Chrysoblephus puniceus, the slinger seabream, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sparidae, the seabreams and porgies. This species is found in the southwestern Indian Ocean where it is endemic to Southern Africa.
| Chrysoblephus puniceus | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Spariformes |
| Family: | Sparidae |
| Genus: | Chrysoblephus |
| Species: | C. puniceus
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| Binomial name | |
| Chrysoblephus puniceus (Gilchrist & W. W. Thompson, 1908)
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| Synonyms[2] | |
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Taxonomy edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus was first formally described as Chrysophrys puniceus in 1908 by the ichthyologists John Dow Fisher Gilchrist, a Scot, and William Wardlaw Thompson, a South African, with its type locality given as KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.[3] The genus Chrysoblephus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.[4] Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae,[5] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.[4]
Etymology edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus has the specific namepuniceus which means "reddish", an allusion to the pink colour of the body of this fish.[6]
Description edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus has its dorsal fin supported by 11 spines and 10 soft rays while the anal fin is supported by 3 spines and 8 soft rays. The body is deep and compressed and its depth fits into its standard length around twice. The dorsal profile of the headis very steep between the upper lip to the nape, with a ridge just in front of the dorsal fin. The overall colour of the body is reddish pink with bluish tints, the fins are pink and there is a slender blue bar below the eyes. There is a very small black spot at the origin of the pectoral fin.[7] The fslinger has a maximum published total length of 85 cm (33 in), although 55 cm (22 in) is more typical.[8]
Distribution and habitat edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus is found in the southwestern Indian Ocean where it occurs from southern Mozambique to Algoa Bay in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, and off southern Madagascar.[7] It is found at deoths between 10 and 130 m (33 and 427 ft) on offshore rockyreefs. Juveniles prefer shallower waters than adults.[1]
Biology edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus is the only protogynous hermaphrodite in the Natal area,[9] with females becoming male at approximately 5 years[1] or 38 cm.[10] Subsequently, these now-male individuals can often grow to 55 cm in length.[11] In theory, this reproductive system leads to most offspring being fathered by just a few individuals, which would lead to decreased genetic diversity and inbreeding depression. However, comparisons with the ecologically similar (but gonochoric) santer sea bream indicate similar levels of genetic diversity and effective population size over historic timescales.[12]
The slinger is an opportunistic predator which as an adult preys mainly on benthic crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms while the juveniles prey on small benthic crustaceans such as decapods, amphipods, copepods, and mysids, they also prey on crinoids, brittle stars and sea urchins. Adults are mainly resident but there is evidence that juveniles are migratory, moving northwards from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal and southern Mozambique.[1]
Fisheries edit
Chrysoblephus puniceus is an important commercial species, making up 25-50% of the total commercial catch in KwaZulu-Natal.[13] Because large individuals are targeted by commercial fishing, and the only males are large, there was growing concern that the stock could be wiped out in the early 1990s,[14] and indeed the stock was severely depleted by fishing by the late 1990s, but has since shown a 30% recovery in biomass.[15]
References edit
- ^ a b c d Mann, B.Q.; Buxton, C.D.; Russell, B.; Pollard, D. & Carpenter, K.E. (2014). "Chrysoblephus puniceus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014: e.T170259A1303743. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T170259A1303743.en. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
- ^ Froese, R. & D. Pauly (2016). Bailly N (ed.). "Chrysoblephus puniceus (Valenciennes, 1830)". FishBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
- ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Chrysoblephus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ a b Nelson, J.S.; Grande, T.C.; Wilson, M.V.H. (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 502–506. doi:10.1002/9781119174844. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. LCCN 2015037522. OCLC 951899884. OL 25909650M.
- ^ Parenti, P. (2019). "An annotated checklist of the fishes of the family Sparidae". FishTaxa. 4 (2): 47–98.
- ^ "Order SPARIFORMES: Families LETHRINIDAE, NEMIPTERIDAE and SPARIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. 22 December 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
- ^ a b Yukio Iwatsuki and Phillip C Heemstra (2022). "Family Sparidae". In Phillip C Heemstra; Elaine Heemstra; David A Ebert; Wouter Holleman; and John E Randall (eds.). Coastal Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean (PDF). Vol. 3. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. pp. 284–315. ISBN 978-1-990951-32-9.
- ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2023). "Chrysoblephus lophus" in FishBase. October 2023 version.
- ^ Garratt, Patrick Ashworth (1 January 1993). "Comparative aspects of the reproductive biology of seabreams (Pisces: Sparidae)". AGRIS: International Information System for the Agricultural Science and Technology. Archived from the original on 6 January 2017.
- ^ Allsop, D.J. & S.A. West (2003). "Constant relative age and size at sex change for sequentially hermaphroditic fish". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 16: 921–929.
- ^ Bauchot, M.-L. and M.M. Smith (1984). "Sparidae". In W. Fischer and G. Bianchi (eds.). Western Indian Ocean (Fishing Area 51). FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. Vol. 4. Rome: FAO.
- ^ Coscia, I; Chopelet, J; Waples, R S; Mann, B Q; Mariani, S (10 August 2016). "Sex change and effective population size: implications for population genetic studies in marine fish". Heredity. 117 (4): 251–258. doi:10.1038/hdy.2016.50. PMC 5026757. PMID 27507184.
- ^ Mann, B.Q.; Beckley, L.E.; and R.P. van der Elst (1997). "Evaluation of linefishery participation and management along the KwaZulu-Natal coast". Oceanographic Research Institute Unpublished Report (134).
- ^ Punt, A. E.; Garratt, P. A. & Govender, A. (1993). "On an approach for applying per-recruit methods to a protogynous hermaphrodite, with an illustration for the slinger Chrysoblephus puniceus (Pisces: Sparidae)". South African Journal of Marine Science. 13 (1): 109–119.
- ^ Winker, H.; Kerwath, S.E.; and Attwood, C.G (2012). Report on stock assessments of important South African linefish resources (Report). Cape Town: Linefish Scientific Working Group.