Journal of

Applied Ichthyology
J. Appl. Ichthyol. 31 (2015), 733–735 Received: May 12, 2015
© 2015 Blackwell Verlag GmbH Accepted: June 23, 2015
ISSN 0175–8659 doi: 10.1111/jai.12857

Short communication
An expected marine alien fish caught at the coast of Northern Cyprus: Pterois
miles (Bennett, 1828)
By I. K. Oray1, E. Sınay2, F. Saadet Karakulak1 and T. Yıldız1
1
Faculty of Fisheries, Istanbul University, Laleli, Istanbul, Turkey; 2Ministry for Food Agriculture and Energy in the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus, Lefkosßa, Cyprus

Introduction separate lionfish were observed off the coast of Cyprus in

Devil firefish (lionfish), Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) is widely 2013 (Evripidou, 2013), however these species were not
distributed in the Indian Ocean; Red Sea south to Port securely identified at that time but were recorded as Pterois
Alfred, South Africa, east of Sumatra and Indonesia (Fricke, miles. In this study, P. miles is reported from northern
1999). It has also been introduced into the eastern Mediterra- Cyprus, an area in which its has not been previously
nean (Golani and Sonin, 1992; Golani et al., 2006), North- recorded. The aim of this study is to document this new
western Australia (Sommer et al., 1996) and Atlantic Ocean record, updating our present knowledge on the distribution
(Whitfield et al., 2002). of this alien fish species.
After the opening of the Suez Canal, a total of 126 alien
marine species have been reported to occur along the Cyprus
Material and method
coast including 42 molluscs, 28 fish, 19 polychaetes, 15 phy-
tobenthic species, 12 crustaceans and 10 species of other On 26 February 2015, one devil firefish was captured with a
taxa. Most of these species originated from Indo-Pasific or gill net (64 mm mesh size) above rocky bottom at 40 m
Indian Oceans (Katsanevakıs et al., 2009). depth, 2 miles from the coast of Sipahik€
oy in Karpas (north-
Pterois miles has been first recorded in 1991 from the ern Cyprus; Fig. 1). Twelve morphometric characters were
coast of Israel (eastern Mediterranean; (Golani and Sonin, measured with a caliper to nearest 0.05 millimeter and a digi-
1992). In 2012, Bariche et al. (2013) reported this species tal balance to the nearest 0.01 g. All morphometric and
from the Lebanon coast. Later the first record of this spe- meristic measures were expressed as % of the standard
cies for the Turkish coast was noted (Turan et al., 2014). length (SL) and four as % head length (LH). The Sample
According to the information given by fishermen, two was preserved in 4% formaldehyde solution.

Fig. 1. Sampling location of Pterois

miles at the northern coast of Cyprus
(on February 26, 2015)

U.S. Copyright Clearance Centre Code Statement: 0175-8659/2015/3104–733$15.00/0

734 I. K. Oray et al.

Results lar and particularly in the non-native habitats, P. miles was

A single individual of P. miles was caught at the northern considered for many years to be a synonym of P. volitans
coast of Cyprus (Fig. 1). P. miles was identified based on the (Dor, 1984). However, Eschmeyer (1986) showed that they
number of dorsal fin rays, pectoral fin length, dark dots on are distinct different species. Additionallly, these species have
the soft dorsal, anal, and caudal rays and the size of the now been genetically separated (Kochzius et al., 2003; Ham-
spots on vertical fins and other features (Schultz, 1986; Go- ner et al., 2007).
lani and Sonin, 1992; CIESM, 2013). For proper comparison Lionfish are usually distributed in tropical marine waters,
the reader is referred to the global relational databank on and have been found on hard bottoms, mangroves, seagrass,
fishes www.FishBase.org, where plenty of color fotos are coral, and artificial reef communities (G omez et al., 2013). In
depicted on both species. The size, total weight and morpho- their original habitats, they occur along coral reefs and rocky
metric measurements, there relative proportion to standard shores down to depth of 50 m (CIESM, 2013). All records
length or head length are presented in Table 1. from various parts of the Mediterranean Sea (including this
study) report this species generally from depths of 25-40 m
(Golani and Sonin, 1992; Bariche et al., 2013; Turan et al.,
Discussion 2014).
Overall, the morphology and colour patterns were similar to Pterois miles is one of the globally successful invasive
those reported by Golani and Sonin (1992), Bariche et al. aquatic species (Poursanidis, 2015). Lionfish began spreading
(2013) and Turan et al. (2014). However, some morphomet- along USA coasts over the past 15 years and has established
ric measurements (eye diameter, body depth, preorbital dis- itself causing considerable economic losses (Morris, 2012),
tance, interorbital distance, pelvic and pectoral longest fin competing for food and space. However, Johnston and Pur-
rays) differed from those reported in other studies. kis (2014) estimated that the oceanographic conditions for a
Pterois miles generally has a smaller pectoral fin than wide dispersion of lionfish larvae in the Mediterranean Sea
P. volitans (Schultz, 1986) the rays of which reach the mid- were found unfavorable, the numerous lionfish sightings
point of the anal fin base (CIESM, 2013). Spots on the dor- would forewarn an impending invasion. Whether this is true
sal, anal and caudal fins are generally larger in P. volitans remains to be seen. So far, the lionfish were recorded only
(Schultz, 1986). The appearance of these species is very simi- occasionally in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Although pre-
sent, lionfish have not yet proliferated in the Mediterranean
Sea. Considering the potential negative effects of this species,
we recommend strongly to monitor its occurrence in the east-
Table 1 ern Mediterranean Sea.
Metric (mm) and meristic characteristics of a specimen of Pterois
miles caught in February 2015 at the coast of northern Cyprus. SL/
LH% = Standard length/head length ration (in % of Standard
length) Acknowledgements
We thank Ali Aygun for notifying us about the and for pro-
mm SL/LH%
viding the species.
Metric measurements
Total length 373.0
Standard length 275.0 References
Body depth 110.8 40.3 Bariche, M.; Torres, M.; Azzurro, E., 2013: The presence of the
Caudal peduncle length 43.8 15.9 invasive Lionfish Pterois miles in the Mediterranean Sea. Medit.
Caudal peduncle least depth 23.8 8.7 Mar. Sci. 14, 292–294.
Head length 84.9 30.8 CIESM, 2013: CIESM Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean
Dorsal fin length 164.6 59.8 Sea. Available at: http://www.ciesm.org/atlas/Pteroismiles.php.
Anal fin length 45.9 16.7 (accessed on 06 May 2015).
Predorsal length 85.2 31.0 Dor, M., 1984: Check-list of the fishes of the Red Sea. CLOFRES.
Preanal length 188.6 68.6 The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Jerusalem,
Prepelvic length 87.6 31.9 Israel, 437 pp.
Prepectoral length 91.2 33.2 Eschmeyer, W. N., 1986: Scorpaenidae. In: Smith’s fishes. M. M
Pelvic longest fin ray 118.7 43.2 Smith and P. C. Heemstra (Eds). Macmillian Pub., Johannes-
Pectoral longest fin ray 143.6 52.2 burg, pp. 463–478.
Eye diameter 9.7 11.5 Evripidou, S., 2013: Toxic lionfish makes its way to Cyprus waters.
Preorbital distance 23.9 28.2 Available at: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/toxic-Lionfish-
Postorbital distance 36.6 43.1 makes-its-way-cyprus waters/20130220 (accessed on 22 February
Interorbital distance 15.7 18.5 2013).
Meristic counts Fricke, R., 1999: Fishes of the Mascarene Islands (Reunion, Mauri-
Dorsal fin spinous rays 13 tius, Rodriguez): an annotated checklist, with descriptions of
Dorsal fin soft rays 11 new species, Vol. 31. Koeltz Scientific Books, Koenigstein,
Anal fin spinous rays 3 Theses Zoologicae, 759 pp.
Anal fin soft rays 7 Golani, D.; Sonin, O., 1992: New records of the Red Sea fishes, Pterois
Pectoral fin rays 14 miles (Scorpaenidae) and Pteragogus pelycus (Labridae) from the
Pelvic fin spinous rays I eastern Mediterranean Sea. Jap. J. Ichthyol. 39, 167–169.
Pelvic fin soft rays 5 € urk, B.; Basusta, N., 2006: Fishes of the Eastern
Golani, D.; Ozt€
Caudal fin soft rays 14 Mediterranean. TUDAV, Istanbul, Turkey, 259 pp.
Alien Pterois miles at the Northern Cyprus coast 735

