International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.32, 308-315
308
Research Article Open Access
First Record of Abnormal Body Coloration in Fishes Obtained from Jubail Area,
Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia
Laith A. Jawad
1
, Mustafa Ibrahim
2
1 Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand
2 Ministry of Agriculture, Fish Welfare Branch, El-Jubail Province, Saudia Arabia
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.32 doi
Received: 21 Jul., 2017
Accepted: 14 Aug., 2017
Published: 25 Aug., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Jawad and Ibrahim, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Jawad L.A., and Ibrahim M., 2017, First record of abnormal body coloration in fishes obtained from Jubail Area, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, International
Journal of Marine Science, 7(32): 308-315 (doi
Abstract
Three specimens of the family Epinephelidae and two specimens of the family Haemulidae with abnormal coloration,
were obtained from Jubail City, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf coast. The
epaulet grouper
Epinephelus stoliczkae
specimens were
obtained from the fish market at Jubail City originated from Sultanate of Oman, while the two haemulid species,
Plectorhinchus
stoliczkae
and
P. sordidus
were
collected from the Saudi Arabian waters of the Arabian Gulf at Jubail City. These are the first
documented cases of color aberration in those species. A description of the color anomalies is provided.
Keywords
Aberration;
Ambicoloration; Epaulet grouper
; Sordid thicklip;
Whitebarred rubberlip
; Pigmentation; Oman
Introduction
Different types of abnormalities including those of the color were documented on several species of fishes since
the works of Dawson (1964; 1966; 1971) (Macieira et al., 2006; Simon et al., 2009). Malpigmentation in fishes
generally occurs as either a deficiency (albinism or hypomelanosis) or an excess (melanism or hypermelanosis) of
pigmentation (Simon et al., 2009; Jawad et al., 2013). Xanthism or xanthochroism is a certain form of
hypomelanism, where the bright yellow or orange body coloration became prevailing (Carson, 2011; Lewand et
al., 2013). Economically, any changes in the normal coloration of the fish will have a negative marketing impacts
impact as it can discourage the customer from buying and on the survival of the fish in the environment (Heemstra
and Randall, 1993). Malpigmentation in teleosts has been widely studied in Pleuronectiform fishes in relation to
developing asymmetry (Matsumoto and Seikai, 1992; Venizelos and Benetti, 1999; Barton, 2010), but it has been
also noticed in other fish groups in the wild but to a lesser extent (Deynat, 2003; Feitoza et al., 2003; Brito and
Caramasch, 2005; Sampaio et al., 2006; Jawad et al., 2013).
The whitebarred rubberlip
Plectorhinchus playfairi
is a marine species found living in the reef’s area at depth range
from surface down to 80 m (Smith and McKay, 1986). It distributed in the western Indian Ocean from the Red Sea
in the north and southward to eastern coasts of South Africa and Madagascar including Saudi Arabia (Randall, 1995;
Jawad and Ibrahim, 2014). This species is characterised in having body with black color in general, with white
vertical bars running across (Lieske and Myers, 1994).
The epaulet grouper
Epinephelus stoliczkae
is a marine species inhabits coral reef’s areas at depth range 5-50 m.
This species is distinguished in its coloration among the other species of the genus
Epinephelus
. The head and body
are yellow to grey, with dark orange spots except ventrally and posteriorly. Presence of dark grey bars below the
posterior part of the dorsal fin. The distribution of this species is confined to the Red Sea, north of the Arabian Sea
and the Sea of Oman (Craig et al., 2011).
Jawad and Al-Mamry (2009), Jawad and AL-Kharusi (2013), Jawad et al. (2013) and Jawad and Ibrahim (2014)
were the only works have been performed on the color aberration in fishes from the Arabian Gulf and the Sea of
Oman areas. No previous studies on ambicoloration of
P.
playfairi
have been done in these areas before. For
E.
stoliczkae
, this is the 2
nd
report on color aberration. Jawad and Al-Kharusi (2013) reported on color anomalies in
this species from Sea of Oman. Therefore, the result of the present study is considered the first record of color
