Allochthonous and vagrant ichthyofauna in Hellenic marine and estuarine waters

A review of the non-indigenous ichthyofauna occurring in the Hellenic marine and estuarine waters is presented, including Atlantic origin colonizers, aquaculture introduced and Lessepsian alien species. 34 non-native species have been registered. The majority of allochthonous fish are Lessepsian immigrants, which represent approximately 80% of the ascertained non-native ichthyofauna in Hellenic waters; their establishment, spread, habitat, abundance and interaction with indigenous fish are discussed

Occurrence of the lessepsian species Portunus pelagicus (Crustacea) and Apogon pharaonis (Pisces) in the marine area of Rhodes Island

A large number of Red Sea species are colonizing the eastern Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal, mainly following the Anatolian coasts and spreading westwards. Portunus pelagicus is one of the most common Red Sea swimming crabs, first recorded in the Levantine Basin in 1898. Four specimens of P. pelagicus were collected in different marine areas of Rhodes Island from 1991 to 2000, while three specimens of the lessepsian fish Apogon pharaonis, first recorded in the Mediterranean in 1947, were caught during 2002 in the NW coast of Rhodes. The sub-tropical character of the marine area around Rhodes seems to facilitate the propagation of lessepsian species. These migrants have reached the island at different velocity and degree of establishment of their populations. The occurrence of the blue swimmer crab P. pelagicus and of the bullseye cardinal fish A. pharaonis increases the number of the decapod Crustacea and fish species of Red Sea origin observed in Greek waters

Recent contributions to the distribution of the freshwater ichthyofauna in Greece

In this paper we supplement Greece’s recent annotated inventory of freshwater fishes per hydrographic basin with recent distributional data and taxa alteration information, based on field sampling and a literature review up to September 2011. We report on newly documented distributional records of 31 fish species plus one unidentified taxon, within 35 hydrographic river basin units in Greece. These new records include 14 native fish species, seven alien and 12 translocated. Translocated taxa are distinguished from aliens, in order to report species non-indigenous to a basin but native within the same ecoregion. Twelve hydrographic basin units are newly added to the roster of ichthyologically explored river basins following a previous basin-scale inventory method (the total is now 117). This review increases the number of Greece’s freshwater fish taxa to 167, since four new species are added to the list (Carassius langsdorfii, Neogobius fluviatilis, Telestes alfiensis, Millerigobius macrocephalus) and two are deleted (Salmo dentex, Barbus rebeli) due to taxonomic changes. Taxonomic changes will probably continue to alter the national list since phylogenetic research is ongoing on several taxa in many parts of the countr

Torquigener flavimaculosus Hardy and Randall, 1983 (Pisces: Tetraodontidae) off Rhodes island marine area: a new alien fish in the Hellenic waters

The presence of the pufferfish Torquigener flavimaculosus was recorded during the winter 2006-2007 off Rhodes Island (SE Aegean Sea). The species, known from the western Indian Ocean, has established populations from the Levantine basin to Fethiye, Turkey. This finding expands the known range of the species in the Mediterranean to the south-eastern Aegean Sea

Tetraodontid colonizers in the Aegean Sea; Second record of the spiny blaasop,Tylerius spinosissimus(Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae)

A second record of the small Indo-Pacific fish Tylerius spinosissimus (Tetraodontidae) (known as spiny blaasop) was documented at the beginning of 2009 in the waters of Rhodes Island (south-eastern Aegean Sea, Greece). The finding shows the putative establishment of a population of this alien fish in the Mediterranean with a centre the Dodecanese plateau