Sagittal morphology of Epinephelus Bloch 1793 (Teleostei: Serranidae) in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

In this study, the sagittal morphology of five species belong to the genus Epinephelus (Bloch, 1973) including; Epinephelus areolatus (Forsskal, 1775), orange spotted grouper E. bleekeri (Vaillant, 1877), typical grouper E. coioides (Hamilton, 1822), grouper five strips E. dicanthus (Valeniciennes, 1828), olive stains spotted Epinephelus stoliczkae (Day, 1875) from the Persian Gulf and Oman sea were studied. The results of comparative description and of calculating the three indices (E, R and S) showed that the studied species are different regarding some otolith features. The most differences are related to the rostrum, antirostrum, excisura regions as well as dorsal and ventral rimes. The sulcus is similar in almost all the species, and including a tubular ostia in anterior part, and a strongly curved cauada in the posterior part. However, E. stoliczkae is differing from the other species by having a deep excisura. As results, it can be concluded that like the most bony fishes, variation in rostrum and antirostrum can be used to discriminate species in grouper fishes.