Haemulidae: E III B3

Pomadasys striatum (Gilchrist & Thompson 1908)

Striped grunt

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
750-820	1	170-190	segmented	narrow	bow	47% of NL	26

Egg: The pale yellow pigment dots on the developing embryo, tend to be separated into about 5 groups from head to tail, in this species (A). But intermediates between this egg and EIIIB2 can be seen in A. Segmentation is not always clear, and requires a black/white interface under the bowl, for confirmation (see Introductory Notes, Section 2.6: Photography of larvae).

Larva: Early pigment patterns are shown in B & C, fading in the 4-day larva (D). At 5 days, just a little yellow pigment persists above the anus (E).  The 14-day, winter reared  larva, is at the flexion stage (F), but a 15-day larva, reared in November, is postflexion (G). At 26 days (I), the dark line down the midbody separates this species from P.  commersonnii (EIIIB2) and P.  olivaceum (EIIIB4). B: 1 day, C: 2 days, D: 4 days, E: 5 days, F: 14 days (21°C), G: 15 days (24°C), H: 20 days (24°C), I: 26 days (21°C). Note the different rearing temperatures; some were reared in June and others in November.

The species proved easy to rear, and was reared on several occasions, to check whether any of the batches contained P.  commersonnii eggs. Only P. striatum was reared from eggs collected at Park Rynie. Six larval sequences are available, matching 5 locally collected adults (BOLD).

 

Linked samples	Offshore	Inshore
Eggs	13046	19328
Hits	233	355

This was the seventh most common egg in the Park Rynie samples (see Introductory notes, Section 7, Table 3). The adults are often seen on Aliwal Shoal and the reefs in the Park Rynie area, during SCUBA dives, from the shallows (15m) to 45m, 5km offshore. Spawning is all year round, with a small increase in early summer (blue graph). The long-term spawning pattern (white graph), shows a steady drop in catches over the past 10 years, possibly linked to the influence of drought over this period. The eggs were not recorded in the DHM samples, but this may have been due to confusion with P. commersonnii (see comments EIIIB2). The Park Rynie linked samples had 60% inshore, confirming that this species is spawning well inshore of  the indicator species, Argyrosomus japonicus. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.