Haemulidae: E III B4
Pomadasys olivaceus (Day, 1875)
Piggy or pinky
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 |
750-790 |
1 |
170-205 |
segmented |
narrow |
bow |
47% of NL |
26 |
Egg: The pale yellow pigment dots on the developing embryo, are evenly spread from head to tail (A), which immediately identifies this egg from EIIIB3. The oil globule tends to be close to the head of the larva, even in the egg (A), and on a white background, often appears black due to the density of black pigment spots. Segmentation may be confined to the edge of the yolk, but is always distinct. Incubation is 25-30 hours.
Larva: The early larva shows a very distinctive pattern of straw-like bundles of yellow pigment, either in three clusters (B & C), or covering the entire notochord from the pectoral fin to well past the anus (D). And they persisted in a winter reared 15-day larva which was still preflexion (E). B: 1 day, C: 2 days, D: 4 days, E: 15 days (21°C), F: 24 days, G: 33 days, H: 68 days. (Note: E was reared at 21°C, all the rest at 25°C).
The species proved easy to rear, and was successfully raised on several occasions. Four hatched larvae have been sequenced so far, and they matched 7 adult P. olivaceum barcoded for this study (BOLD reference).
Linked samples |
Offshore |
Inshore |
Eggs |
1086 |
1103 |
Hits |
137 |
164 |
The pinky was one of the most common eggs in the Park Rynie samples, lying 23rd in Table 3 (Introductory Notes). Spawning was all year round, with a small increase in winter (blue graph). The long-term spawning pattern (white graph), shows little change over the past 19 years. The eggs were recorded in the DHM samples on only two occasions, indicating that adults move away from the surfzone to spawn. The Park Rynie linked samples had 50% of eggs inshore, suggesting adults are predominantly spawning in 20-30m water depth. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.