First record of the Far East chameleon goby Tridentiger trigonocephalus (Gill, 1859) in the Mediterranean Sea

First record of Acanthurus chirurgus (Perciformes: Acanthuridae) in the Mediterranean Sea, with some distributional notes on Mediterranean Acanthuridae

“…While Lessepsian migrants and thermophilic Atlantic species commonly have a high rate of establishment success, the same cannot be said of the few species whose presence in the Mediterranean Sea is due to human transport (Golani et al, 2013). Among this small group of alien fishes, only Tridentiger trigonocephalus (Goren et al, 2009), Scatophagus argus (Zammit & Schembri, 2011), and on the basis of present data Acanthurus coeruleus, have shown some evidence of local establishment, although unlike several Lessepsian migrants, none of these three species seems to have undergone significant range expansion. The presence and eventual spread of A. coeruleus along the coasts of Cyprus, however, should be closely monitored in order to verify the hypothesis of a more or less small reproductive stock and the possibility of a range expansion towards the eastern Mediterranean coasts.…”

Occurrence of Barred Knifejaw, <I>Oplegnathus Fasciatus</I> (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Oplegnathidae), in Malta (Central Mediterranean) with a Discussion on Possible Modes of Entry

“…The present case concerns at least two sub-adult fish that seem to have been 'translocated' from the North West Pacific to the Mediterranean in good condition, then 'released' into the wild to survive for at least 33 days (the period of time between the two records). The literature contains numerous references to shipping as a vector for long-distance translocations of fish similar to the present case, and most authors have suggested that the animals travelled in ballast water (e.g., Mastrototaro et al 2007, Goren et al 2009 for the Mediterranean; see also Anonymous 1996).…”

“…As with other NIS, almost all are species that occur in adjacent seas, however, a few have areas of distribution far afield from either the NE Atlantic or the Red Sea. Such species include honeycomb grouper, Epinephelus merra Bloch, 1793, from the Indian/Pacific Ocean (Patrick Lelong, Paul Ricard Oceanographic Institute, personal communication); dwarf flathead, Elates ransonnetti (Steindachner, 1876), from the Central Pacific (Mastrototaro et al 2007); muzzled blenny, Omobranchus punctatus (Valenciennes, 1836), from the Indo-Pacific outside the Red Sea; the circumtropical antenna codlet, Bregmaceros atlanticus Goode et Bean, 1886;and chameleon goby, Tridentiger trigonocephalus (Gill, 1859) from the West Pacific (Goren et al 2009). It could therefore be assumed that in such cases human transport is the most probable mode of introduction and the agents that have usually been implicated are aquaculture, the aquarium trade, and shipping (Golani et al 2002, Galil 2009, Goren et al 2009).…”

First record of the Spiny blaasop Tylerius spinosissimus (Regan, 1908) (Tetraodontidae) from the Turkish coasts

“…A large number of non-indigenous fish species of Red Sea and Indo-Pacific origin occurs today in the Mediterranean Sea, of which at least 77 species have been introduced via the Suez Canal, (GOREN et al, 2009(GOREN et al, , 2010GOLANI, 2010;GOLANI et al, 2010;BARICHE, 2010 a, b;ZENETOS et al, 2010).…”