Cheimerius nufar (Valenciennes, 1830)

Siddiqui, Pirzada Jamal, Amir, Shabir Ali & Masroor, Rafaqat, 2014, The sparid fishes of Pakistan, with new distribution records, Zootaxa 3857 (1), pp. 71-100 : 80-81

Cheimerius nufar (Valenciennes, 1830)

Common name: Santer Seabream

Local names: Dandya (Sindh); Shumala, Tintle (Balochistan) ( Figures 6 & 15 W; Table 1 )

Dentex albus Gilchrist, 1914: 128 , Fig. (KwaZulu-Natal coast, South Africa, southwestern Indian). Dentex fasciolatus Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1830:242 (Red Sea); Bauchot & Daget, 1972: 65. Dentex miles Gilchrist & Thompson, 1908: 155 (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, southwestern Indian Ocean). Dentex nufar Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1830: 240 (Red Sea; Massawa, Eritrea, Red Sea); Bauchot & Daget,

1972: 49.

Dentex variabilis Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1830: 241 (Red Sea); Bauchot & Daget, 1972: 67.

Diagnosis. Cheimerius nufar has an elongate and almost oval shaped body, arched dorso-ventrally. Body with silvery sheen and five broad reddish/pinkish crossbars, more apparent in juvenile stage and in live specimens. First two dorsal spines very short, third one longest than remaining spines progressively shorter. Dorsal rays XII,10; anal rays III,8; pectoral rays 16, first ray slightly produced; lateral line scales 57–60; scales above lateral line to base of fourth dorsal spine 6½; jaws with caniform teeth; gill rakers long, 21 in number, 15 on lower arch ( Figure 15 Z1).

Description. Body moderately deep and compressed, its depth 37% of SL; head large, 32% of SL; mouth somewhat oblique; lips thick; snout somewhat pointed, two nostrils just in front of both eyes; upper jaw protruding slightly in front of lower jaw; maxilla reaching to bellow the starting of eye level; at front of upper jaw 4 and in lower jaw 6 canine teeth, outer series of lateral teeth conical and compressed with parallel rows of villiform teeth; third dorsal spine longest and 27–29 % of SL, first anal spine shorter(4.7–7.0% of SL); 2nd and 3rd anal spines sub equal, 9% of SL; pectoral-fins long, 34% of SL, reaching to above first anal-fin base; caudal fin deeply forked.

Color of fresh specimens. Silvery pink with five pink vertical bars on body and a pink through eye, this coloration fade out soon after its death; front of snout and part of upper jaws pink.

Distribution. Red Sea, western Indian Ocean: East Africa south to Cape Province ( South Africa), east to Madagascar and western Mascarenes ( Réunion, Mauritius). Pakistan is presumably the easternmost distributional record for this species.

Remarks. Cheimerius nufar was first described as Dentex nufar by Valenciennes (pg. 240, Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1830) from the Red Sea. Heemstra and Heemstra (2004) mentioned XI–XII and 10–11 dorsal-fin rays, 59–63 lateral line scales and13–16 lower gill rakers. Randall (1995) reported 58–63 lateral line scales and 9 + 13–15 gill rakers for this species. Smith and Smith (1986) recorded 8–11 + 13–16 gill rakers for this species. Our specimens have XII, 10 dorsal-fin rays, 57–60 lateral line scales and 6 + 15 gill rakers, 15 on lower arch. Although, all our characters of dorsal-fin rays, lateral line scales and gill rakers are in conformity to the reported range for these characters but the lowest count of 6 gill rakers on the upper arch in our specimens is worth reporting and will need examination of additional specimens to draw further conclusion as an important character for Arabian Sea population.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Cheimerius nufar, MUFS 39834, 297.5 mm SL, WWFH, Karachi. Pinkish tinge and faint bars on the body, first two dorsal spines are shorter and third to nine are elongated.

FIGURE 15. Details of dentition (A-Y) and gill rakers (Z & Z 1) in species of family Sparidae from Pakistan; Acanthopagrus catenula, A) upper jaw & B) lower jaw; A. berda, C) upper jaw & D) lower jaw; A. arabicus, E) upper jaw & F) lower jaw; A. sheim, G) upper jaw & H) lower jaw; Sparidentex hasta, I) upper jaw & J) lower jaw; Sparidentex jamalensis., K) upper jaw & L) lower jaw; Crenidens indicus, M) upper jaw & N) lower jaw; Diplodus capensis, O) upper jaw & P) lower jaw; Q) upper and lower jaws of Diplodus omanensis; Rhabdosargus sarba, R) upper jaw & S) lower jaw; Rhabdosargus haffara, T) upper jaw & U) lower jaw; V) upper and lower jaws of Agryrops spinifer; W) upper and lower jaws of Cheimerius nufar; Pagellus affinis, X) upper jaw & Y) lower jaw; Z) Argyrops spinifer, showing comparatively small gill rakers; and Z 1) Cheimerius nufar, showing elongated fan-like gill rakers.