Abstract
Blunthead puffer Sphoeroides pachygaster (Müller and Troschel, 1848) is a circumglobally distributed Tetraodontid found in temperate and tropical waters. It is believed to have colonized the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. There are relatively few records of this fish in the Mediterranean Sea. On March 2020, a mature female individual was caught incidentally by a commercial fisher in Northern Cyprus. The fish was 520 mm in total length and 1200 grams in total weight. Detailed morphometrics and meristics were reported. This study is the first substantiated record of S. pachygaster from Cyprus waters, and the specimen is the largest blunthead puffer reported with a 455 mm standard length and 520 mm total length.
Highlights
Four genera of Tetraodontidae are found in the Mediterranean, which are Torquigener, Ephippion, Sphoeroides, and Lagocephalus (Golani, 1987, 1996; Reina-Hervás et al, 2004; Akyol et al, 2005; Corsini et al, 2005; Vacchi et al, 2007; Vella et al, 2017)
In the Mediterranean Sea, S. pachygaster was reported for the first time in 1979 in the waters of the Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean Basin (Oliver, 1981)
The global conservation status of S. pachygaster is reported as Least Concern in The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Shao et al, 2014)
Summary
Four genera of Tetraodontidae are found in the Mediterranean, which are Torquigener, Ephippion, Sphoeroides, and Lagocephalus (Golani, 1987, 1996; Reina-Hervás et al, 2004; Akyol et al, 2005; Corsini et al, 2005; Vacchi et al, 2007; Vella et al, 2017). The blunthead puffer, Sphoeroides pachygaster (Müller and Troschel, 1848), inhabits warm and tropical waters circumglobally and is distributed widely in the Atlantic Ocean (Sampaio et al, 2001), generally inhabiting the deep sea and found between depths of 50-480 m (Matasuura and Tyler, 1997). In the Mediterranean Sea, S. pachygaster was reported for the first time in 1979 in the waters of the Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean Basin (Oliver, 1981). The species was first reported for the Eastern Mediterranean Basin of Israel in 1991 (Golani, 1996). Two specimens of S. pachygaster were reported from the North Aegean Sea in 2003 (Eryılmaz et al, 2003), and its northernmost record was from Slovenia (Adriatic) in 2012. S. pachygaster is broadly distributed throughout the Mediterranean Basin according to the available literature given for this species. The presence of S. pachygaster in Cyprus was first reported in 2005 by Katsanevakis et al (2009)
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