Crenidens indicus Day 1873

Common name: Karanteen seabream

Local names: Kissi, Karo–dandya (Sindh); Nawar (Balochistan) (Figures 7 & 15 M & N; Table 1)

Crenidens indicus Day, 1873: clxxxvi (Northern Indian Ocean); Menon & Yazdani, 1968:145.

Diagnosis. The species Crenidens indicus is distinguished from its congeners with the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin rays XI,11; anal-fin rays III,10; pectoral-fin rays 14; scale rows above lateral line 5½–6½, below 13½; pored lateral line scales 49–50; gill rakers 7 + 1 + 10 = 18; the ratio of 2 AS /3 AS 1.1–1.3; incisor–like teeth with five points, three middle points large in size, but two outside points much smaller and often worn out (Figure 15 M & N); a dark spot located dorsally in the pectoral-fin axil.

Description. Counts and proportional measurements of four specimens of Crenidens indicus are given in Table-1. Body deep and compressed, its depth 43.6–47.5% of SL; head length is small 27.3–30.4% of SL rostro–occipital profile of head convex from snout tip to first dorsal-fin spine base but weakly concave just above the interorbital region (Figure 7); orbit diameter subequal to interorbital width; mouth small to moderate and terminal; maxilla naked, posteriorly not reaching vertical at front edge of eye; two to three series of incisor-like teeth on both jaws followed by three to four rows of small molars inside of incisor-like teeth at posterior part of jaws (Figure 15 M & N); gill rakers 18, 10–11 on lower arch, hind margin of preopercle generally rounded and feebly serrated; no scales on preopercle flange; predorsal length less than body depth, and clearly less than dorsalfin base length; dorsal-fin spines strong, first one is smaller (5.6–7.4% of SL), 3rd to 6th are subequal (15.2–18.7% of SL); first anal-fin spine short (6–8.3% of SL); 2nd and 3rd anal-fin spines are sub equal and 15.7–17.8% and 12.9–16.6% respectively of SL. caudal peduncle deep 12.2–12.9% of SL; caudal fin weakly forked, upper lobe is little longer than the lower lobe.

Color of fresh specimens. Head silvery but anterior portion with more grayish; body silvery with a dusky spot in scale centers, resulting in a striped effect; belly whitish; a blackish diffuse spot dorsally in pectoral-fin axil and extending above pectoral fin base; dorsal and caudal fin dusky distally. Anal-fin and pelvic-fin grayish; pectoral-fin hyaline and a little dusky.

Distribution. Southern Arabian Peninsula (sometimes in Red Sea), through the Persian Gulf, to the coasts of Iran and Pakistan.

Remarks. The genus Crenidens had been recognized with a single species and two subspecies (Bauchot & Smith, 1983; Randall, 1995; Manilo & Bogorodsky, 2003): Crenidens crenidens crenidens (Forsskål, 1775) and Crenidens crenidens indicus Day, 1873. Day (1875) considered Crenidens macracanthus Günther, 1874 as a junior synonym of Crenidens c. indicus. The recent study of Iwatsuki and Maclaine (2013) revealed three valid species in this genus. Crenidens crenidens is distributed from the Red Sea, East Africa along the east coast of Africa to Aliwal Shoal and Algoa Bay in South Africa (Heemstra & Heemstra, 2004). Crenidens indicus was reported to occur along the coast of India and Arabian Sea (Bauchot & Smith, 1983). But according to Iwatsuki and Maclaine (2013) C. indicus is either not distributed along the coast of India or it might be an extremely rare occurrence in that area. Accordingly, C. indicus is distributed from southern Arabian Peninsula (sometimes in Red Sea), through the Persian Gulf, to the coasts of Iran and Pakistan.