Journal of Fish Biology (2013) 83, 1425–1429 doi:10.1111/jfb.12226, available online at wileyonlinelibrary.com
The first record of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis from the Red Sea M. A. Abu El-Regal*† and K. El-Moselhy‡ *Marine Science Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt and ‡National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea Branch, Hurghada, Egypt (Received 22 August 2012, Accepted 10 August 2013) A female specimen of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis of 600 mm total length was recorded for the first time from the Red Sea after being stranded on a shallow sandy bay at Hurghada beach (27◦ 06 16 N; 33◦ 50 01 E) on 13 May 2012. Ranzania laevis is believed to have migrated from the Indian Ocean as the nearest area where it was found is coastal waters of Oman. © 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
Key words: ballast water; climate change; Molidae.
The family Molidae, molas or sunfishes, are unique fishes whose bodies terminate just behind the dorsal and anal fins, giving them a ‘half-a-fish’ appearance. They are also the largest of the ray-finned bony fishes, with the ocean sunfish Mola mola (L. 1758) reaching up to 3·3 m in total length (LT ) and 2·2 t in mass (Carwardine, 1995; Houghton et al., 2006). They have no spines in the dorsal and anal fins and the caudal peduncle and caudal fins are absent with the posterior end of the body reduced to a leathery flap or pseudocaudal (clavus) process. Johnson & Britz (2005) concluded that the clavus is formed by highly modified elements of the dorsal and anal fins. There are two minute nostrils, one each side of the head, no lateral line and very few (16–18) vertebrae. Fishes of the family Molidae are marine and widely distributed worldwide and can be found in tropical and warm temperate regions. The family comprises three genera and four species: Masturus lanceolatus (Li´enard 1840), M. mola, Mola ramsayi (Giglioli 1883) and Ranzania laevis (Pennant 1776) (Parenti, 2003). Ranzania laevis is the most elongate species of the family and is silver, often darker blue dorsally, with blue, grey, brownish or green stripes and dots dorsally and dark stripes from below the eye to the ventral surface. It feeds on small fishes, planktonic crustaceans and jellyfishes (Heemstra, 1986). It is an epipelagic species that is abundant offshore and has a cosmopolitan distribution across many parts of the world (Tortonese, 1986; Hutchins, 2001; Castro & Ramos, 2002; Elbaraasi & Elsalini, 2010; Jawad et al., 2010a, b; Froese & Pauly, †Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +2 0128 0496794; email: m_abuelre [email protected]
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Fig. 1. Ranzania laevis of 600 mm total length collected from Hurghada coast, Red Sea, Egypt.
2013). Unlike the other species of the family, R. laevis sometimes travels in schools of up to 50 individuals, and whole schools have been known to become stranded in shallow bays during storms (Hutchins, 2001; Parenti, 2003; Froese & Pauly, 2013). The specimen of R. laevis reported here was found stranded on the beach of Sunrise Garden Beach Hotel (20 km south Hurghada) at 27◦ 06 16 N; 33◦ 50 01 E on 13 May 2012. The fish was taken to the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea Branch, Hurghada where it was identified, photographed (Fig. 1) and deposited. The morphometrics are given in Table I. The identification was based on FAO identification sheets (Fischer & Bianchi, 1984; Matsuura, 2002) and FishBase (Froese & Pauly, 2013). The ‘half fish’ shape with the leathery clavus was the most obvious diagnostic feature that helped identify the specimen as belonging to the Molidae. The elongate body, funnel-shaped mouth, very smooth skin, long pectoral fin and the ornamentation pattern on the head are characteristic features of R. laevis (Fig. 1) and readily distinguished this species from the others of the family. The dorsal and anal fins are long and slender, each with 18 rays; the pectoral fins are long and pointed with 13 rays. The fish was dissected and the ribs and some of the organs such as liver, muscles and gonads were preserved for investigation. Internal examination showed that the fish had a large, mature ovary weighing 62·4 g. The body of the fish has some marks resulting from the struggling of the fish in the very shallow sandy lagoon where it was stranded. The maximum reported size of the R. laevis is 1000 mm LT (Claro, 1994). The size of the specimen reported here is 600 mm LT and it weighed c. 3200 g. During the last decade, some molid species were recorded in the Red Sea (Khalaf, 2005) although previous studies on the ichthyofauna of the Red Sea have not reported the presence of R. laevis (Botros, 1971; Randall, 1986; Goren & Dor, 1994; Golani & Bogorodsky, 2010). Hence, this is the first record of the occurrence of R. laevis from the area.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
