Relationships between fish and otolith dimensions of Epinephelus summana (Forsskål, 1775) and Cephalopholis argus (Schneider, 1801) from the Egyptian Red Sea coast

Abstract

Egyptian Red Sea Otolith morphology analysis is one of the main tools used for fish or stock identification. Moreover, it is used in the stomach content studies for the identification of prey fish and their size according to the relationship between fish and otolith sizes. In the present study, the relationships between fish length and otolith morphological dimensions were investigated for Epinephelus summana (Forsskål, 1775) and Cephalopholis argus (Schneider, 1801) (family: Serranidae). A total of 170 E. summana and 154 E. argus (i.e 340 and 308 sagittal otoliths for E. summana and E. argus respectively) were sampled from the coast of the Egyptian Red Sea off Shalateen fishing ground. The statistical analysis was done by generalized linear models for the relationship between body length and weight and otolith morphology descriptors (length, width, area and perimeter) and shape indices (Aspect ratio, Compactness, rectangularity, Sulcus and Ostium). The results revealed that there is significantly correlation between the TL of fish and the eleven morphology descriptors and shape indices, where the side effect was p<0.05. Also, this study added new information for the region because of lack of data for the relationships between otolith morphometric and fish length.