Berycidae: E III A8

Centroberyx druzhinini (Busakhin, 1985).

Red-tailed beryx

Egg diameter in µm	Number of oil globules	Diameter of oil globule in µm	Yolk texture	Perivitelline space	Position of oil globule at hatch	Gut length   at eye- pigment stage	Myomeres
960-1030	1	190-220	segmented	moderate	bow	55% of NL	24-25

Egg: Fine black pigment dots are seen dorsally on the oil globule, and at the anus of the embryo. The yolk is strongly segmented (B). The PVS is equal to about half the oil globule diameter (A). Incubation is 25-30 hours.

Larva: The NH larva (B) has just a dot of black pigment at the base of the anal tube (B). At 2 days, spots appear on the nose, front edge of oil globule and along the length of the anal tube (C). By day 4, the black pigment has extended forward to the pectoral fins, and just posterior to the anal tube, where spots have also developed dorsally and laterally on the notochord (D). B: NH, C: 1-2 days, D: 4 days (22°C).

This species shows strong affinities to the next species (EIIIA9), and EIIA3. It also shows certain similarities with KIIIA8, but has a segmented yolk and different spawning season. Based on its position in the barcode dendrogram, it was clearly a berycid, but did not match any of the berycid species known from SA waters, based on Smith's Sea Fishes (1987). In 2003, a shoal of berycids was seen in video footage taken during filming of the coelacanths in the canyons off Sodwana Bay (E Heemstra, SAIAB, pers.comm.). A specimen was collected during that expedition, identified as Centroberyx druzhinini, and is now in the SAIAB collection. In July 2010, two specimens of Centroberyx druzhinini, were collected off Southport on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast. Tissue from these two fishes has been barcoded, and matches the sequences of 14 larvae hatched from this egg.

 

This egg has only been seen off Park Rynie on about 10 occasions, all in offshore samples. The outlier specimen of December 1994 (blue graph) is confirmed by a photograph of the 4-day larva. Other than that record, it has shown itself to be a mid-winter spawner. Apart from 1990, this species has been rare in collections (white graph). It was not seen in the DHM samples.