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Table I. Morphometrics of Ranzania laevis found in the Red Sea and comparison with specimens from Omani and Iraqi waters Red Sea specimen
Two specimens from Iraq (Jawad et al., 2010b)
Morphometrics
mm % LT mm % LT
Total length (LT ) Standard length Head length (LH ) Predorsal length Preanal length Prepectoral fin Body depth Dorsal fin length Anal fin length Pectoral fin length Clavus length Eye diameter
600 540 210 510 507 245 250 170 150 130 220 30
90·0 35·0 85·0 84·5 40·8 41·7 28·3 25·0 21·7 36·7 14·3
523 475 195 430 410 200 250 100 140 165 180 26
90·8 37·3 82·2 78·4 38·2 47·8 19·1 26·8 31·5 34·4 13·3
Two specimens from Oman (Jawad et al., 2010a)
mm
% LT
mm
% LT
mm
% LT
530 483·0 198·0 438·0 441·0 203·0 260·0 105·0 142·0 168·0 180·0 27·0
91·1 37·4 82·6 83·2 38·3 49·1 19·8 26·8 31·7 34·0 13·6
495 470·0 168·0 443·0 379·0 85·0 235·0 127·0 110·0 102·0 182·0 28·0
94·9 33·9 89·5 76·6 17·2 47·5 25·7 22·2 20·6 36·8 16·7
507 470·0 168·0 450·0 418·0 190·0 218·0 129·0 130·0 106·0 170·0 30·0
92·7 33·1 88·8 82·4 37·5 43·0 25·4 25·6 20·9 33·5 17·9
The nearest areas to the Red Sea where R. laevis was previously recorded are coastal waters of Oman and Iraqi waters of the Arabian Gulf (Jawad et al., 2010a, b), and Libyan waters in the Mediterranean (Elbaraasi & Elsalini, 2010). The body proportions of this specimen agree with those of the specimens taken from the Oman Sea (Jawad et al., 2010a) and slightly differ from those taken from Iraqi Arabian Gulf (Jawad et al., 2010b) (Table I). The dorsal fin of the Red Sea and Oman Sea samples is longer than that of the Iraqi specimens where it forms 28 and 25% of LT for the Red Sea and Oman Sea specimens, respectively, and 19% for Iraqi specimens. On the other hand, the pectoral fin is shorter in the Red Sea and Oman Sea specimens compared with Iraqi specimens (Table I). These differences might be attributed to the different subspecies in the different areas. Fraser-Brunner (1951) recognized two subspecies, R. laevis laevis and R. leavis makua (Jenkins 1895), that have some morphological differences such as the position of the axil of the pectoral fin to the centre of the eye and the height of the anal fin to the head length. The Red Sea is known for its richness in ichthyofauna that includes 1078 species in 157 families (Goren & Dor, 1994; Golani & Bogorodsky, 2010). This report of R. laevis in the Red Sea increases the number of species and extends the known distribution of this species northward. This northward expansion of R. laevis could be attributed to ballast water discharges, or more likely to climate changes (Castro & Ramos, 2002; Dulˆci´c et al., 2006) and the rise in water temperature (Castro & Ramos, 2002) that causes the species to move north. An increase of water temperature (3◦ ) was recorded by the authors (unpublished data) along the Red Sea coast during the last 2 years. Temperature was one of the possible reasons for the presence of the species in other areas of the world (Castro & Ramos, 2002; Dulˆci´c et al., 2006; Jawad et al., 2010a). It is not a surprise, however, that the fish was found in Egyptian waters as it is a pelagic species found in all tropical to warm temperate seas.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
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As only a single specimen has been caught in the Red Sea, it is too early to say that R. laevis has a self-sustaining population. Further investigations and surveys are required to confirm this. We are very grateful to the staff of the Sunrise Grand Beach Hotel in Hurghada for providing us with the fish specimen. Many thanks are due to S. Bogorodeski and J. Randall for the confirmation of the identification of the fish and their valuable comments. Special thanks to M. Elliott of the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, University of Hull, U.K. for his critical revision of the manuscript. We also appreciate the kind support of L. Jawad for his important notes and critical reading of the manuscript.
