In the present study a comparison of the otolith morphology of two species of parrotfish, family Scaridae, collected from the Red Sea coast of Egypt, is conducted to identify the most appropriate taxonomic characters that separate these species. Ontogenetic changes in the otoliths of the two scarid fishes become evident. In the otoliths of Chlorurus sordidus, the following characters are comparable in small-sized adult fishes: otolith width, otolith depth, mesial surface shape, lateral surface shape, shape of sulcus acusticus, column, rostrum and size of rostrum. The otoliths of young adults (GI) C. sordidus differ from the adult ones in 14 out of the 22 characteristics studied. In the otoliths of Hipposcarus harid, the following characters are comparable in small and large fish: otolith width, otolith depth, mesial and lateral surface shapes, shape of sulcus acusticus, rostrum and size of rostrum.

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A male specimen of the paedomorphic fish Schindleria sp. was collected by plankton net, in February 2005, from a reef lagoon from Hurghada on the Egyptian coast of the northern Red Sea. This is the first record of the Schindleriidae in the Red Sea.

This work aims to study the importance of mangrove area as nursery grounds for the juvenile of reef fishes in the Red Sea. Juvenile fishes were collected during three seasons in 2010 from three mangrove swamps by a beach seine net. The net was dragged on the bottom for 100 m three times. A total of 269 juvenile fishes were collected, representing 21 species in 19 families. The most abundant species formed about 86% of all collected fishes. Nine species were collected for the first time from mangrove areas in the Egyptian Red Sea. Most of the collected fishes are economically important fishes. Moreover, eleven families were belonging to coral reef fishes. The highest species richness value was recorded in Hamata mangroves. This finding showed that how mangroves could support the life history of many coral reef fishes.ª 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries.

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The present study aimed to investigate the antibacterial properties of crude extracts from some soft coral species from the Red Sea, Hurghada, Egypt. Crude extracts of Lobophytum pauciliforum, Dendronephthya hemprichi, Sarcophyton gracile, Sarcophyton glaucum, Sinularia gardineiri, Sinularia leptoclados, Nephthea pacifica, Sarcophyton acutum, Sarcophyton spongosium and Xenia macrospiculata, were tested against fish and human pathogenic bacteria. The well cut -diffusion technique was used to determine the absolute activity units (AU) and the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) using disc-diffusion technique were determined against the most affected bacterial pathogens (E. coli and S. aureus). The AU of the ethanolic crude extract ranged from 1.4 to 25.0 for Sarcophyton acutum and Lobophytum pauciliforum, respectively. On the other side, ethyl acetate crude extracts showed the highest AU (16.0) for L. pauciliforum against S. aeurus, followed by (11.1) of N. pacifica and X. macrospiculata against). The MIC of L. pauciliforum ethyl acetate crude extract was recorded as (50 mg ml -1 ) against both E. coli and S. areaus ATCC 6358.Extracts from some soft corals showed the ability to inhibit the growth of some pathogenic bacteria indicating that it could be used for medical purposes.

The asymmetry in the mass of the sagitta of the parrotfish species, Chlorurus sordidus and Hipposcarus harid collected from Hurghada, Red Sea coast of Egypt was investigated. In the present study, the weight of the difference between the weight of the sagitta from both the left and right sides was divided by average otolith mass. The results shown that the value of x in the two-species studied does not related to the length of the fish, though the value of otolith weight difference has shown a trend of increase with the fish length. The value of x was calculated to fall between -0.2 and +0.2.