Mesopotamian Journal of Marine Science

The number of aliens crustaceans is constantly increasing
within the Syrian marine waters with the increasing of the interest in
the marine biodiversity which allowed the discovery of many new
species and various unrecorded species. The moon crab Ashtoret
lunaris (Forskål, 1775) is recorded for the first time from the Syrian
coast in the eastern Mediterranean. Two specimens of the Lessepsian
crab A. lunaris were collected from Al-shokaifat area (at the north of
Jableh). The specimens were collected by hand from the sandy shore
on 7 August 2017.

Matured brood stock of Pinctada radiata were collected from
Afamia region in Lattakia coast. Three sets of spawning and larval
rearing experiments were conducted during the period from July -
October 2016 and the pearl oysters were successfully spawned at average
temperature 31.5 ± 0.26 °C. After about 60 min, oocytes presented no
germinal vesicle, rounded and measured 47.5-55 μm with an average of
50 ± 3.95 μm in diameter. Early stages of embryonic development were
recorded and the polar body was observed 15 min after fertilization,
trefoil stage at 1 h and 30 min, morula at 3 h and 30 min, blastula at 4 h
and 50 min, gastrula at 6 h, trochophore larva at 8 h and veliger larva at
20 h. Veliger larva dimensions were 61.88 ± 3.82 μm for average length
along the antero-posterior axis and 51.26 ± 5.14 μm for height along the
dorso-ventral axis.

The current study was designed to evaluate the landing and distribution pathways of fish in Dhi Qar during the period from 2005 to 2016. This investigation was carried out to overview the location of the fish landing/entering centers, the source of supply and availability of fisheries
organisms in Dhi Qar Province. Gill net, seine net, cast net and electrofishing gears were used mainly for catching the freshwater fish. The total fish landing in the province during the above mentioned period was about 37427 tons. The maximum landed was about 4245 tons during 2016 which accounted for about 11% of the total catch. Out of thirteen freshwater fish species, 3 were marine fish species, the total landed fish was dominated by the less economically fish such as Palaniza abu which accounted for about 44 % of the total catch. Alternatively, the highly economically fish were landed in a less amount throughout the time studied. Seven native fish species were recorded during the study which made up of 67 % of the total catch. The alien species were 3 and made about 21 % of the total fish landed. Migratory species were occurred at the lowest level and formed about 12 % of the total catch. It could be concluded that most quantities of fish landings in the fish markets has always come from the captured fisheries, the rest were coming from aquaculture production.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of four fish dietary protein levels (30%, 35%, 40% and 45%) on the growth of Luciobarbus xanthopterus juveniles. About 240 fish of average weight of 18.4 g were kept in eight small letter tanks for 8 weeks at the Marine Science Center aquaculture room. Two replicates for each treatment with 30 fish for each replicate were used. A number of growth parameters were estimated during the experiment. The environmental factors measured were; water temperature, DO, salinity and pH. The highest average weight gained was 21.14 g ± 0.33 with the 40% dietary protein level, while the lowest average weight was 19.68 g ± 0.50. The highest weight gained was recorded at 40% dietary protein level. The highest weight gain and weight increase were significantly different (p<0.05) at 40% dietary protein level. Their values were 21.14 g ± 0.33 and 2.11 ± 0.06, respectively. The lowest weight gain and weight increase were at 45% protein level, with values of 19.68 g ± 0.50 and 1.09 ± 0.05, respectively. The weight increase was 2.11 ± 0.06. Significant differences (p<0.05) have been noticed in this protein level, however, the other dietary levels showed no significant increase. The highest rate of daily weight increase were recorded at the 30%, 35% and 40% levels and the significant differences (p<0.05) among these levels were in apparent. However, the weight increase rate of 2.12 was dropped at 45% level to 1.41 ± 0.033. The highest rate of specific growth was recorded at the 35% protein level with value of 0.31 g/day with no significant differences (p<0.05) between the various levels. Finally, it could be concluded from this study that the lowest specific growth 5.64% was recorded at the 45% protein level and the highest relative growth 11.06% was recorded at the dietary protein level of 35%.

In this article, we report on the occurrence of the shortnosed tripod fish Triacanthus biaculeatus (Bloch, 1786) in the North of Basrah, West of Al-Dair district which was not reported in this region before. Two specimens were obtained in November 2018 and identified as, T biaculeatus. They have a total length ranged from 69.0 to 137.0 mm. The first dorsal fin has 5 spines, the second spine is much less than half the length of the first one. The ventral surface of the pelvis is slightly tapered to words the posterior end.