References Botros, G. A. (1971). Fishes of the Red Sea. Oceanography and Marine Biology Review 9, 211–348. Carwardine, M. (1995). The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Middlesex: Guinness Publishing. Castro, J. J. & Ramos, A. G. (2002). The occurrence of Ranzania laevis off the Island of Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands, related to sea warming. Journal of Fish Biology 60, 271–273. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2002.tb02407.x Claro, R. (1994). Caracteristicas generals de la ictifauna. In En Ecología de los peces marinos de Cuba (Claro, R., ed), pp. 55–70. Cuba, M´exico D.C.: Ecologia Academia de la Cieneias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quinata Roo. ´ Dulˆci´c, J., Tutman, P. & Caleta, M. (2006). Northernmost occurrence of the white grouper, Epinephelus aeneus (Perciformes: Serranidae), in the Mediterranean area. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 36, 73–75. Elbaraasi, H. & Elsalini, O. (2010). Occurrence of slender sunfish Ranzania laevis Pennant, 1776, (Molidae) in the eastern part of the Libyan coast (southern Mediterranean). Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 10, 549–550. Fischer, W. & Bianchi, G. (1984). FAO Species Identification Sheets for Fishery Purposes. Western Indian Ocean (Fishing Area 51). Rome: FAO. Fraser-Brunner, A. (1951). The ocean sunfish (family: Molidae). Bulletin of British Museuem (Natural History), Zoology Series 1, 89–121. Golani, D. & Bogorodsky, S. (2010). The fishes of the Red Sea – reappraisal and updated checklist. Zootaxa 2463, 1–135. Goren, M. & Dor, M. (1994). An Updated Checklist of the Fishes of the Red Sea CLOFRES II . Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Heemstra, P. C. (1986). Molidae. In Smiths’ Sea Fishes (Smith, M. M. & Heemstra, P. C., eds), pp. 907–908. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Houghton, J. D. R., Doyle, T. K., Davenport, J. & Hays, G. C. (2006). The ocean sunfish Mola mola: insights into the distribution, abundance and behaviour in the Irish and Celtic Seas. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85, 1237–1243. Hutchins, J. B. (2001). Molidae, Molas (Ocean sunfish). In The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific, FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes (Carpenter, K. E., ed), pp. 3966–3968. Rome: FAO. Jawad, L. A., Al-Mamry, J. M. & Al-Kharusi, L. H. (2010a). The slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) in the coastal waters of Gulf of Oman. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 40, 105–108. Jawad, L. A., Hussein, S. A. & Bulbil, F. (2010b). The rare Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) in the marine waters of Iraq. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 4, 1116–1118. Johnson, G. D. & Britz, R. (2005). Leis’ conundrum: homology of the clavus of the ocean sunfishes. 2. Ontogeny of the median fins and axial skeleton of Ranzania laevis (Teleostei, Tetraodontiformes, Molidae). Journal of Morphology 266, 11–21.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
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Khalaf, M. A. (2005). Five addition records of fishes in the Gulf of Aqaba, including Mola mola (Forssk˚al, 1775), new for the Red Sea. Zoology in the Middle East 34, 45–52. Matsuura, K. (2002). Molidae. In The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Atlantic, FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes (Carpenter, K. E., ed), pp. 2014–2016. Rome: FAO. Parenti, L. (2003). Molidae Bonaparte 1832, molas or ocean sunfishes. California Academy of Sciences Annotated Checklists of Fishes No. 18 . Randall, J. E. (1986). Red Sea Reef Fishes. London: IMMEL Publishing. Tortonese, E. (1986). Molidae. In Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 3 (Whitehead, P. J. P., Bauchot, M. L., Hureau, J. C., Nielsen, J. & Tortonese, E., eds), pp. 1348–1350. Paris: UNESCO.
Electronic Reference Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (2013). FishBase. Available at http://www.fishbase.org (Accessed 22 July 2013).
