southern Growth; Mediterranean Sea were investigated. Length–weight relationship; Females constitute about 51.9% of the species population in which the total fish length ranged Maturation; from 7.0 to 17.5 cm. The length–weight relationship for males and females were expressed as Fecundity W = 0.0107 · L2.99 and W = 0.01055 · L3.001, respectively. The age data derived from the scale readings were used to estimate the growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy growth equation.

The estimated parameters were: L1 = 211.5 mm, K = 0.2504 and t0 = 1.7073 for females, and L1 = 210.2 mm, K = 0.2724 and t0 = 1.4421 was for males. The maximum age was 5 years old and the 2-year age group dominated the U. pori population. It was found that, males and females matured at a total length of about 10 cm. The monthly variations of the gonado-somatic index indicated that the spawning occurred mainly between May and July. The fecundity–length relationship was expressed as F = 2.107\L3.579. ª 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

1. Introduction (Karachle et al., 2004; Golani et al., 2007). The Por’s goatfish, U. pori – Mullidae (Ben-Tuvia and Golani, 1989) was first Since 1869 Suez Canal connected the Red Sea to the Mediter- recorded in Iskenderun Bay (Turkey) by Kosswig (1950) as ranean and allowed the transformation of numerous Indo-Pa- Upenoides (= Upeneus) tragula. Since its initial detection as cific fish species into the Mediterranean (Golani, 1998; U. pori it is considered to be successfully established in the Kasapidis et al., 2007), including Por’s goatfish Upeneus pori Mediterranean Sea, especially off the coast of Israel by Golani (1994), Egypt by El Sayed (1994), Levantine Coast of Turkey by Gucu et al. (1994) and Lebanon by George and Athanasiou * Tel.: +20 1224409169. (1996). U. pori is also reported in Libyan (Ben-Abdallah et al., E-mail address: [email protected] 2004) and Tunisian coasts of Mediterranean Sea (Ben Souissi Peer review under responsibility of National Institute of Oceanography et al., 2005; Azzouz et al., 2010). and Fisheries. The Por’s goatfish is a subtropical species, distributed along the Western Indian Ocean from the Red Sea to Southern Oman (Ben-Tuvia and Golani, 1989). It is a commercially important Production and hosting by Elsevier demersal species, living mostly in sandy and muddy substrate

