Trichiurus Lepturus Linnaeus Research Articles

Fishery and biology of cutlass fishes from Indian seas with special reference to the largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 - A review

Cutlass fishes of the family Trichiuridae form an important group in the commercial fishery in India, contributing >7% to the pelagic marine fish landings of the country during 2018-19. The largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 forms a significant component of marine fish landings in India and several studies have reported its length-weight relationship, growth patterns, sex ratio, population parameters and stock status. Age and growth of T. lepturus were reported by the authors mostly using inverse interpolation of von Bertalanffy growth equation and ageing using hard parts is desirable to validate these observations. The present review highlights the importance of applying uniform methodologies for creating fisheries biology databases and timely publication of stock assessment results. Focussed utilisation of fisheries biology databases of commercially important fishery resources, including cutlass fishes using meta-analyses to validate and base fisheries management decisions should be considered. Keywords: Age and growth, Condition factor, Length-weight relationship, Population parameters, Ribbonfishes, Stock assessment, Trichiuridae

Diet composition and feeding behavior of largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus 1758 along the Eastern Arabian Sea and Western Bay of Bengal

Diet composition and feeding behavior of largehead hairtail Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus 1758 along the Eastern Arabian Sea and Western Bay of Bengal

Length-based estimates of growth parameters and mortality rates of fish populations from a coastal zone in the Southeastern Brazil

Small-scale fisheries in Brazil contribute to a significant share of total fish production, accessing a large variety of species. Life history parameters from these resources are important for their management and conservation, based on primary data. The objective of this article is to generate growth parameters and mortality rates of ten fish populations from a coastal zone in Southeastern Brazil. Monthly samples were taken between January 2011 and November 2014 from landings of the beach-seine fishery in an area adjacent to the entrance of the Guanabara Bay. All fishes were measured (total length) and weighed. The length-weight relationships (LWR) were estimated by linear regression analysis on log-transformed data of the equation: W = aLb. The Von Bertalanffy Growth Function (VBGF) was fitted to size-at-age data to obtain growth parameters (K, L∞). The length-converted catch curve was used for estimating the instantaneous total mortality (Z). Taylor’s equations provided an independent estimate of the natural mortality (M) and longevity. The difference between Z and M derived Fishing mortality (F). A total of 2,938 individuals from ten fish species were used to determine the length-weight relationships. Harengulaclupeola (Cuvier, 1829) has a new maximum length record for the FishBase LWR database. Sardinellabrasiliensis (Steindachner, 1879) presented the smallest and largest size recorded for LWR observed in the literature and FishBase database. Upeneusparvus showed the greatest total length, while Trichiuruslepturus Linnaeus, 1758, Orthopristisruber (Cuvier, 1830) and Dactylopterusvolitans (Linnaeus, 1758) presented the smallest sizes for LWR in FishBase. The other species showed parameters within the expected values for each group. The performance index combining information from K and L∞ presented values between 2.32 and 3.76 and were considered appropriate for the populations evaluated. Fishing was the primary source of mortality for Caranxcrysos (Mitchill, 1815), Eucinostomusargenteus Baird & Girard, 1855, S.brasiliensis and U.parvus, and less important for Cynoscionjamaicensis (Vaillant & Bocourt, 1883), D.volitans, O.ruber, Selenesetapinnis (Mitchill, 1815), T.lepturus and H.clupeola. The parameters generated may be used for the management and conservation of the species’ stocks.

Diet composition and feeding dynamics of Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 off Gujarat, north-west coast of India

<p>The largehead ribbonfish, <em>Trichiurus lepturus</em> Linnaeus, 1758 forms a major fishery along north-west coast of India comprising the two coastal states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Diet composition was analysed for five years (2010-2014) to understand shifts if any in the prey items. Seasonal changes in the prey items were studied for three years (2012-2014) to explore the temporal dynamics of prey availability in the ecosystem and in largehead ribbonfish guts. Feeding indices <em>viz.,</em> Stomach fullness index (SFI), empty stomach ratio (ESR), gastrosomatic index (GaSI) and relative gut length (RLG) explained the feeding behaviour, seasonal dynamics and ontogenetic shifts in prey items. The Vacuity Index (VI) was estimated as 37.56%, indicating that<em> T. lepturus</em> is a carnivore and relatively edacious. Diet of<em> T. lepturus</em> comprised of fishes (47.16%), crustaceans (45.22%), molluscs (4.33%) and miscellaneous items (3.28%). <em>Acetes</em> sp. was the most dominant prey item during the study period. Feeding intensity was found to be high during the post-monsoon months which coincided with the period of gonadal maturation of the fish. Significant variations (p<0.05) were seen in the feeding indices during different months, different sizes and between sexes due to the availability of prey items, physiological changes and ontogenetic shifts. A detailed knowledge on diet composition, temporal dynamics in diet patterns and feeding indices can reveal the trophic interaction of prey-predator, resource abundance and fluctuations which are important inputs in<br />ecology-based fishery management models/tools.</p>