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
The first record of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis from the Red Sea M. A. Abu El-Regal*† and K. El-Moselhy‡ *Marine Science Department, Faculty of Science, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt and ‡National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea Branch, Hurghada, Egypt (Received 22 August 2012, Accepted 10 August 2013) A female specimen of the slender sunfish Ranzania laevis of 600 mm total length was recorded for the first time from the Red Sea after being stranded on a shallow sandy bay at Hurghada beach (27◦ 06 16 N; 33◦ 50 01 E) on 13 May 2012. Ranzania laevis is believed to have migrated from the Indian Ocean as the nearest area where it was found is coastal waters of Oman. © 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
Key words: ballast water; climate change; Molidae.
The family Molidae, molas or sunfishes, are unique fishes whose bodies terminate just behind the dorsal and anal fins, giving them a ‘half-a-fish’ appearance. They are also the largest of the ray-finned bony fishes, with the ocean sunfish Mola mola (L. 1758) reaching up to 3·3 m in total length (LT ) and 2·2 t in mass (Carwardine, 1995; Houghton et al., 2006). They have no spines in the dorsal and anal fins and the caudal peduncle and caudal fins are absent with the posterior end of the body reduced to a leathery flap or pseudocaudal (clavus) process. Johnson & Britz (2005) concluded that the clavus is formed by highly modified elements of the dorsal and anal fins. There are two minute nostrils, one each side of the head, no lateral line and very few (16–18) vertebrae. Fishes of the family Molidae are marine and widely distributed worldwide and can be found in tropical and warm temperate regions. The family comprises three genera and four species: Masturus lanceolatus (Li´enard 1840), M. mola, Mola ramsayi (Giglioli 1883) and Ranzania laevis (Pennant 1776) (Parenti, 2003). Ranzania laevis is the most elongate species of the family and is silver, often darker blue dorsally, with blue, grey, brownish or green stripes and dots dorsally and dark stripes from below the eye to the ventral surface. It feeds on small fishes, planktonic crustaceans and jellyfishes (Heemstra, 1986). It is an epipelagic species that is abundant offshore and has a cosmopolitan distribution across many parts of the world (Tortonese, 1986; Hutchins, 2001; Castro & Ramos, 2002; Elbaraasi & Elsalini, 2010; Jawad et al., 2010a, b; Froese & Pauly, †Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +2 0128 0496794; email: m_abuelre [email protected]
1425 © 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles
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M. A. ABU EL-REGAL AND K. EL-MOSELHY
Fig. 1. Ranzania laevis of 600 mm total length collected from Hurghada coast, Red Sea, Egypt.
2013). Unlike the other species of the family, R. laevis sometimes travels in schools of up to 50 individuals, and whole schools have been known to become stranded in shallow bays during storms (Hutchins, 2001; Parenti, 2003; Froese & Pauly, 2013). The specimen of R. laevis reported here was found stranded on the beach of Sunrise Garden Beach Hotel (20 km south Hurghada) at 27◦ 06 16 N; 33◦ 50 01 E on 13 May 2012. The fish was taken to the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea Branch, Hurghada where it was identified, photographed (Fig. 1) and deposited. The morphometrics are given in Table I. The identification was based on FAO identification sheets (Fischer & Bianchi, 1984; Matsuura, 2002) and FishBase (Froese & Pauly, 2013). The ‘half fish’ shape with the leathery clavus was the most obvious diagnostic feature that helped identify the specimen as belonging to the Molidae. The elongate body, funnel-shaped mouth, very smooth skin, long pectoral fin and the ornamentation pattern on the head are characteristic features of R. laevis (Fig. 1) and readily distinguished this species from the others of the family. The dorsal and anal fins are long and slender, each with 18 rays; the pectoral fins are long and pointed with 13 rays. The fish was dissected and the ribs and some of the organs such as liver, muscles and gonads were preserved for investigation. Internal examination showed that the fish had a large, mature ovary weighing 62·4 g. The body of the fish has some marks resulting from the struggling of the fish in the very shallow sandy lagoon where it was stranded. The maximum reported size of the R. laevis is 1000 mm LT (Claro, 1994). The size of the specimen reported here is 600 mm LT and it weighed c. 3200 g. During the last decade, some molid species were recorded in the Red Sea (Khalaf, 2005) although previous studies on the ichthyofauna of the Red Sea have not reported the presence of R. laevis (Botros, 1971; Randall, 1986; Goren & Dor, 1994; Golani & Bogorodsky, 2010). Hence, this is the first record of the occurrence of R. laevis from the area.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
