New biological data on Fistularia commersonii
                                in the central Mediterranean Sea

                                                                      by

                        Luca Castriota* (1), Manuela Falautano (1), Pietro Battaglia (2),
                                           Alberto Oddo (3) & Franco Andaloro (1)

                        Abstract. – Preliminary data on age, growth and diet of bluespotted cornetfish Fistularia commersonii Rüppell,
                        1838 (Fistulariidae) in the central Mediterranean Sea are provided. In the study area, this invasive Lessepsian
                        fish showed piscivorous behaviour, focusing mainly on labrids, clupeids and sparids. Prey composition suggests
                        that bluespotted cornetfish explores various habitats for hunting. Prey fishes were mainly juveniles and their size
                        showed positive correlation with predator size. Estimated by vertebrae readings, ages of bluespotted cornetfish,
                        having sizes from 73.0 to 107.5 cm total length, ranged from 2 to 4 years; these are the first estimates of age for
                        this species. The parameters of von Bertalanffy growth curves were L∞ = 102.39 cm, k = 0.49 year-1, t0 = –0.57
                        years. The analysis of growth rates indicates that bluespotted cornetfish is a fast-growing species. Growth per-
                        formance index was Φ’ = 3.71, and weight-length relationship, W = 0.0001 x TL3.372 (R2 = 0.857), described
                        positive allometric growth of F. commersonii.

© SFI                   Résumé. – Nouvelles données biologiques sur Fistularia commersonii en Méditerranée centrale.
Received: 24 Sep. 2012
Accepted: 24 Sep. 2012      Des données préliminaires sur l’âge, la croissance et l’alimentation de l’espèce lessepsienne Fistularia com-
Editor: O. Otero        mersonii Rüppell, 1838 en Méditerranée centrale sont présentées. Dans la zone d’étude, cette espèce invasive
                        a un comportement piscivore, se concentrant principalement sur les labridés, les clupéidés et les sparidés, ce
Key words               qui indique une exploration de divers habitats. Ces proies sont principalement des juvéniles dont les tailles sont
Fistulariidae           positivement corrélées à la taille du prédateur. L’estimation de l’âge à partir des vertèbres indique des individus
Fistularia commersonii  âgés de 2 à 4 ans pour des longueurs totales comprises entre 73,0 et 107,5 cm. Ce sont les premières estimations
Mediterranean Sea       de l’âge de F. commersonii. Les paramètres des courbes de croissance de       von  Bertalanffy sont TL∞ = 102,39
Age                     cm, k = 0,49 ans-1, t0 = –0,57 ans. L’analyse des taux de croissance indique  que  F. commersonii est une espèce à
Growth                  croissance rapide. L’indice de performance de croissance est Φ’ = 3,71, et la relation entre le poids et la longueur,
Lessepsian              W = 0,0001 x 3,372 TL (R2 = 0,857), décrit une croissance allométrique positive.

    In the last century, the Mediterranean basin has been      introduction sites just happened during the period of increas-
affected by invasions of non-native organisms, mostly tropi-   ing temperatures, i.e. after 1980’s (Rixen et al., 2005; Rait-
cal and subtropical species, from both the Red Sea through     sos et al., 2010). Among the Lessepsian fish species moving
the Suez Canal and the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of    westward from the eastern Mediterranean basin, only three
Gibraltar. This phenomenon exacerbated during the last three   species entered the western basin. The rabbitfish Siganus
decades, concomitantly with increasing temperatures of         luridus (Rüppell, 1829) was recorded in southern Tyrrhenian
Mediterranean surface seawaters, the so-called “Mediterra-     Sea in 2004 (Castriota and Andaloro, 2008) and later in the
nean tropicalization” (Andaloro and Rinaldi, 1998; Bianchi     Gulf of Lion in 2008 (Daniel et al., 2009). The filefish Steph-
and Morri, 2003). An apparent signal of this phenomenon        anolepis diaspros Fraser-Brunner, 1940 was recorded in the
is pictured by non-indigenous fishes, which respond to tem-    Gulf of Palermo (southern Tyrrhenian Sea) in 1983 (Cata-
perature changes enlarging their populations and distribution  lano and Zava, 1993) and later in northern Tunisia in 2004
area (Riera et al., 1995). About 63% of fish introductions in  and 2008 (Ben Amor and Capapé, 2008. However, estab-
the Mediterranean is made of Indo-Pacific tropical or sub-     lished populations of these two species in the western basin
tropical species which mainly entered the Mediterranean        is not confirmed yet. Otherwise, the bluespotted cornet-
through immigration from the Suez Canal after its open-        fish Fistularia commersonii Rüppell, 1838 (Fistulariidae),
ing in 1869 (Lessepsian migration) (Andaloro et al., 2011).    entered the western basin in 2003 (Pipitone et al., 2004)
Among them, only few species have been recorded along the      and in short time colonized all the Mediterranean, reaching
whole longitudinal spectrum covered by the Mediterranean.      the southern coasts of Spain (Sanchez-Tocino et al., 2007)
Their migration and conquest of the farthest waters from

(1)	Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), STS Palermo, via Salvatore Puglisi 9, 90143 Palermo, Italy.
    [manuela.falautano@isprambiente.it] [franco.andaloro@isprambiente.it]

(2)	ISPRA, Laboratory of Milazzo, Via dei Mille 44, 98057 Milazzo (ME), Italy. [pietro.battaglia@isprambiente.it]
(3)	University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 16, 90128 Palermo, Italy. [alberto.oddo@gmail.com]
*	 Corresponding author [luca.castriota@isprambiente.it]

Cybium 2014, 38(1): 15-21.