Changes in the diet of predatory ribbonfish Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 with increasing body size along Chennai coast

In recent years, it has been recognised that predatory fishes are rapidly declining in marine habitats. Hence, gathering information on biological characteristics such as dietary dynamics of predatory fishes has assumed importance. Considering this, the dietary dynamics of the predatory ribbonfish Trichiuruslepturusfrom Chennai coast was assessed by analysing the stomach condition and contents, with reference to body size. Representatives of the Order Clupeiformes (Index of relative importance, IRI 33.7%) comprising oilsardine, lesser sardines and anchovies were the major prey items of T. lepturus. Predation by T. lepturus was aided by morphological adaptations, such as dentition, hard and spinous gill rakers, short stomach, high body depth-total length ratio of 1: 17.1 and large mouth (gape area of 1534 mm2 in adult fish).With increasing body size, the capacity to predate upon relatively larger prey increased. The differences in diet composition between ribbonfish of small, medium and large size were well-represented byIRI, prey specific abundance and cluster analysis. The fish is a top predator (trophic level: 4.17) and a specialist feeder (niche breadth: 2.63). As specialist feeders have a narrow choice of food, they are more vulnerable to fishing. It is important that management of multispecies fisheries should focus more on the sensitive predatory species.

Molecular phylogenetic relationship between Trichiurus margarites Li, 1992 and Trichiurus sp.2 (sensu Nakabo, 2002) (Perciformes: Trichi-uridae) based on mitochondrial 16S rRNA sequence analysis

The taxonomic identification of the genus Trichiurus(Trichiuridae) has historically been challenging because of the morphological similarities between the species.As a result,Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus,1758 was recognized as a monotypic cosmopolitan species of Trichiurus prior to 1990.In 1992,Li proposed the new species T.margarites Li,1992,based on morphological differences in the skull patterns and dorsal fin coloration,i.e.su-praoccipital bone with a hard knob and yellow dorsal fin respectively.Subsequently,Yamada et al.described a species of Trichiurus with a yellow dorsal fin from the Ryukyu Islands and East China Sea coast of Kyushu,Japan.This species is very similar to T.margarites,but shows some variation in the size of a pair of knobs on the su-praoccipital crest.Accordingly,the yellow dorsal fin species of Trichiurus from Japan was provisionally called Trichiurus sp.2 by Nakabo.There remains no molecular evidence that elucidates the genetic differences between T.margarites and T.sp.2(sensu Nakabo,2002).Thus,the phylogenetic relationship and taxonomic status of these two species remain unresolved. In this study we examined the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene sequence from 11 T.margarites individuals collected from the coast of western Hainan Island(Baimajing,Yinggehai and Sanya),South China Sea,China which is the type locality of T.margarites.The 16S rRNA genes were amplified using PCR techniques.Homolo-gous sequences from T.sp.2 and closely-related species from previous studies were also included in the compara-tive analysis.Genetic information indexes,including base composition,sequence variation,and Kimura-2 pa-rameter net genetic distance were examined.Phylogenetic analysis using neighbor-joining(NJ) and maxi-mum-likelihood(ML) methods were conducted using Eupleurogrammus muticus as the outgroup. There was evidence of insertion or deletion of base pairs in the 435 bp sequence alignment,with 63 variable sites,48 parsimony informative sites,and 15 singleton sites.The net genetic distances between T.margarites(from western Hainan Island) and T.sp.2(from Japan,eastern Hainan Island,and Indian Ocean) ranged from 0.000 to 0.006.These values were much lower than those found for interspecific 16S rRNA comparisons in some species of Trichiurus(0.037–0.061),and for intraspecies comparisons between populations of T.lepturus(0.010–0.016).Moreover,the haplotypes of T.margarites and T.sp.2 did not form reciprocal monophyletic clades in the phylogenetic trees(NJ,ML),and the close relationship of the haplotypes of these two species was supported by high confidence levels(NJ 100%,ML 99%).These results indicated that the genetic distance between T.mar-garites and T.sp.2 was at the intraspecific level,and the species T.sp.2(sensu Nakabo,2002) from Japan should be classified as T.margarites Li,1992.It has been suggested that T.margarites is widely distributed from the In-dian Ocean to the western Pacific,and not merely limited to the South China Sea,Taiwan Strait,and Taiwan coastal waters.Based on coalescent estimates of divergence times among species,the origin and evolution of T.margarites are primarily discussed in this study.

