Animal v. plant-based bait: Does the bait type affect census of fish assemblages and trophic groups by baited remote underwater video (BRUV) systems?

© 2016 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles. Coral reef fish communities were sampled at the Nayband Marine Park, Iran, using baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVSs) which incorporated animal (i.e. frigate tuna Auxis thazard and beef liver), or plant-based baits (i.e. raw dough and raw dough-turmeric powder mix). The A. thazard was found to record significantly (P < 0·05) higher species richness and number of carnivorous fishes than plant-based baits, while abundance of herbivores was maximum in raw dough-turmeric powder mix trials. There was also a significant difference in trophic composition of fish assemblages surveyed by animal- and plant-based baits which seemed to be due to variations in attraction patterns of carnivores and herbivores occurring at the earlier phases of each BRUV deployments. Meanwhile, the assemblage structure was comparable among fish assemblages sampled by different bait treatments, indicating that species-level responses to each bait type may be more complicated. In essence, the efficiency of mixed baits should also be examined in future studies

Coral reef fish assemblages along a disturbance gradient in the northern Persian Gulf: A seasonal perspective

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Seasonal dynamics of coral reef fish assemblages were assessed along a gradient of potential anthropogenic disturbance in the Northern Persian Gulf. Overall, the attributes of coral reef fish assemblages showed seasonality at two different levels: seasonal changes irrespective of the magnitude of disturbance level (e.g. species richness), and seasonal changes in response to disturbance level (e.g. total abundance and assemblage composition). The examined parameters mostly belonged to the second group, but the interpretation of the relationship between patterns of seasonal changes and the disturbance level was not straightforward. The abundance of carnivorous fishes did not vary among seasons. SIMPER identified the family Nemipteridae as the major contributor to the observed spatiotemporal variations in the composition of coral reef fish assemblages in the study area

Application of baited remote underwater video stations to assess benthic coverage in the Persian Gulf

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. A baited remote underwater video station (BRUVS) is generally considered an appropriate sampling tool for fish. The applicability of BRUVS to determine the substrate coverage was assessed by comparing stills from BRUVS videos to traditional point intercept transect (PIT) data to estimate percentage cover (PC) of different benthic substrate categories. Mean PCs of hard corals, rock, sand, and coral growth forms yielded statistically identical values with the two survey methods, while PCs of motile epibenthic invertebrates were underestimated by BRUVS in areas of both high and moderate relief. Yet, multivariate analyses revealed that the two methods yield similar substrate assemblage in an area of moderate relief. Results of our study suggest that the BRUVS can be effectively used to quantify both the presence/absence of a basic set of benthic habitat characteristics and diversity of coral growth forms on coral reefs in the Persian Gulf

Comparison of baited remote underwater video (BRUV) and underwater visual census (UVC) for assessment of reef fish in a marginal reef in the Northern Persian gulf

© 2019 Iranian Society of Ichthyology. Underwater Visual Census (UVC) and Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) are broadly used methods to study fish assemblages in marine and estuarine environments. This study compared the results of BRUV and UVC methods for assessing seasonal trends in coral reef fish assemblages in a marginal reef in the northern Persian Gulf. In doing so, seasonal surveys of coral reef fishes were done using BRUV and UVC methods. Comparison of assemblage metrics driven from each method indicated that both methods may reveal similar patterns of seasonal changes in fish and trophic group assemblages while there may be between-method differences in species richness, total abundance, and trophic group abundances. The observed differences may be related to the longer sampling times of BRUV

Anesthetic Efficiency of Three Medicinal Plant Oils for Aquatic Species: Coriander Coriandrum sativum,

This study evaluated the potential of three essential oils (EOs) that were obtained from coriander Coriandrum sativum (CEO), linaloe tree Bursera delpechiana (BEO), and lavender Lavandula hybrida (LEO) as anesthetic agents. Convict Cichlids Amatitlania nigrofasciata (Gunther 1867) were exposed to eight concentrations of anesthetic (50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 250, and 300 mu L/L). After exposure to the anesthetic, the fish were transferred to clean water to recover. All of the EOs produced an anesthetic effect after exposure to the compounds for 30 min at the minimal effective concentration (MEC), which was identified according to deep anesthesia (A(5) < 3 min) and full recovery (R-3 < 5 min) times. At 50 and 75 mu L/L, the total loss of equilibrium was not observed for all tested EOs. The total loss of reflex was induced at a faster rate with higher concentrations of anesthetic in all groups. The recovery time generally increased as the concentration of the anesthetic increased. These findings suggest that CEO, BEO, and LEO are all novel potential anesthetics for aquaculture, and the optimal concentrations were identified as 150 mu L/L (A(5); 156 +/- 1.7 s and R-3; 165 +/- 2.9 s), 125 mu L/L (A(5); 176 +/- 3.5 s; R-3; 125 +/- 2.0 s), and 200 mu L/L (A(5); 20.1 +/- 2.4 s and R-3; 162 +/- 3.4 s), respectively. When considering the active ingredients of EOs, this study also demonstrated that future studies should be focused on the major components such as linalyl acetate, 1.8-cineole, alpha-pinene, geraniol, and linalool. Their synergistic effects should be examined in herbal anesthetic treatments, since new commercial anesthetics will likely contain them