On Some Cases of Fish Anomalies in Fishes from the Port of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Gulf

Abstract

Cases of deformities in the operculum, dorsal fin and cases of albinism, color disorder and hyperostosis were observed and examined in fish samples collected from the Jubail City, Saudi Arabia. An attempt was made in this study to find a possible relationship between these anomalies and several types of pollutants presents in the environment. The assessment of abnormalities was carried out by their diagnosis morphologically. All cases were not fatal as they occurred in adult individuals. The possible causes for such deformities as well as the suitability of this kind of study for environmental monitoring are discussed. Further studies are needed to relate specific pollutants with the observed types of deformities.

Pugheadedness in Fishes

“…Several studies find that adult pugheaded specimens are in reproductive condition with normal length for their age (Pappenheim 1907;Briggs 1966;Chew 1973;Franks 1995;Bueno et al 2015;Catelani et al 2017). It is also sometimes noted that pugheaded specimens appear to be in apparent good health and condition (van Lidth de Jeude 1885; Marlborough and Meadows 1966;Hickey et al 1977;Jawad and Ibrahim 2017). Several studies note that the growth and/or condition of the fish (mass relative to length) is markedly poorer in pugheads (Rose and Harris 1968;Nakamura 1977;Tilseth et al 1984;Schmitt and Orth 2015;Porta and Snow 2019), typically interpreted as a consequence of poorly functioning jaws and foraging ability.…”

“…It is common for other (externally visible) deformations, away from the head region, to be absent (noted by e.g. Lowne 1893;Hikita 1955;Talent 1975;Honma and Ishikawa 1978;Leidy 1985;Macieira and Joyeux 2007;Jawad and Ibrahim 2017;Kathan et al 2020), but such observations could depend on stronger selection against individuals with multiple deformities, making the individual unlikely to survive long enough to be noticed. A case of a slightly pugheaded pandora Pagellus erythrinus, which also had saddleback syndrome (deformed dorsal profile, associated with loss of dorsal fin spines and pterygiophores) has been described from marine waters of Turkey .…”

A Record of Fish Anomaly from the Sea of Marmara, Turkey: European Hake (Merluccius merluccius Linnaeus, 1758) Missing the Right Eye

“…Fish anomalies have been ascribed to multiple factors like currents (Hilger, 1992;Divanach et al, 1997;Cerezo et al, 2005), temperature variations, pH, salinity fluctuation, and low dissolved oxygen (Milton, 1971;Turner & Farley, 1971;Gluth & Hanke, 1983;Boglione et al, 2013), high CO 2 concentration in water (Martens et al, 2006), pollutants like chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphates, pesticides, and heavy metals (Kessabi et al, 2009;Lin Sun et al, 2009) There are few papers in the literature about the causes of different deformities in wild fish anomalies (Divananch et al, 1996;Aritaki & Seikai, 2004;Jonsson & Jonssoln, 2006;Sanchez et al, 2011). There are some fish anomaly cases in different regions reported as albinism (Baruah, 1968;Jawad & İbrahim, 2017), melanism (Atz et al, 1963;Berland, 1967;Marcoux, 1966), hermaphroditism (Bullough, 1940;Arme, 1965;Ciechomski & Christiansen, 1968;Millikan & Pattie, 1970), deformations in the vertebrae (Cavaliere, 1965;Hoff, 1970;Boglione et al, 2006;Jawad & Akyol, 2018), deformations of the fins (Hase, 1935;Bennet, 1964;Easwaran, 1968), and malpigmentation (Cerim et al, 2016).…”

Extending records of albinism and skin disorders in American cownose rays to southeastern Brazil

“…Pigmentation disorders whether due to a deficiency ( i.e ., hypomelanosis) or an excess ( i.e ., hypermelanosis) of pigmentation are rarely observed in the wild, especially in marine animals (Arronte et al ., 2022; McCardle, 2012). Examples of hypomelanotic conditions are albinism, a genetic condition expressed as a total lack of integumentary and retinal melanin (Jawad & Ibrahim, 2018), and leucism caused by the expression of recessive alleles, resulting in a total or partial loss of melanin, but with a regular coloration of eyes (Fertl & Rosel, 2009; Leroux et al ., 2022). In Chondrichthyes species (sharks, batoids, chimaeras), albinism and leucism are extremely rare and have been documented only in 61 species across 31 families (reviewed by Arronte et al ., 2022; Bigman et al ., 2016).…”