1687-4285 ª 2013 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejar.2013.11.003 262 M.A. El-Drawany to 50 m. depth and caught in large quantities by trawl in shal- (t0) is the theoretical age when fish is at zero total length. These low waters of 10–40 m (Cicek and Avsar, 2011). The species growth parameters were estimated by means of von Berta- was reported as some synonyms Upeneus asymmetricus, lanffy plot (Sparre and Venema, 1992). Upeneus tragula and Upeneus vittatus (Golani et al., 2002; Cicek The maximum fish age in the stock of U. pori is estimated and Avsar, 2011). Bingel et al. (1993) reported that the by using Pauly’s equation (1980) as follows: Lessepsian fish species as goatfish and lizardfish constitute the tmax ¼ 3=k þ t0 main catch of the trawl fishery in Mersin and Iskenderun Bay. Also, Golani and Ben-Tuvia (1995) showed that the where (tmax) is the longevity of the fishes in years, (k) is the Lessepsian fish migrants contribute greatly to the local Israel coefficient of growth in VBGE and t0 is the hypothetical value fisheries to the extent that it composed nearly half of the Israel of time at zero total fish length. trawl catch. Recently, El-Drawany (2012) showed that, the The sex and maturity stage of each specimen were deter- Lessepsian fish species such as U. pori and Upeneus moluccensis mined by visual and microscopic examination of the gonads. represent an important item in the commercial fishing along the The gonado-somatic index (GSI) was calculated monthly by Southern Mediterranean Coast of Libya. There are only very the equation: few attempts to describe the comprehensive biology and GSI ¼ Gonad weight=Gutted weight 100 ecology of Por’s goatfish. Most of the available information is on the distribution of the species except for a few studies of For fecundity estimation ovaries were cut longitudinally Golani and Galil (1991) who provided some information on and stored in Gilson’s fluid which also broke down the connec- its feeding habits. Golani (1994) dealt with the niche separation tive tissue in between ova. The egg number was designated by between colonizing and indigenous goatfishes of the using the gravimetric method described by Bagenal (1978). The Mediterranean Coast of Israel. Later on, Cicek et al. (2002) stud- data were analyzed by the least square analysis regression ied the population characteristics of Por’s goatfish inhabiting in using log10 transformations. Babadillimani Bight, Northeastern Mediterranean Turkey. The present work provides notification concerning the age 3. Results and size distribution, growth, sex ratio and reproduction of Por’s goatfish (U. pori) in the Tripoli Coast, in the Southern Mediterranean as a contribution to the management of the Off the 486 of Por’s Goatfish (U. pori) specimens obtained fishery exploiting these stocks. from Mediterranean Sea at Tripoli coasts of Libya, 252 were females (51.9%) and 234 males (48.1%). Total length of the 2. Materials and methods specimens ranged from 7.0 to 17.5 cm whereas total weight of the specimens varied between 4.86 and 57.90 g. A total of 486 Por’s goatfish specimens were caught by trawl surveys performed between June 2007 and May 2008. 3.1 Growth in length Age was determined by counting the annual rings on the scales using micrometer eye pice. The body length–scale radius The relationship between the scale radii and the total fish relationship was determined using the least square method. lengths of U. pori proved to be linear as represented by the fol- The back calculated lengths at the end of each year of life were lowing equation: obtained by using Lee’s equation (Lee, 1920) L ¼ 16:9510 þ 14:0489 Sn¼ 486 r ¼ 0:998 and r2 ¼ 0:996 Ln ¼ SnðÞL a =S þ a From this equation the calculated lengths at the end of where (Ln) is the calculated lengths at the end of (n) year, (L)is every year of life were computed by back calculations accord- the fish length, (Sn) is the distance from the scale focus to the ing to Lee’s formula (1920): successive annuli, (S) is the total scale radius and (a) is the intercept of the regression line on the (Y) axis. Ln ¼ SnðÞL 16:9510 =S þ 16:950 Length–weight relationship was obtained since the total The results indicated that the maximum life span of the weight of each fish specimen was given with a digital balance studied fish species is 10.27 years for females and 9.57 years to an accuracy of 0.01 g and total length was measured with for males. The observed lengths and growth increments of a precision of 0.01 cm. This relationship is usually expressed both sexes are presented in Tables 1 and 2. by the equation: The growth parameters calculated on the basis of von Ber- W ¼ aLb talanffy growth equation were: L ¼ 211:5mm; K ¼ 0:2504 and t ¼1:7073 for females and where (W) is the total body weight in g,(L) is total length in 1 0 cm; (a) is a coefficient related to body form and (b) is an exponent indicating isometric growth when it is equal to three L1 ¼ 210:2mm; K ¼ 0:2724 and t0 ¼1:4421 for males (Beverton and Holt, 1996). The calculated and observed total lengths at age data are Growth was expressed in terms of the von Bertalanffy presented in Table 3. The observed lengths and growth incre- equation (Beverton and Holt, 1957): ments of both sexes are similar at different year of life. U. pori ÀÁ ktðÞt0 attained more than 51% of its maximum size during the first Lt ¼ L1 1 e year of life (i.e. rapid growth occurs at the first year of life). whereas (L1) is the asymptotic total length, (Lt) is the total After the completion of the first year, the annual growth rate length at age (t), (k) is the growth curvature parameter and ranged between 1.4 and 3.7 cm. Some biological aspects of the Por’s goatfish, (Family: Mullidae) from Tripoli Cost of Libya 263

Table 1 Back calculated lengths at the end of each year of life of female U. pori from the Tripoli coast. Age group Mean number Observed length (mm) Back calculated lengths in mm 12345 I 40 104 90.7 II 93 130 89.2 124.5 III 64 143 90.4 123.2 139.1 IV 41 158 88.9 130.3 149.8 160.2 V 14 172 89.5 131.2 151.2 162.3 174.8 Average total 89.7 127.3 146.7 161.3 174.8 Increment 89.7 37.6 19.4 14.6 13.5 Increment % 51.3 21.6 11.1 8.4 7.0

Table 2 Back calculated length at the end of each year of life of male U. pori from the Tripoli coast. Age group Mean number Observed length (mm) Back calculated lengths in mm 12 3 4 5 I 42 102 90.8 II 89 129 90.5 123.7 III 57 146 91.2 121.9 140.8 IV 34 160 90.4 132.7 146.6 160.2 V 12 174 89.6 133.2 147.8 163.4 176.3 Average total 90.5 127.8 145.1 161.8 176.3 Increment 90.5 37.3 17.3 16.7 14.5 Increment % 51.3 21.2 9.81 9.5 8.2

Figure 2 Length–weight relationship of female of Upeneus pori. Figure 1 Length–weight relationship of male of Upeneus pori.