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Table I. Morphometrics of Ranzania laevis found in the Red Sea and comparison with specimens from Omani and Iraqi waters Red Sea specimen
Two specimens from Iraq (Jawad et al., 2010b)
Morphometrics
mm % LT mm % LT
Total length (LT ) Standard length Head length (LH ) Predorsal length Preanal length Prepectoral fin Body depth Dorsal fin length Anal fin length Pectoral fin length Clavus length Eye diameter
600 540 210 510 507 245 250 170 150 130 220 30
90·0 35·0 85·0 84·5 40·8 41·7 28·3 25·0 21·7 36·7 14·3
523 475 195 430 410 200 250 100 140 165 180 26
90·8 37·3 82·2 78·4 38·2 47·8 19·1 26·8 31·5 34·4 13·3
Two specimens from Oman (Jawad et al., 2010a)
mm
% LT
mm
% LT
mm
% LT
530 483·0 198·0 438·0 441·0 203·0 260·0 105·0 142·0 168·0 180·0 27·0
91·1 37·4 82·6 83·2 38·3 49·1 19·8 26·8 31·7 34·0 13·6
495 470·0 168·0 443·0 379·0 85·0 235·0 127·0 110·0 102·0 182·0 28·0
94·9 33·9 89·5 76·6 17·2 47·5 25·7 22·2 20·6 36·8 16·7
507 470·0 168·0 450·0 418·0 190·0 218·0 129·0 130·0 106·0 170·0 30·0
92·7 33·1 88·8 82·4 37·5 43·0 25·4 25·6 20·9 33·5 17·9
The nearest areas to the Red Sea where R. laevis was previously recorded are coastal waters of Oman and Iraqi waters of the Arabian Gulf (Jawad et al., 2010a, b), and Libyan waters in the Mediterranean (Elbaraasi & Elsalini, 2010). The body proportions of this specimen agree with those of the specimens taken from the Oman Sea (Jawad et al., 2010a) and slightly differ from those taken from Iraqi Arabian Gulf (Jawad et al., 2010b) (Table I). The dorsal fin of the Red Sea and Oman Sea samples is longer than that of the Iraqi specimens where it forms 28 and 25% of LT for the Red Sea and Oman Sea specimens, respectively, and 19% for Iraqi specimens. On the other hand, the pectoral fin is shorter in the Red Sea and Oman Sea specimens compared with Iraqi specimens (Table I). These differences might be attributed to the different subspecies in the different areas. Fraser-Brunner (1951) recognized two subspecies, R. laevis laevis and R. leavis makua (Jenkins 1895), that have some morphological differences such as the position of the axil of the pectoral fin to the centre of the eye and the height of the anal fin to the head length. The Red Sea is known for its richness in ichthyofauna that includes 1078 species in 157 families (Goren & Dor, 1994; Golani & Bogorodsky, 2010). This report of R. laevis in the Red Sea increases the number of species and extends the known distribution of this species northward. This northward expansion of R. laevis could be attributed to ballast water discharges, or more likely to climate changes (Castro & Ramos, 2002; Dulˆci´c et al., 2006) and the rise in water temperature (Castro & Ramos, 2002) that causes the species to move north. An increase of water temperature (3◦ ) was recorded by the authors (unpublished data) along the Red Sea coast during the last 2 years. Temperature was one of the possible reasons for the presence of the species in other areas of the world (Castro & Ramos, 2002; Dulˆci´c et al., 2006; Jawad et al., 2010a). It is not a surprise, however, that the fish was found in Egyptian waters as it is a pelagic species found in all tropical to warm temperate seas.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
1428
M. A. ABU EL-REGAL AND K. EL-MOSELHY
As only a single specimen has been caught in the Red Sea, it is too early to say that R. laevis has a self-sustaining population. Further investigations and surveys are required to confirm this. We are very grateful to the staff of the Sunrise Grand Beach Hotel in Hurghada for providing us with the fish specimen. Many thanks are due to S. Bogorodeski and J. Randall for the confirmation of the identification of the fish and their valuable comments. Special thanks to M. Elliott of the Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies, University of Hull, U.K. for his critical revision of the manuscript. We also appreciate the kind support of L. Jawad for his important notes and critical reading of the manuscript.
