International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.40, 386-393
386
Research Article Open Access
Relationships between Fish and Otolith Size of the Blackspot Snapper
Lutjanus
ehrenbergii
(Peters, 1869) Collected from the Coast of Muscat City, Sea of
Omans
Haitham K. Al-Busaidi
1
, Laith A. Jawad
2
, Abdullah H. Al-Balushi
1
1 Oman Animal & Plant Genetic Resources Centre (OAPGRC), Scientific Research Council, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
2 Flat Bush, Manukau, Auckland 2016, New Zealand
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.40 doi
Received: 10 Aug., 2017
Accepted: 04 Sep., 2017
Published: 13 Oct., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Al-Busaidi et al., 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:
Al-Busaidi H.K., Jawad L.A., and Al-Balushi A.H., 2017, Relationships between fish and otolith size of the blackspot snapper
Lutjanus ehrenbergii
(Peters,
1869) collected from the coast of Muscat City, Sea of Omans, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(40): 386-393 (doi
Abstract
In studies of prey-predator relationships, population dynamics and ichthyo-archaeology, the fish otoliths are commonly
used to decide taxon, age and size of the teleost fishes. They can also be used to calculate the size of the prey. The relationships
between otolith measurements (length and width) and fish body proportions (head, total and standard lengths) were estimated for
blackspot snapper
Lutjanus ehrenbergii
collected from the Oman’s Sea, at Muscat City. Otolith length and width was shown to be
good indicators for the length of fish. Linear function offered the best fit for relations between otolith and fish body proportions.
Sizes of the left and right otoliths were found not be significantly different.
Keywords
Lutjanidae;
Lutjanus ehrenbergii
; Otolith size; Sea of Oman; Fish size
Introduction
For the studies of population dynamics and feeding habit studies, otoliths are frequently used to recognize fish
species and to assess their age and size (Viva et al., 2015). The predator consumption rates, biomass of the prey
consumed, and selectivity of a predator towards a specific size class of prey are sets of biological and ecological
information that usually used in the feeding studies. In getting such information, the original size of the ingested
prey needs to be estimated (Granadeiro and Silva, 2000; Watanabe et al., 2004; Battaglia et al., 2010). Otolith
measurements are usually used to rebuild the prey body size by linking the correlation between otolith length and
fish size (Templemann and Squires, 1956; Echeveria, 1987; Panfili et al., 2002).
The alleged proportionality between otolith growth and fish somatic (i.e. body) growth (Campana, 1990; Maceina
et al., 2007) has been the principal investigation tool for the purpose of reconstructing individual growth history,
which is well documented and has significant potential for the previous analysis of environmental impacts on
growth forms in populations (Campana, 2005; Maceina et al., 2007; Rypel, 2009). Implication on the relationships
between environmental causes and past growth in populations can be useful for extrapolating how populations
will react to future environmental variations (Rypel, 2009). Numerous previous studies have evaluated different
quantifiable approaches for describing this relationship and its accuracy for back-calculation of length-stage
(Campana, 1990; Francis, 1990; Secor et al., 1992; Perez and Munch, 2013). However, application may be
restricted in some cases by lack of methodological guidance for individual species (Maceina et al., 2007).
The blackspot snapper
L. ehrenbergii
is a marine species found in association with reefs and living at depth range
5-20 m (Lieske and Myers, 1994). It mainly distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Red Sea to East
Africa and to the east to the Solomon and Mariana Islands (Froese and Pauly, 2017). Adult members of this species
prefer shallow coastal areas and form large schools near freshwater run-offs, while juveniles inhabit intertidal
regions (Kuiter and Tonozuka, 2001). This species feeds on invertebrates and small fish (Fischer et al., 1990).
The aim of the present work is to estimate the relationship between otolith sizes (length and width) and fish length