3.3 Sex ratio 3.2 Length–weight relationship The mean sex ratio around all the studied periods of female to The length–weight relationships were evaluated separately for male was 1.00:1.08. Almost all the monthly samples contained females and males of U. pori and presented in Figs. 1 and 2. more females than males as shown in Table 4. The exponent b demonstrated isometric growth. The equation for the relationship was 3.4 Age at sexual maturity W ¼ 0:01055 L3001 for females ðÞr ¼ 0:993 and Examination of the male and female maturity stages indicated W ¼ 0:01073 L2994 for males ðÞr ¼ 0:990 that females and males of U. pori matured at 10 and 10.2 cm 264 M.A. El-Drawany

Table 3 Total length at age values (mm) of The Por’s goatﬁsh U. pori from the Tripoli coast. Age Mean observed length Calculated (Von Bert.) Back calculated Groups Female Male Female Male Female Male I 104 102 104.1 102.2 89.7 90.5 II 130 129 127.9 127.8 127.3 127.8 III 143 146 146.4 147.5 146.7 145.1 IV 158 160 160.8 162.5 161.3 161.8 V 172 174 171.9 173.8 174.8 176.3

Table 4 Monthly variation in sex ratio of Upeneus pori from Tripoli coast. Months No. of Fish Male No. Female No. Ratio Male Female January 30 16 14 1 0.88 February 46 22 24 1 1.09 March 42 19 23 1 1.21 April 45 21 24 1 1.19 May 47 23 24 1 1.04 June 40 18 22 1 1.22 July 42 20 22 1 1.10 August 44 21 23 1 1.09 September 43 21 22 1 1.05 October 40 19 21 1 1.11 November 33 16 17 1 1.06 December 34 18 16 1 0.89 Total 486 234 252 1 1.08

Figure 4 Gonadosomatic index of both sexes of Upeneus pori.

3.5.2 Fecundity Figure 3 Length at first maturity of both sexes of Upeneus pori. In the present study, data analysis indicated that both absolute total length respectively (Fig. 3). These lengths correspond to and relative fecundity are significantly related to the total fish fish length by the end of the first year of its life. length as indicated by the following equations: Log F ¼ 0:3237 þ 3:579 log LrðÞ¼ 0:963 3.5 Reproduction A

3.5.1 Spawning season Log FR ¼ 0:3233 þ 2:575 log LrðÞ¼ 0:954 Monthly variations in GSI revealed that fish spawning occurs where F is absolute fecundity and L is the total fish length in June in this region of the Mediterranean sea, when the GSI (cm). Plots of fecundity–length data and the arithmetical form for both sexes reached its highest level (Fig. 4). of the relationship are shown in Fig. 5. Some biological aspects of the Por’s goatfish, (Family: Mullidae) from Tripoli Cost of Libya 265

(2002), Ismen (2006) in Babadillimani Bight and the Bay of Iskenderun, they reported that the first annulus of The Por’s goatfish is formed at a length of 9.2 cm and 7.7 cm, respectively. In the present investigation, the mean annual growth rate ranged between 1.4–3.7 cm for females and 1.5–3.7 for males. Growth was rapid in both sexes for the first year and declined gradually as the fish grew. However, Cicek et al. (2002) stated that the mean annual growth rate for the same species was about 3.1–1.5 cm, and 1.5–1.6 cm, for females and males respectively. While Ismen (2006) showed that the fish mean annual growth rate was about 1–3.2 cm for both sexes. The dif- ferences in growth rates might be attributed to different bio- ecological conditions. Saetre et al. (2002) and Cieck and Avsar (2011) stated that the major driving force in population fluctu- ation is recruitment variability year by year. The length–weight relationship of U. pori which is expressed as W ¼ 0:01073 L2:994, with r2 = 0.980 for male and W ¼ 0:01055 L3:001 with r2 = 0.986 for female (Figs. 1 and 2) indicated its isometric growth (b = 3.001 for females Figure 5 Relationship between absolute fecundity and total and b = 2.994 for males). However, others established that length of Upeneus pori r=0.963. the growth of U. pori in different regions of Mediterranean Sea was either isometric or positive allometric (Table 5). The von Bertalanffy growth parameters which were esti-

