A new alien fish in the Mediterranean Sea – Platax teira ( Forsskål , 1775 ) ( Osteichthyes : Ephippidae )

A single Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775) specimen was captured off Bodrum (southern Aegean Sea, Turkey) on 5 March 2006. It is the first record of this fish species in the Mediterranean Sea. Introduction of the species is probably due to an aquarium release.


Introduction
Thirty three alien fish species, originally from the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific Ocean, were listed from the Turkish coastline, 21 of the species reached the Aegean Sea (Bilecenoglu et al. 2002, Bilecenoglu 2004. Recently, four more species were added to the Turkish ichthyofauna: underwater observations at Fethiye Bay revealed the presence of Torquigener flavimaculosusa species hitherto known from few records in the Levant Sea (Bilecenoglu 2003(Bilecenoglu , 2005; Heniochus intermedius (Gökoglu et al. 2003) and Hippocampus fuscus (Gökoglu et al. 2004) were recorded from Antalya Bay; and Lagocephalus sceleratus was captured off Gökova Bay (Akyol et al. 2005).
In the present note, the teira batfish, Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775), is recorded for the first time from the Levant Sea, based on a single specimen collected in Bodrum (southern Aegean Sea, Turkey). It is the first representative of the family Ephippidae in the Mediterranean.
Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775) Material examined: One specimen, 44.5 cm total length, 38.9 cm standard length, 3380 g in weight (    Table 1. Body orbicular, deep and strongly compressed laterally, its depth 2.66 times of head length and 1.31 times in SL. The front head profile is almost vertical; large adults (> 35 cm SL) show a bony hump from top of head to interorbital region. Opercular membranes are united to isthmus. The eyes are small, slightly larger than the preorbital length, 4.50 times in head length. Preopercle smooth, no spines on the opercle. The mouth is small; not protractile. Maxilla does not reach posteriorly to a vertical through the anterior of the eye. Lower jaw with five clearly visible pores on each side of jaw. Jaws with slender bands of tricuspid teeth, the middle cusp not much longer than lateral cusps; no palatines; vomer teeth present. Pectoral fin base slightly in front of pelvic fin base. Caudal fin truncate. Snout and interorbital area without scales. Rough and small body scales partly covering the fleshy bases of dorsal and anal fins. Color of the single specimen examined is mainly brownish with a dusky bar through the eye. Another wider dark bar extends from dorsal fin origin to belly, enclosing a black blotch (located below the pectoral fin tip). A smaller dusky blotch is located above the anal fin origin.
Pectoral and pelvic fins dusky yellow, the belly is yellowish as well. Dorsal and anal fins with black margins posteriorly. Measurements, counts and body coloration of the Mediterranean P. teira specimen agree with descriptions of Heemstra (2001).
Remarks: Members of the family Ephippidae are known from the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Nelson 1994). The teira batfish is an inshore species distributed in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-West Pacific region, i.e. Red Sea to South Africa, Arabian Sea, Somalia, Japan, southeastern India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, northern Australia, New Zealand and Melanesia (Dor 1984, Sommer et al. 1996, Francis et al. 1999, Ni and Kwok 1999, Heemstra 2001Manilo andBogorodsky 2003, Marimuthu et al. 2005). The habitats of the species include shallow coral reefs, seaweed rich ecosystems, mangrove areas, and also wrecks and deep reefs of up to 70 m depth (Heemstra 2001). It is caught by various fishing gears (handlines, nets, traps, speargun etc.), but is considered of only a minor commercial importance (Sommer et al. 1996, Heemstra 2001. Its long-finned juveniles are common in the saltwater aquarium trade, and specimens of the congeneric P. orbicularis were collected off Florida, where it was postulated they were released by aquarists when they outgrew their aquaria (Semmens et al. 2004).  (Heemstra 2001). Platax teira can be distinguished from P. batavianus by the shape of tricuspid teeth (middle cusps slightly longer than lateral cusps in the former, 3 to 4 times longer in the latter); from P. boersii by having vomer teeth, nape hump (adults) and more lateral line scales (56-66 vs 44-52); from P. orbicularis by having less dorsal soft rays (29-34 vs 34-39) and smaller interorbital distance in head length (42-50% vs 35-42%); from P. pinnatus by snout shape (not produced in P. teira) and number of pores on each side of lower jaw (5 in the former, 3-4 in the latter). The wing-like dorsal and anal fins, orbicular body shape and the coloration of P. teira easily distinguish the species from all other Mediterranean fishes.
There are several records of P. teira, as a fish host to parasites. A teira batfish specimen off New Zealand was heavily infested by parasitic copepods (Francis et al. 1999). Some parasitic copepods from the family Caligidae (i.e. Caligus rotundigenitalis, Anuretes anomalus, A. branchialis, A. plataxi) were found in P. teira from Taiwan waters (Ho andLin 2000, Ho 2004). The Lepocreadiidae (Digenea) is the most commonly reported family in Ephippidae: Bray and Cribb (2003) recorded three digeneans from P. teira, Neomultitestis aspidogastriformis, Multitestis magnacetabulum and Diploproctodaeum rutellum. The Mediterranean specimen of P. teira was checked externally for parasites, but none were encountered.
Teira batfish are known to associate with floating seaweed, debris and artificial reefs as juveniles and even adults, and are therefore capable of drifting considerable distances (Francis et al. 1999, Jackson et al. 2004, Marimuthu et al. 2005. Though Suez Canal maybe suspected as a mode of entry for the species, no data at present support this assumption. Platax species are commercially valuable in the aquarium trade (Heemstra 2001, Semmens et al. 2004, and it is likely our specimen was discharged into the Mediterranean by aquarists.