Abstract
The pelagic eggs, yolk-sac and pelagic larvae of the macrourid fish, Coryphaenoides marginatus, from Suruga Bay in southern Japan, are described. The identification of the pelagic eggs based on 16S rRNA gene nucleotide sequences agreed with that obtained from morphological analyses. The spherical eggs, 1.14–1.30 mm in diameter, contained a single oil globule 0.30–0.38 mm in diameter, and had hexagonally patterned ornamentation on the chorion, 0.025–0.033 mm in width. Many melanophores were present on the anterodorsal region of the embryo after the caudal end had detached from the yolk. Within a day after hatching, each of the yolk-sac larvae had a body axis that was bent slightly at the anterior trunk region, many dorsal and lateral melanophores on the trunk plus several on the gut, and small irregular wrinkles on the dorsal and anal fin membranes. The pelagic larvae had a short caudal region in comparison to other known congeners (length 2.0–3.2+ times head length vs. 4–7, respectively), a short stalked pectoral fin base, and no elongate first dorsal and pelvic fin rays. They were further characterized by the presence of numerous very dense melanophores from just behind the eye to the anterior part of the caudal region at 5.1 mm head length (25.8+ mm total length). The significant difference in vertical distribution between the pelagic eggs and larvae (dominant depths ca. 200–350 m vs. ca. 10–100 m, respectively), with no subsequent collection of pelagic larvae with greater than 6 mm head length, indicate two stages (rising and falling) of ontogenic vertical migration.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the captains and crews of the T/V Hokuto, Tokai University, and the R/V Tansei-maru, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, and the scientists on board during cruise KT-01-18 for assistance when sampling. Grateful thanks are also given to G.S. Hardy (Ngunguru, New Zealand) for his critical comments on and his great help with the English of the manuscript. This study was supported in part by a Japanese Grant-in-Aid for Promotion of Scientific Research (C) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (no. 16580159) to the first author.
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Fukui, A., Tsuchiya, T., Sezaki, K. et al. Pelagic eggs and larvae of Coryphaenoides marginatus (Gadiformes: Macrouridae) collected from Suruga Bay, Japan. Ichthyol Res 55, 284–293 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-007-0024-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-007-0024-z