References Botros, G. A. (1971). Fishes of the Red Sea. Oceanography and Marine Biology Review 9, 211–348. Carwardine, M. (1995). The Guinness Book of Animal Records. Middlesex: Guinness Publishing. Castro, J. J. & Ramos, A. G. (2002). The occurrence of Ranzania laevis off the Island of Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands, related to sea warming. Journal of Fish Biology 60, 271–273. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2002.tb02407.x Claro, R. (1994). Caracteristicas generals de la ictifauna. In En Ecología de los peces marinos de Cuba (Claro, R., ed), pp. 55–70. Cuba, M´exico D.C.: Ecologia Academia de la Cieneias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quinata Roo. ´ Dulˆci´c, J., Tutman, P. & Caleta, M. (2006). Northernmost occurrence of the white grouper, Epinephelus aeneus (Perciformes: Serranidae), in the Mediterranean area. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 36, 73–75. Elbaraasi, H. & Elsalini, O. (2010). Occurrence of slender sunfish Ranzania laevis Pennant, 1776, (Molidae) in the eastern part of the Libyan coast (southern Mediterranean). Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 10, 549–550. Fischer, W. & Bianchi, G. (1984). FAO Species Identification Sheets for Fishery Purposes. Western Indian Ocean (Fishing Area 51). Rome: FAO. Fraser-Brunner, A. (1951). The ocean sunfish (family: Molidae). Bulletin of British Museuem (Natural History), Zoology Series 1, 89–121. Golani, D. & Bogorodsky, S. (2010). The fishes of the Red Sea – reappraisal and updated checklist. Zootaxa 2463, 1–135. Goren, M. & Dor, M. (1994). An Updated Checklist of the Fishes of the Red Sea CLOFRES II . Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Heemstra, P. C. (1986). Molidae. In Smiths’ Sea Fishes (Smith, M. M. & Heemstra, P. C., eds), pp. 907–908. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Houghton, J. D. R., Doyle, T. K., Davenport, J. & Hays, G. C. (2006). The ocean sunfish Mola mola: insights into the distribution, abundance and behaviour in the Irish and Celtic Seas. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85, 1237–1243. Hutchins, J. B. (2001). Molidae, Molas (Ocean sunfish). In The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific, FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes (Carpenter, K. E., ed), pp. 3966–3968. Rome: FAO. Jawad, L. A., Al-Mamry, J. M. & Al-Kharusi, L. H. (2010a). The slender sunfish, Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) in the coastal waters of Gulf of Oman. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 40, 105–108. Jawad, L. A., Hussein, S. A. & Bulbil, F. (2010b). The rare Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) in the marine waters of Iraq. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 4, 1116–1118. Johnson, G. D. & Britz, R. (2005). Leis’ conundrum: homology of the clavus of the ocean sunfishes. 2. Ontogeny of the median fins and axial skeleton of Ranzania laevis (Teleostei, Tetraodontiformes, Molidae). Journal of Morphology 266, 11–21.
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
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Khalaf, M. A. (2005). Five addition records of fishes in the Gulf of Aqaba, including Mola mola (Forssk˚al, 1775), new for the Red Sea. Zoology in the Middle East 34, 45–52. Matsuura, K. (2002). Molidae. In The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Atlantic, FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes (Carpenter, K. E., ed), pp. 2014–2016. Rome: FAO. Parenti, L. (2003). Molidae Bonaparte 1832, molas or ocean sunfishes. California Academy of Sciences Annotated Checklists of Fishes No. 18 . Randall, J. E. (1986). Red Sea Reef Fishes. London: IMMEL Publishing. Tortonese, E. (1986). Molidae. In Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 3 (Whitehead, P. J. P., Bauchot, M. L., Hureau, J. C., Nielsen, J. & Tortonese, E., eds), pp. 1348–1350. Paris: UNESCO.
Electronic Reference Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (2013). FishBase. Available at http://www.fishbase.org (Accessed 22 July 2013).
© 2013 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles, Journal of Fish Biology 2013, 83, 1425–1429
