Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 47 (08), August 2018, pp. 1594-1600 New distributional record of Halieutaea Indica (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae) from Chilika lagoon, India Debasish Mahapatro1, R.C. Panigrahy1, Sudarsan Panda2, Subodh K. Karna3, R.K. Mishra4, S.S. Mishra5 & S.K. Mohanty6 1Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University, Berhampur-760007, Odisha, India 2Regional CCF, Angul-759143, Odisha, India 3CIFRI, Barrackpore, West Bengal, India 4National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), MoES, Goa- 403804, India 5Marine Fish Section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata-700016, India 6Fishery Consultant, Chilika Development Authority, Bhubaneswar, India [E. Mail: [email protected]] Received 08 August 2016; revised 24 January 2017 The present study provides the first occurrence report of Indian hand fish, Halieutaea indica Annandale & Jenkins, 1910 from Outer Channel of the Chilika Lagoon. This bathy-demersal species is now the only member of the order Lophiiformes known to occur in this brackish water ecosystem. Its incidence for the first time in the Chilika may be attributed to change in the lagoon habitat after the opening of new lagoonal inlets, that subsequently accommodating newer species. This species is a pure marine form and might have entered the lagoon during the higher salinity phase in the lagoon. Present study further described the gut content of Halieutaea indica that comprised of benthic crab, prawn, amphipoda and free-living nematodes. [Keywords: Indian hand fish, Ramsar site, bathydemersal, taxonomic classification, gut content, esca] Introduction central sector with brackish water condition, southern Fishes belonging to the order Lophiiformes sector with marine to brackish water condition and outer comprised of a wide range of organisms having channel area is entirely of marine region, as it is different body morphology with an extensive connected to the sea with couple of inlets4,5. Thus, assortment of adaptation and distribution throughout fishery resource of the Chilika mostly depend up on the world, which are accommodated in 18 families1. coastal marine forms, as most of the fishes enter the The family Ogcocephalidae contains about 75 species lagoonal water from the Bay of Bengal 4,5. During the belonging to 10 genera2 of which Indian waters are last few decades, the lake has faced much pressure from known to have only 11 species in 6 genera, viz., Coelophrys (1 sp.), Dibranchus (1 sp.), Halicmetus (1 sp.), Halieutaea (5 spp.), Halieutopsis (1 sp.) and Malthopsis (2 spp.)3. Chilika Lagoon (19° 28’-19° 54’N and 85° 05’-85° 38’ E) is located on the east coast of India adjoining to the Bay of Bengal (Figure 1). This is the largest brackish water coastal ecosystem in Asia and second largest in the world. It is designated as a Ramsar site during 1981. This unique ecosystem is very rich in floral and faunal resources that provides vast support to the socio-economic status of fisher folks through capture fisheries and tourism. This lagoon has unique assemblage in the four Fig. 1 — Map showing India, Odisha, Chilika lagoon and different ecotones such as northern freshwater sector, specimen observation point (red dot). MAHAPATRO et al.: DISTRIBUTIONAL OF HALIEUTAEA INDICA 1595 the natural disturbances. Consequently, the lake inlet spines four rooted, at the edge of the disk they project was closed and a new natural inlet was dredged to open freely and accompanied by delicate cuticular during 23rd September 2000 4,5. Afterwards, two more processes; the anterior extremity of the roof of the inlets opened naturally thereby providing a suitable tentacular cavity contains a movable luring structure, habitat for the congregation of an array of species. bi-lobed inferiorly and a median lobe located The biodiversity of fishes in Chilika were superiorly at the end of illicium trilobite just above studied well and documented beginning with that of the mouth; mouth horizontal often arched, jaws B.L. Chaudhuri6. Many authors have contributed immovable; blunt teeth in the jaws, palatine and considerably to the faunal study of this lake. The vomerine teeth to crush the hard shell of invertebrate; occurrence of any species belonging to the family eye colour blue, of moderate size, visible in dorsal Ogcocephalidae has not been reported till date,7,8,9,10. view but directed antero-dorsally; width of the eye The present study describes the first record of an about equal to the interorbital space. Upper surface of Ogcocephalid member from Chilika Lagoon with the body bright red in colour, hard, rough and full morphometric and meristic characters have been with macroscopic spines but ventral side white in delineated. colour, very soft and also contained with microscopic spines; few dark red patches found in the ventral