Embryonic and early development of the Zagros tooth‐carp, Aphanius vladykovi (Actinopterygii: Cyprinodontidae)

Abstract

The embryonic and early larval development of laboratory reared Zagros tooth-carp, Aphanius vladykovi Coad, 1988, are described and illustrated. Development and embryogenesis start with the external fertilization of sticky, transparent and spherical telolecithal/macrolecithal eggs with a mean diameter of 1.61± 0.12 mm and it continues with meroblastic/radial cleavage, blastulation/blastula formation, epibolic cell migration during gastrulation and organogenesis resulting in a newly hatched larvae of 5.23 ± 0.09 mm in length with attached yolk sac at about 164 hr (at 24 ± 1°C) after fertilization.

Early embryonic development of brackish water Killifish Aphanius hormuzensis (Teleostei, Aphaniidae) inhabiting coastal environment in Southern Iran

“…However, the eggs of A. vladykovi have large oil globule during the all embryonic stages (Sanjarani Vahed et al, 2017b). The oil globule fragmentation of fish eggs has already been reported in several freshwater fish species (e.g.…”

“…The average diameter of eggs also varies among the Aphanius species. It was 1.60 ± 0.20 mm in A. hormuzensis , 1.61 ± 0.12 mm in A. vladykovi eggs (Sanjarani Vahed et al., ), 1.45 ± 0.20 mm in A. sophiae (Masoudi, Esmaeili, & Ebrahimi, ), and 1.589 ± 0.50 mm in A. mento eggs (Sezen & Olmez, ). As results, A. sophiae seems to have smaller eggs in size.…”

“…Concerning the hatching time, A. hormuzensis hatched at 6.9 days post fertilization (166 hpf) at 28 ± 1°C water temperature. Aphanius farsicus and A. vladykovi hatch at nearly 7 days post fertilization (164 and 162 hpf respectively) at 24 ± 1°C water temperature (Sanjarani Vahed, Esmaeili, Masoudi, & Ebrahimi, , ), A. sophiae hatches at about 14 days post fertilization (330 hpf) at 24 ± 1°C (Masoudi, Esmaeili, & Ebrahimi, ), and the embryo of Aphanius mento hatches at 11 days post fertilization at 22.5 ± 1°C (Sezen & Olmez, ). Hatching period for killifish Adinia xenica is reported to occurred in 9–10 days at 26–28°C (Cunningham & Balon, ).…”

“…The eggs of A. hormuzensis, A. farsicus, A. mento, and A. sophiae are characterized by a single large oil globule in early stages but later several globules in different sizes present in their eggs (Masoudi, Esmaeili, & Ebrahimi, ; Sanjarani Vahed et al., ; Sezen & Olmez, ). However, the eggs of A. vladykovi have large oil globule during the all embryonic stages (Sanjarani Vahed et al., ). The oil globule fragmentation of fish eggs has already been reported in several freshwater fish species (e.g.…”

“…The average diameter of eggs also varies among the Aphanius species. It was 1.60 ± 0.20 mm in A. hormuzensis, 1.61 ± 0.12 mm in A. vladykovi eggs(Sanjarani Vahed et al, 2017b), 1.45 ± 0.20 mm in A. sophiae…”