Red mullet king

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Red mullet king
Red mullet king (Apogon imberbis)

Red mullet king ( Apogon imberbis )

Systematics
Order : Kurterartige (Kurti Formes)
Family : Cardinalfish (Apogonidae)
Subfamily : Apogoninae
Tribe : Apogonini
Genre : Apogon
Type : Red mullet king
Scientific name
Apogon imberbis
Linnaeus , 1758

The red mullet king ( Apogon imberbis ), also known as the red Mediterranean cardinalfish, is a small orange-red fish from the cardinalfish family ( Apogonidae ) that occurs in the low-light zone (circalittoral) on the rocky coasts of the Mediterranean.

features

Apogon imberbis is a 10–12 cm (maximum up to 15 cm) long fish with an oval and laterally flattened body. The color is uniformly bright orange to vermilion, with light black speckles on the back and gill covers . The color can fade heavily in direct daylight or in stressful situations.

The edge of the preoperculum is slightly toothed. The lower jaw protrudes slightly, which leads to a slightly upper mouth. The teeth are very small and thin (villiform) and arranged in bands in the jaw.

The head has a noticeably large cleft in the mouth, which is inclined upwards and ends far behind the eye. The black eyes are also very large and can have a diameter almost the length of the first dorsal fin (dorsalis). There are also two white, horizontal longitudinal stripes above and below the pupil. The high tail stalk is clearly set off from the body and often covered with 2–3 closely spaced, sometimes connected, black dots.

The fins are small and short and can have darker spots up to the fin tip. The relatively short dorsal fins are divided into two parts and about the same height. The front dorsal fin (dorsalis I) consists of 6 hard rays, while the second dorsal fin (DII) consists of one hard ray and 9-10 soft rays. The anal fin (analis) consists of 2 hard rays and 8–9 soft rays.

Fin formula: Dorsalia 7 / 9-10, Analis 2 / 8-9.

The pelvic fins (ventralia) are in the chest and are only slightly behind the origin of the pectoral fins (pectoralia). The pectoral fins are very long and reach at least the beginning of the anal fin. The caudal fin (caudalis) is slightly notched.

The scales are large and ctenoid, which means that they are slightly comb-like serrated at the rear end. The animals of both sexes look the same and can both reach a maximum age of 5 years.

distribution

Distribution area

The red mullet king is the only native representative of the cardinalfish (Apogonidae) that occurs in the Mediterranean . It can be found in the entire Mediterranean and its distribution area also extends into the east Atlantic, from Portugal along the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea . It is also common in the Canaries , Madeira and the Azores .

For a long time, the red mullet king was the only member of the cardinalfish family to be found in the Mediterranean. In the recent past, however, some other Apogon species such as B. Apogon pharaonis and Apogon queketti immigrated to the eastern Mediterranean via the Suez Canal .

Way of life

The red mullet king occurs mainly in the weak light zone (circalitoral) of rocky coasts. During the day it hides individually or in small groups in dark places such as caves, crevices and under stones and overhangs. At dusk and at night he leaves his hiding place and goes free-swimming in search of food.

The red mullet king occurs primarily at a depth of 10–200 m, while it is very rarely found at shallow depths. Greater depths are often sought in winter.

nutrition

The sea mullet king's preferred food is crustaceans and small fish, but zooplankton , fish spawn and fry are also on his menu.

Reproduction

The animals reach sexual maturity when they reach a size of about 5.5 cm, which corresponds to an age of about one year. The mating of the red mullet takes place between June and September. Males and females first swim next to each other until the male wraps his anal fin around the female's abdomen. The sexual papillae touch and the sperm are transferred to females. The pairing of the red mullet kings is an internal fertilization.

A specialty of A. imberbis is the composition of the sperm. It contains both sperm cells with one flagella (monoflagellate) and sperm cells with two flagella (biflagellate), which is very unusual. Normally, the sperm of fish consists only of spermatozoa with the same number of flagella.

The spawning season takes place between July and October with an activity peak in August.

The animals are paternal mouthbrooders . The eggs of the female stick together to form a lump and are taken up by the male in his extensively flexible mouth.

The number of eggs ingested correlates linearly with the size of the male. Up to 20,000 eggs can be hatched in the mouth of a large male. The shell of the eggs is only 1.5 µm thick and therefore much thinner than that of many other marine bony fish . The eggs are rinsed with oxygen-rich water in their mouths and are protected from predators and predators. The male is constantly moving the eggs in his mouth to give everyone enough oxygen and keep them clean.

The male keeps the egg lump in his mouth until the larvae hatch (approx. One week) and does not eat any food during this time. After hatching, the larvae are no longer ingested into the mouth.

use

The red mullet king is sometimes used as bait for fishing and longline fishing , but is also caught for human consumption in some areas. He is also a beautiful aquarium fish, but demanding in terms of water quality.

Danger

On the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN, the red mullet king is classified as not endangered (“least concern”) and the population is considered stable.

swell

Web links

Commons : Red mullet king ( Apogon imberbis )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d R. Riedl: Fauna and flora of the Mediterranean . Ed .: Smoky Riedl, Barbara Schweder-Riedl. 1st edition. Seifert-Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-902406-60-6 .
  2. ^ A b c d E. Tortonese: Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean . Ed .: PJP Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen, E. Tortonese. tape 2 . UNESCO, Paris 1986, p. 803-809 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h M. Bergbauer, B. Humberg: What lives in the Mediterranean? Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-440-15233-1 .
  4. ↑ a b A. C. Campbell: What lives in the Mediterranean? Plants and animals of the Mediterranean coast in color . Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1983.
  5. ↑ a b c d P. Louisy: Marine fish: Western Europe and the Mediterranean . Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3844-1 .
  6. ^ A b c d N. Raventos: Age, growth and reproductive parameters of the Mediterranean cardinal fish, Apogon imberbis. In: Journal of Applied Ichthyology. Volume 23, No. 6, 2007, pp. 675-678.
  7. ^ G. Haas, H. Steinitz: Erythrean fishes on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine. In: Nature. Volume 160 No. 4053, 1947, pp. 28-28.
  8. ↑ L. Eryilmaz, C. Dalyan: First record of Apogon queketti Gilchrist (Osteichthyes: Apogonidae) in the Mediterranean Sea. In: Journal of Fish Biology. Volume 69, No. 4, 2006, pp. 1251-1254.
  9. ^ A b E. Azzurro, A. Pais, P. Consoli, F. Andaloro: Evaluating day – night changes in shallow Mediterranean rocky reef fish assemblages by visual census. In: Marine Biology. Volume 151, No. 6, 2007, pp. 2245-2253.
  10. ^ RE Thresher: Reproduction in Reef Fishes. TFH Publications, Neptune City, NJ 1984.
  11. ^ A b EK Balon: Early Life Histories of Fishes: New Developmental, Ecological and Evolutionary Perspectives. Dr W. Junk, Dortrecht 1985.
  12. ^ A b F. Lahnsteiner: The spermatozoa and eggs of the cardinal fish. In: Journal of Fish Biology. Vol. 62 No. 1, 2003, pp. 115-128.
  13. ↑ J. Garnaud: La reproduction et l'incubation branchiale chez Apogon imberbis G. et T. In: Bulletin de l'Institut océanographique de Monaco. Volume 49, 1950, pp. 1-10.
  14. ^ IUCN Red List: Apogon imberbis. Retrieved March 5, 2018 .