side; Materials and methods pectoral fins longer than the pelvic fins, that located On a routine survey in the Outer channel region of much anterior to the pectorals13,14,15,16. Chilika Lagoon, two specimens of unidentified fishes were collected from the shallow intertidal area of Colour Rambharatia region of the lagoon during March 2010. In live, the body colour was bright red to dark red The observed location is situated about seven on the surface and white on the base. In spirit the kilometres inside of the lagoon inlet. The average dorsal surface white, densely covered with very depth of the location “Rambharatia” was 2 (range 1.2 minute black dots, which are grouped together in to 4 metre) and the mean salinity was almost 27 psu places to form thin lines and reticulated patterns. (range 25 to 34 psu). The specimens were collected Ventral surface is white (somewhat translucent) with and preserved in 10% formaldehyde solution and kept scattered minute black and opaque with white dots. in laboratory for proper identification. The species Pectoral fins are colourless, caudal fin clouded with level identification was confirmed by following gray, occasionally with white, vertical bands. Colour relevant literature11,12,13 and FishBase 14. After of dorsal surface of living specimens is pink. After proper identification, the morphometric and meristic preservation the surface showed a combination of dark gray patches with fade white colour, the base characters are recorded and presented in Table 1. 13,14,15,16 The photographic evidences were taken as well as white with black opaque patches . steps are taken to understand the composition of the After analysing all these features, the collected gut content since no information through published specimen is identified as Halieutaea indica Annandale literature found till date. The specimens are with the & Jenkins 1910 (Figure 3 a & b, Table 1). This first author as Ph.D. collections. species is also known as Indian hand fish and this belong to the following taxonomic classification: Results and Discussion Class- Actinopterygii Identification Order- Lophiiformes The observed specimen (Fig. 2, Fig. 3a &b, Family- Ogcocephalidae Gill, 1893 Table 1) has the following morphological features: Genus- Halieutaea Valenciennes, 1837 head is disc shaped dorso-ventrally flattened; with a Species-Halieutaea indica Annandale & Jenkins, conspicuous cavity in front; tail excluding the caudal 1910 (Figure 2, Figure 3a &b) fin; from 1/4 to 1/3 length of disk; caudal fin is longer Feeding habit than the tail; occasionally of the same length; length The feeding habit of Halieutaea indica usually and width of disk measured almost equal; dorsal includes the benthic invertebrates14, but no specific surface covered with numerous strong sub-equal information is available. It’s mouth is specialized to spines; margin of the head region contains trifid crush the hard shells of mollusc and exoskeleton of spines; spines of the tail region bifid and spines over crustaceans since two pair of vomerine teeth are the body surface single but not bifurcated; most of the strategically located upper and lower jaw in such a 1596 INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 47, NO. 08, AUGUST 2018 Table 1 — Comparison of morphometric and meristic characters of H. indica from different parts of India and Chilika Lagoon, Bay of Bengal Sl.no. Location Gulf of Kuchh, Chennai Coast Chilika lake Gujrat (Present study) Morphometric and Dash et al., 2013 Silambarasan et al., 2016 Specimen -1 Specimen-2 meristic characters 1 Total length 8.3 7.2 8.3 7.5 2 Dorsal fin length 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.5 3 Pectoral fin length 1.6 1.7 2.6 1.9 4 Pelvic fin length 1.5 1.3 1.3 0.8 5 Anal fin length 1.2 0.8 1.4 0.9 6 Caudal fin length 2 0.7 1.9 1.1 7 Inter orbital space 0.5 0.9 0.7 0.4 8 Eye diameter 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.5 9 Disc length 4.2 5.6 4.5 4.1 10 Disc width 5.5 5.9 5.5 5 11 Tail length 4.1 2.1 4.1 3.4 12 Mouth width 2.3 2.1 2.2 1.4 13 Tentacular cavity 1.6 0.6 width 14 Oral arrangements 11 11 below mouth 15 Width of gill opening 0.5 0.3 16 No. of spines over the 9 9 mouth 17 No. of large spine 5 5 over the mouth 18 Length of the median 0.5 0.3 spine over head 19 Width of luring 0.5 0.3 structure over head 20 Body colour dorsal (in Bright red with dark grey patches Bright red with dark Bright red with dark grey live) grey patches patches 21 Body colour ventral white or translucent with dark grey patches white or translucent white or translucent with dark (in live) with dark grey patches grey patches 22 Dorsal fin spine and 0+4 0+4 0+4 0+4 rays 23 Anal spine and rays 0+4 0+3 0+4 0+4 24 Pectoral fin spine and 0+8 0+7 0+8 0+8 rays 25 Caudal fin rays 8 8 8 manner that it can able to break the shells without inside the illicial cavity secrets some of the chemical more effort.