Life‐history traits of the leatherjacket Meuschenia scaber, a long‐lived monacanthid

Abstract

The present study describes the age and growth of the leatherjacket Meuschenia scaber, a common Australasian monacanthid and valued by-catch of the inshore bottom trawl fishery in New Zealand. Age was determined from the sagittal otoliths of 651 individuals collected between July 2014 and March 2016 in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Otolith sections revealed alternating opaque and translucent zones and edge-type analysis demonstrated that these are deposited annually. Meuschenia scaber displayed rapid initial growth, with both males and females reaching maturity in 1-2 years and 50% of both sexes matured at 1·5 years. Maximum age differed substantially between the sexes, at 9·8 years for males and 17·1 years for females. Growth rate was similar between sexes, although males reached greater mass at age than females in the early part of the lifespan. The length-mass relationship differed significantly between the sexes, with males displaying negative allometric growth and females isometric growth. Female condition was highest in July, declined in August with the onset of spawning and showed a slight peak in January and February, immediately following the spawning season. This study substantially extends the maximum longevity recorded for monacanthids, although males had much shorter lifespans and higher mortality, than females.

Taking a deeper look: Quantifying the differences in fish assemblages between shallow and mesophotic temperate rocky reefs

“…M . scaber is the most numerically abundant monacanthid species in eastern Australia and New Zealand, but very little is known of its ecology and biology [90]. They are known to inhabit a wide range of depths, but in this study there appears to be a preference for deeper mesophotic reefs.…”

“…Feeding exclusively on sessile invertebrates such as sponges, ascidians, polyzoans, hydroids and barnacles, M . scaber is well suited to these mesophotic reefs [90]. For N .…”

Intertrip consistency in hunting behavior improves foraging success and efficiency in a marine top predator

“…Given that individuals in the present rates of patch replenishment are low for benthic prey such that it is not economical for individuals to return within such timeframes to an area. Indeed, one of the main prey species for AUFS are benthic leatherjacket fish (family Monocanthidae) (Arnould et al, 2011), which reach maturity at 1-2 years (Visconti et al, 2018), such that depletion of mature adults may lead to a lagged replenishment of prey. The timescales over which individual specializations are assessed are known to influence the degree of specialization detected (Kernaléguen et al, 2016) and are likely to be influenced by the temporal consistency of prey resources.…”

Reproductive and feeding biology of unicorn leatherjacket, Aluterus monoceros from the Bay of Bengal, Northern Indian Ocean

“…Globally, studies on reproduction and diet of monacanthids indicate enormous inter-species variability (Kawase & Nakazono, 1996). Research on their biology, worldwide, is limited to studies on a few species, mostly small, including Cantherhines pardalis (Rüppell, 1837) (Kawase & Nakazono, 1994), Monacanthus tomentosus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Peristiwady & Geistdoerfer, 1991), Stephanolepis hispidus (Linnaeus, 1766) (Mancera-Rodríguez & Castro-Hernández, 2015a, 2015b, Stephanolepis diaspros (Fraser-Brunner, 1940) (Zouari-Ktari et al, 2008El-Ganainy & Sabrah, 2013), Thamnaconus modestus (Günther, 1877) (Kim et al, 2013), Nelusetta ayraudi (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) (Miller & Stewart, 2013) and Meuschenia scaber (Forster, 1801) (Visconti et al, 2018a(Visconti et al, , 2018b.…”