Ten new microsatellite markers in cutlassfish Trichiurus lepturus derived from an enriched genomic library

Cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus 1758) is a commercially important fish in Korea. In recent years, the catch of cutlassfish in the coastal waters of Korea has significantly declined. Its genetic characterization has been little studied. To assist conservation and management efforts, we isolated and characterized 10 microsatellite loci using an enrichment method based on magnetic/biotin capture of microsatellite sequences from a size-selected genomic library. To characterize each locus, 30 individuals from a natural T. lepturus population in the coastal waters of Jeju Island, Korea, were genotyped. All loci except two, KTh9B and KTh22A, were polymorphic, with an average of 14.3 alleles per locus (range, 10–22). The mean observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.80 (range, 0.50–0.97) and 0.82 (range, 0.68–0.95), respectively. A significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed at three loci (KTh6B, KTh10, and KTh16). This high variability indicates that these microsatellites may be useful for high-resolution studies of population genetics.

Composition of Trichiuridae and Gempylidae larvae (Teleostei) and their association with water masses in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean

Abstract In this paper the relationship between temporal changes in the occurrence of water masses and Trichiuridae and Gempylidae larvae composition and distribution in the Southwest Atlantic ocean were analysed between 25° and 40° S. Ichthyoplankton was collected during the three expeditions of the Subtropical Convergence Project: Winter and Spring 1977, Autumn 1978 and Summer 1981, realized in the Southwest Atlantic waters. Oblique tows were conducted using a Hensen net with 250 μm mesh size. Steep salinity and temperature gradient were found, where the river outflows from La Plata river (Argentina) and Patos Lagoon (Brazil) met the Tropical Water over the continental shelf between 32 and 36° S. We examined 524 Hensen-net samples that contained about 283 larvae from five species of Trichiuridae and Gempylidae. The most abundant and frequent specie were Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus 1758 and Diplospinus multistriatus Maul 1948. The mesopelagics species D. multistriatus, Nealotus tripes Johnson 1865 and Lepidopus altifrons Parin&Collette, 1993 were associated with Tropical Water. The benthopelagic T. lepturus and the epipelagic Thyrsitops lepidopoides (Cuvier 1832) were associated mainly with Coastal Water and Subtropical Shelf Water.

Diet and potential feeding overlap between Trichiurus lepturus (Osteichthyes: Perciformes) and Pontoporia blainvillei (Mammalia: Cetacea) in Northern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This study describes the diet and assesses potential overlap in the feeding habits of Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 and Pontoporia blainvilleiGervais & D'Orbigny, 1844 in northern Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Fishes were numerically dominant in both diets, followed by cephalopods for P. blainvillei and crustaceans for T. lepturus. Both predators move along similar coastal feeding areas in northern Rio de Janeiro, but our results indicate differences in their resource exploitation, what allows for their coexistence.

Ocorrência de Neobenedenia melleni (Monogenea; Capsalidae) em Trichiurus lepturus (Perciformes; Trichiuridae), naturalmente infestados, no litoral do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Neobenedenia melleni (MacCallum, 1927) is a widely spread pathogen in teleost maricultures with a very low host specificity. Between July of 2006 to June of 2007, 120 specimens of Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 were acquired of local fishermen in the Guanabara Bay (22 degrees 57' S and 42 degrees 41' W), State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to the study of the parasite fauna. The surface of the host body was scraped and the monogeneans obtained were identified as N. melleni, which showed prevalence of 8.3% and mean intensity of infection 1.2+/-0.42. Data about morphology of the specimens collected were included herein. Neobenedenia melleni is recorded by the first time parasitizing on a wild host from the Brazilian coastal zone.

New species of Metacaligus (Caligidae, Copepoda) parasitic on the cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus) of Taiwan, with a cladistic analysis of the family Caligidae.

