Apogon imberbis
Diagnosis
Diagnosis_Genus: Apogon Lacepède. Large scales and easily detached; the top of the head is high; two dorsal fines; point of barbel below the lower jaw.
Diagnosis_Species: Mullus imberbis Linnaeus. Caput compressum, declive, squamis tectum. Membr. branch. radiis III. Corpus squamis magnis, facile deciduis. Art. gen. 43. Syn. 71. Trigla capite glabo, tota rubens, cirris carens. D. 6, 1/10. P. I2, V. 6. A. 2/10. C. 20. Habitat in Melita.
Body_adults_length: 10-15 cm
Body_juveniles_length: < 5.5 cm (Raventos 2007)
Sequence_microsatellite loci: DQ822534, DQ822535, DQ822536, DQ822537, DQ822538, DQ822539, DQ822540, DQ822541 (Galarza et al. 2007)
Sequence_12S: AM158282 (Meynard et al., 2012)
Sequence_16S: FJ462721 (Meynard et al., 2012)
Etymology
The name of the genus comes from the Greek “A pogon” = beardless, and that of the species emphasizes the concept in Latin, as “imberbis” means the same thing. But what has to do the beard? This is explained by the Italian name of “Re di triglie” (= king of mullet). Seen the colour, the zoologist who was the first to examine this species, thought, in fact, to be facing a special mullet, without barbels, the king of the mullets, in conclusion, hence the Linnaeus’ name of Mullus imberbis = mullet without barb (beard), nowadays synonym. (http://www.photomazza.com/?Apogon-imberbis&lang=en)
Type species
The type species for the genus Apogon is Apogon ruber (Lacepède 1801).
Type illustration / Type locality / Type specimen
Type locality: Malta, Mediterranean Sea (Fishwisepro)
Ecology
Apogon imberbis live in Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea: Portugal to Morocco and the Azores. Elsewhere, southward to Gulf of Guinea (Fishbase).
Apogon imberbis is a non-migratory species.
Substrate: water
Sociability_adults: solitary
Sociability_adults: gregarious
Salinity: marine
Temperature: 20-22°C (for reproduction)
Habitat: coastal
Depth: 10-200 m (Fishbase)
Oxygen_level: oxic
Life cycle
The reproduction takes place in June at a water temperature of 20 to 22 ° C (Garnaud, 1950).
Both females and males reached maturity at length >5.5 cm, corresponding to 1 year of age in both sexes. The spawning season ranges from July to October, with a peak in August. The number of eggs in the mouths of males increased linearly with fish total length. Males incubate eggs in buccal cavity (Raventos, 2007).
No sexual dimorphisme.
Generation_time: 1 to 3 years
Reproduction_mode: sexual (oviparous)
Fertility_period: seasonal (during summer)
Spawning_method: external fertilization in the water column (Garnaud, 1950)
Fertility_period: seasonal (during summer and fall)
Fecondity_number_of_eggs_per_adult: 4.147 (7.4 cm TL) to 19.219 (10 cm TL) (Raventos, 2007)
Feeding behaviour
Mode of locomotion
Original description
Reference(s)
Observation site(s)
SYMBIONTS
Association with... | Region origin | Name of site | In reference... |
---|---|---|---|
Amyloodinium ocellatum | Aquarium Zoological Society of London |
On Oodinium ocellatum Brown, a parasitic dinoflagellate causing epidemic disease in marine fish. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 2:583-607. (1934) |