mated using scale readings were: L1 = 211.5 mm, 4. Discussion K = 0.2504 and t0 = 1.7073 for females and L1 = 210.2 mm, K = 0.2724 and t0 = 1.4421 for males. The passage of Lessepsian fish species to the Mediterranean has The values of these parameters are more similar as those re- affected the ecosystem balance of the species in the Mediterra- ported by Cicek et al. (2002) (L1 = 22.54 cm, K = 0.190, nean. Even though there are no sufficient studies conducted it is t0 = 1.69) in Mersin Bay and by those of Ismen (2006) in observed that the Lessepsian species which entered and rapidly Iskenderun Bay (L1 = 19.1 cm, K = 0.360, t0 = 0.812). colonized the Mediterranean competed with the indigenous The estimated parameters might vary according to regional species in terms of sharing the food and the habitat (Ismen, variations in ecological factors (Goncalves et al., 2003). 2006 and El-Drawany, 2012). Basusta et al. (2002) reported Female to male sex ratio was determined as 1.08:1.00 which that Por’s goatfish, which was previously misidentified as U. is in agreement with those of Cicek et al. (2002) who found asymmetricus (Torcu and Mater, 2000), was first observed in that female to male ratio in the Babadillimani bight in the the Northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey at the end northeastern Mediterranean was 0.95:1.0 and Ismen (2006) in of 1940’s (Kosswig, 1950). After that date, there has been a Iskenderun Bay for the same species was 1:1. noticeable increase in the catch of U. pori in the fishery along Monthly variation in GSI values revealed that this species the different coast of the Mediterranean. Ben Abdallah et al. spawn in June. Ismen (2006) reported that spawning of U. pori (2004) were the first to observe Por’s goatfish in the southern occurred after April while Cicek et al. (2002) stated that the Mediterranean coast of Libya. However, there are no precise spawning of the studied fish in the northeastern Mediterranean data for the annual catch of Por’s goatfish because the catch extends from March to August and the GSI values reached its of mullet always occurs without separation of species. maximum level in April. In the present study, total length of Por’s goatfish that var- The reproductive potential represented by fecundity is an ied between 7 and 17.5 cm is in agreement with the result of Is- important biological parameter and plays a significant role in men (2006) who recorded a total length of 7–17 cm in evaluating the commercial potentials of fish stocks Iskenderun Bay, the Eastern Mediterranean. The results of (Go´mez-Ma´rquez et al., 2003). The fecundity and its relation the growth rate of the studied fish reported in the present to female size make it possible to estimate the potential of investigation are in agreement with those of Cicek et al. egg output (Chondar, 1977) and the potential number of

Table 5 Estimated parameters of U. pori recorded by some other authors in different regions. Authors Regions Sex ab Tasßkavak and Bilecenog˘lu (2001) Eastern Mediterr. coasts of Turkey Combined 0.0051 3.256 Cicek et al. (2002) Mersin Bay Turkey Combined 0.0087 3.047 Ismen (2006) Iskenderun Bay Combined 0.0102 3.01 Cicek and Avsar (2011) Karats coasts of Iskenderun Bay Combined 0.0107 2.9487 Present study Tripoli coasts of Libya Female 0.01055 3.001 Male 0.01073 2.994 266 M.A. El-Drawany offspring in a season and reproductive capacity of fish stocks Golani, D., 1994. Niche separation between colonizing and indigenous (Qasim and Qayyum, 1963). goatfishes (Mullidae) of the Mediterranean coast of Israel. J. Fish According to the present study, it was found that fecundity is Biol. 45, 503–513. significantly related to length F =2.107L3.579 (r2 = 0.93) but its Golani, D., 1998. Distribution of Lessepsian migrants fish in the \ 2.575 Mediterranean. Ital. J. 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