Metacaligus latus n. sp. (Copepoda, Caligidae) is described from specimens found parasitic in the oral and gill cavities of the cutlassfish, Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, caught from the Strait of Taiwan and landed at Dong-Shih Fishing Port in Chiayi County, Taiwan. It is close to M. uruguayensis (Thomsen, 1949), but can be distinguished from the latter by the possession of shorter caudal rami in both sexes and wider cephalothorax and genital complex in the male. Cladistic (phylogenetic) analysis of the Family Caligidae, based on 23 selected morphological characters, revealed that Metacaligus Thomsen, 1949 is distantly related to Caligus Müller, 1758. It is a valid genus and occurs in sister-group relationship with Apogonia Cressey and Cressey, 1990.

Metazoários parasitos do peixe espada, Trichiurus lepturus (Osteichthyes: Trichiuridae) do litoral do estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Between January and November of 1999, 55 specimens of Atlantic cutlassfish, Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus, 1758 were captured of the coastal of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (21-23° S, 41-45° W), and necropsied to study of their metazoan parasites. Eleven species of metazoan parasites were collected in T. lepturus: 1 digenean, 1 monogenean, 2 cestodes, 1 acantocephalan, 5 nematodes, and 1 copepod. Trichiurus lepturus is a new host record for Callitetrarhynchus gracilis, Hysterothylacium sp., and Raphidascaris sp., Octoplectanocotyla trichiuri and Polymorphus sp. were recorded for the first time in Brazil.

Bucephalidae (Trematoda) in Fishes of the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Bucephalus Baer, 1827

A total of 614 fishes representing 103 species from the northern Gulf of Mexico were examined for infections of trematodes in the family Bucephalidae. Five species of Bucephalus Baer, 1827, were collected. One new species is described and the description of B. cynoscion Hopkins, 1956, and B. gorgon (Linton, 1905) Eckmann, 1932, augmented. New locality records are also given for B. gorgon, B. scorpaenae Manter, 1940, and B. varicus Manter, 1940. Studies on the digenetic trematodes of the Gulf of Mexico have been primarily concerned with the prosostomes and for the most part have only touched upon the family Bucephalidae. With the exception of the work by Manter (1934, 1940) and Hopkins (1954), most reports have been confined to sporadic accounts of new species. The following report is a portion of the results from a survey of representatives of 103 fish species from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Bucephalus brevitentaculatus n. sp. Figures 1-3 DIAGNOSIS (measurements in mm based on ten specimens): Body spinous, elongate 1.03 (0.66-1.33) x 0.326 (0.264-0.374); anterior sucker 0.108 (0.075- 0.125) x 0.072 (0.065-0.101); seven short, bluntly tapered tentacles embellish anterior end; protruded tentacles 0.013 x 0.007; basal or tentacular papillae ab- sent; frequently, all but the two lateral tentacles retracted and the remaining five are exceedingly difficult to detect; pharynx post-equatorial but within mid- dle one-third of body, 0.066 (0.057-0.078) x 0.081 (0.080-0.093); esophagus di- rected anteriorly; thick-walled intestine recurved, directed posteriorly, 0.097 (0.081-0.104) x 0.079 (0.073-0.088); testes subspherical, dextrally tandem in middle one-third of body, contiguous or overlapping; 0.115 (0.101-0.132) x 0.098 (0.080-0.127); cirrus pouch sinistral, extending from equatorial plane to sub- terminal genital atrium, 0.386 (0.310-0.440) x 0.078 (0.065-0.088); internal semi- nal vesicle ovoid or cylindrical, 0.090 (0.086-0.104) x 0.042 (0.026-0.065); cirrus with two lobes projecting into genital atrium; genital pore subterminal, 0.068 posterior to genital atrium; ovary subspherical, at dextral level of intestine, and close proximity to anterior testis, 0.075 (0.060-0.094) x 0.073 (0.065-0.080); Mehlis' gland and ootype posterolateral to ovary; Laurer's canal extending to level of dorsal, posterior border of anterior testis; uterus filling much of body space posteriorly and extending anteriorly into intervitelline field but seldom exceeding anterior limit of vitellaria; vitellaria composed of two groups of about 15 follicles each in anterior one-half of body; each follicular group arches toward midline and may appear as a continuous arch; eggs thick-shelled, 0.020 x 0.013; excretory bladder thin-walled, extending from terminal pore to a point slightly anterior to pharynx. HOST: Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus. HABITAT: Gastric ceca. INCIDENCE: In 12 of 28.