Records of new and rare alien fish in North African waters: the burrowing goby Trypauchen vagina (Bloch and Schneider, 1801) and the bartail flathead Platycephalus indicus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Egypt and the cobia Rachycentron canadum (Linnaeus, 1766) in Libya

Ola Mohamed Nour,Maria Corsini-Foka,Bruno Zava,Alan Deidun,Sara Al Mabruk

doi:10.3391/bir.2021.10.4.16

Ola Mohamed Nour, Maria Corsini-Foka + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2021.10.4.16

Copy DOI

Abstract

Highlights

Eleven non-indigenous gobiids have been reported to date in the Mediterranean (Engin et al 2018; Kovačić 2020), among which T. vagina, a species with a broad Indo-West Pacific distribution which, still officially unrecorded from the Red Sea, is listed among the fishes introduced into the Levantine Sea via the Suez Canal (Golani et al 2013; Galil et al 2020)
The first record of T. vagina for Mediterranean Egyptian waters and for North African waters documented through the current study, adds a fifth Lessepsian gobiid to the four already known in Egypt, namely Coryogalops ochetica (Norman, 1927), Favonigobius melanobranchus (Fowler, 1934), Oxyurichthys petersi (Klunzinger, 1871), Silhouettea aegyptia (Chabanaud, 1933) (Golani 2010; Akel and Karachle 2017; Galil et al 2020)
It is unknown whether T. vagina was either already present within the same region and was unreported until now, or whether it has recently expanded its distribution to this area, which is located relatively close to the Suez Canal

Summary

Introduction

Concerning Lessepsian migrant fish (see Golani 2010), more than one hundred species have been recorded to date from the Mediterranean and many of these have successfully colonized the waters of the eastern. More than 60 Lessepsian migrant fish species have been recorded to date from Mediterranean Egyptian waters (Al Mabruk et al 2021a and references therein; Deef 2021) and at least 29 from Libyan waters (Shakman et al 2019; Al Mabruk and Rizgalla 2019; Bariche et al 2020; Osca et al 2020; Abdelghani et al 2021; Al Mabruk et al 2021b). The first record of the gobiid Trypauchen vagina (Bloch and Schneider, 1801) for Mediterranean Egyptian waters and the first record of Rachycentron canadum (Linnaeus, 1766) from Libya are documented, contributing to current knowledge on the expansion of these two Lessepsian fish species west of the Suez Canal. The finding of a third Lessepsian fish species—Platycephalus indicus (Linnaeus, 1758)— far from its known distribution within Egyptian waters is described, and this could corroborate a successful establishment in the area of the same fish species, previously considered uncommon

Methods

Results

Conclusion