Description: A small to medium-sized fish, oblong and moderately compressed, with a convex dorsal side and flattened ventral side. It is a goatfish, characterized by the presence of a pair of long sensory barbels on the chin. Two well separated dorsal fins; the first with spines; the second with a spine followed by soft rays. The caudal fin is forked.
Reddish with brown edges on the scale margins; pink on the sides with three longitudinal yellow bands. First dorsal fin yellow with dark markings. However they are able to voluntarily alter their colour pattern.
Global Distribution: Eastern Atlantic from Norway to Senegal, including Madeira and the Canary Islands; also the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length 40.0 cm (standard length); common length 25.0 cm (SL); maximum published weight 1.0 kg.
Growth type: Positive allometric (Santos et al. 2002; Mendes et al. 2004; Torres et al. 2012).
von Bertallanfy growth parameters: Canary Islands (Pajuelo et al. 1997): Males: L∞=29.19 cm, k=0.23 year-1, t0=-1.76 years (n=210, r2=0.94).
Females: L∞=36.93 cm, k=0.19 year-1, t0=-1.98 years (n=221, r2=0.98).
Total: L∞=35.71 cm, k=0.22 year-1, t0=-1.84 years (n=449, r2=0.98).
Reproduction: Spawning occurs from from February to May (peaking in March and April) in the Canary Islands, and in the summer in the North-Eastern Atlantic. Spawning seems to be related to temperature, with an optimum around 19-22ºC. Eggs and larvae are pelagic.
Maturity: FishBase: 16.1 cm, range 15 - 26 cm. Canary Islands (Pajuelo et al. 1997): 16.6 cm (TL). Mediterranean (Arslan & Ismen 2013): females 13.7 cm, males 13.2 cm.
Behavioural ecology: They can voluntary alter their colouration pattern. Often form small groups. Sometimes they will lie still on the substrate.
Population structure & migrations: Two stocks; one in the North-eastern Atlantic and another in the Mediterranean.
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 5 - 409 m.
Habitat: Demersal. Adults occur on broken and rough grounds but also found over sand and soft bottoms at depths less than 100 m.
Feeding habits: Feeds on benthic organisms such as shrimps and amphipods, polychaetes, molluscs, and benthic fishes. They have a specialized pair of chemosensory barbels under the lower jaw which they use to stir and probe the substratum in search of hypobenthic prey.
Trophic level: FishBase: 3.4
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Commercial species.
Conservation status: Global: Not evaluated.
Europe: Data deficient.
Nutritional information & food safety:
Proximate composition per 100 g:
energy value: 153.0 kcal (7.6% DRV)
protein: 18.7 g (37.4% DRV)
fat: 4.5 - 10 g (6.4 - 14.8% DRV)
of which saturates: 3.812 g (19.1% DRV)
omega-3 (EPA+DHA): 1.204 g (recommended: 0.250 - 2.0 g daily)
REFERENCES
Arslan, M., & Ä°ÅŸmen, A. (2013). Age, growth and reproduction of Mullus surmuletus (Linnaeus, 1758) in Saros Bay (Northern Aegean Sea). Journal of the Black Sea/Mediterranean Environment, 19(2): 217-233.
Carpenter K.E., ed. (2002). The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 3: Bony fishes part 2 (Opistognathidae to Molidae), sea turtles and marine mammals. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. FAO, Rome, pp. 1375-2127.
Galarza, J. A., Turner, G. F., Macpherson, E., & Rico, C. (2009). Patterns of genetic differentiation between two co-occurring demersal species: the red mullet (Mullus barbatus) and the striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 66(9): 1478-1490.
González J., Hernández C., Marrero P., Rapp E. (2000). Peces de Canarias: GuÃa Submarina (5th edition). Francisco Lemus Editor, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain, 235 pp.
Hureau J.-C., ed. (1984-1985). Fishes of the North-Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. UNESCO. Accessed through: Marine Species Identification Portal. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://species-identification.org (2014).
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
McEachran J.D., Fechhelm J.D. (2006). Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Vol. 2. Scorpaeniformes to Tetraodontiformes. University of Texas Press, Texas, USA, 1008 pp.
Mendes B., Fonseca P., Campos A. (2004). Weight–length relationships for 46 fish species of the Portuguese west coast. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 20(5): 355-361.
Morato T., Afonso P., Lourinho P., Barreiros J.P., Santos R.S., Nash R.D.M. (2001). Length–weight relationships for 21 coastal fish species of the Azores, north-eastern Atlantic. Fisheries Research, 50(3): 297-302.
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
Öksüz, A., Özyılmaz, A., & Küver, Ş. (2011). Fatty acid composition and mineral content of Upeneus moluccensis and Mullus surmuletus. Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 11, 69-75.
Santos M.N., Gaspar M.B., Vasconcelos P., Monteiro C.C. (2002). Weight–length relationships for 50 selected fish species of the Algarve coast (southern Portugal). Fisheries Research, 59(1): 289-295.
Spitz J., Mourocq E. Schoen V., Ridoux V. (2010). Proximate composition and energy content of forage species from the Bay of Biscay: high- or low-quality food? ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67(5): 909-915.
Torres M.A., Ramos F., Sobrino I. (2012). Length–weight relationships of 76 fish species from the Gulf of Cadiz (SW Spain). Fisheries Research, 127: 171-175.
Vassilopoulou V., Papaconstantinou C., Christides G. (2001). Food segregation of sympatric Mullus barbatus and Mullus surmuletus in the Aegean Sea. Israel Journal of Zoology, 47(3), 201-211.
