First record of the fangtooth moray, Enchelycore anatina (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae), from Maltese waters, central Mediterranean

First record of the yellowbar angelfish Pomacanthus maculosus (Forsskål, 1775) in the central Mediterranean (Maltese Islands)

“…Nonetheless, it represents a further addition to the list of thermophilic fish recorded from the Maltese Islands. The most recent review of alien species and other newcomers recorded from Maltese waters included thirteen subtropical or tropical fish species (Evans, Barbara, & Schembri, ); however, another four species must now be added to this list: Acanthurus coeruleus Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (Evans, Tonna, & Schembri, ); Enchelycore anatina (Lowe, 1838) (Deidun, Watson, Castriota, Mazza, & Pasolli, ); Heniochus intermedius Steindachner, 1893 (Evans, Tonna et al., ); and P. maculosus (present work). The presence of these thermophilic species might be linked to rising sea temperatures in the region: rising temperatures can facilitate the entry of such species into the Mediterranean and their subsequent spread to the central regions of the sea, as well as increase the survival chances of thermophilic alien species introduced intentionally or accidentally (Bianchi et al., ; Lejeusne, Chevaldonné, Pergent‐Martini, Boudouresque, & Pérez, ).…”

Ecological indicators from spatial statistics to describe the Atlantic fangtooth moray distribution in the Mediterranean Sea

“…After its first record in 1979 in Israel, Tel Aviv‐Jaffa (Ben‐Tuvia & Golani, 1984), with only one specimen collected, E. anatina has been found in several other areas of the Eastern Basin, where it might be established, from Rhodes, Elafonisos Island, and Cyclades archipelago in Greece (Dailianis et al, 2016; Golani et al, 2013; Kalogirou, 2010), to the south‐western coast of Turkey, the Syrian and Lebanese coasts, Cyprus, and the eastern Adriatic (Croatia). In recent years, its distribution area rapidly extended to the western Ionian (Guidetti et al, 2012; Katsanevakis et al, 2014) and Maltese waters (Deidun et al, 2015), while reproductive populations have been documented in the Adriatic Sea (Bartulović et al, 2017). In Italian waters, E. anatina was already recorded in the Ionian Sea, from south‐eastern Apulia (Guidetti et al, 2012) to Plemmirio Marine Protected Area, eastern Sicily (Katsanevakis et al, 2014), and it was recently sighted in the Tremiti Islands, Adriatic Sea (Tiralongo et al, 2020).…”

“…They sometimes share space with other organisms, like lobsters, more rarely with other morays which are usually not conspecifics (Lozano-Álvarez et al, 2010). Cohabitation of E. anatina with M. helena is documented in Maltese waters (Deidun et al, 2015), where specimens of the two species were observed in close proximity in the same hole. The opposite behavior was instead observed in the Strait of Messina, where all E. anatina specimens have never been observed in the presence of other muraenid species in the same cleft.…”

“…It is distributed in the eastern central Atlantic from Portugal to Angola, including the Azores, Madeira, Canary, Cape Verde, Ascension, and St. Helena Islands (Blache, 1967; Böhlke et al, 1989; Wirtz et al, 2014). It made its appearance in the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1970s in the Levant Basin (Ben‐Tuvia & Golani, 1984) and then started to spread and colonize several new areas of the eastern Mediterranean basin (Altan, 1998; Deidun et al, 2015; Kalogirou, 2010; Marletta & Lombardo, 2020).…”

“…There is also no information regarding the impacts of this species on the environment. It was already observed that sometimes the species shares the habitat with other confamilial species, the Mediterranean moray Muraena helena Linnaeus, 1758 (Deidun et al, 2015). It is therefore conceivable that the niche overlap could be pointed out as a major impact on the native species regarding the competition for space and food.…”