Gomez, L. R.; Anderson, J. L.; Akins, D. S. A.; Buddo, G.; Garcıa- Poursanidis, D., 2015: Ecological Niche Modeling of the the invasive
Moliner, F.; Gourdin, M.; Laurent, C.; Lilyestrom, J. A.; Mor- lionfish Pterois miles (Bennett, 1828) in the Mediterranean Sea.
ris, J.; Ramnanan, N.; Torres, R., 2013: Regional strategy for 11th Panhellenic Symposium on Oceanography and Fisheries,
the control of invasive lionfish in the wider Caribbean. Interna- pp. 621–624.
tional Coral Reef Initiative, 31 pp. Schultz, E. T., 1986: Pterois volitans and Pterois miles: two valid spe-
Hamner, R. M.; Freshwater, D. W.; Whitfield, P. E., 2007: Mito- cies. Copeia, 3, 686–690.
chondrial cytochrome b analysis reveals two invasive Lionfish Sommer, C.; Schneider, W.; Poutiers, J. M., 1996: FAO species iden-
species with strong founder effects in the western Atlantic. tification field guide for fishery purposes. The living marine
J. Fish Biol. 71, 214–222. resources of Somalia. FAO, Rome, 376 pp.
Johnston, M. W.; Purkis, S. J., 2014: Are lionfish set for a Mediter- Turan, C.; Erg€uden, D.; G€urlek, M.; Yaglıoglu, D.; Uyan, A.; Uygur,
ranean invasion? Modelling explains why this is unlikely to ocur N., 2014: First record of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois miles
Mar. Pollut. Bull. 88, 138–147. (Bennett, 1828) (Osteichthyes: Scorpaenidae) for the Turkish mar-
Katsanevakıs, S.; Tsıamıs, K.; Ioannou, G.; Mıchaılıdıs, N.; Zenetos, ine waters. J. Black Sea/Mediterranean Environ. 20, 158–163.
A., 2009: Inventory of alien marine species of Cyprus. Med. Whitfield, P. E.; Gardner, T.; Vives, S. P.; Gilligan, M. R.; Courten-
Mar. Sci. 10, 109–133. ay, W. R.; Ray, G. C.; Hare, J. A., 2002: Biological invasion of
Kochzius, M.; S€ oller, R.; Khalaf, M. A.; Blohm, D., 2003: Molecu- the Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans) along the Atlantic
lar phylogeny of lionfish genera Dendrochirus and Pterois (Scor- coast of North America. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 235, 289–297.
paenidae, Pteroinae) based on mitochondrial DNA sequence.
Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 28, 396–403. Author’s address: Isßık K. Oray, Faculty of Fisheries, Istanbul Uni-
Morris, J. A., 2012: Invasive Lionfish: A Guide to Control and Man- versity, Ordu st. No. 200, 34470 Laleli, Istanbul,
agement. Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute Special Publica- Turkey.
tion Series Number 1, Marathon, Florida, USA, 113 pp. E-mail: [email protected]