Study of morphometric characteristics of sagitta otolith in four species of Serranidae in coral reefs of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea

This study aimed to a comparison of morphometric characteristics of otolith in Epinephelus coioides (88 specimens), Epinephelus latifasciatus (71 specimens), Epinephelus bleekeri (69 specimens) and Epinephelus diacanthus (145 specimens) in coral reefs of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Species were collected during 2014 - 2015. All fish were identified and their otoliths were extracted to verify them. Investigation of otolith morphometric characteristics (length, breadth, weight, perimeter and, area) was conducted. Data indicate a high correlation between otolith length and otolith weight, fork length, and otolith length and between fish length and weight (R2>0.854), the highest correlation was observed in E. diacanthus (R2= 0.894). Also, the results indicate that in the studied species, biometric differences are observed along with the difference in the shape of the otolith, according to the results, the highest length, the highest weight, the highest area and the highest perimeter of otolith were related to the E. diacanthus with mean total length of 26± 3.2 cm and the average weight of 1357.27 ± 104.27 g, and the highest otolith width was related to the E. coioides with an average total length of 38 ± 1.8 cm and the mean weight of 1289.54 ± 124.42 g. This study indicated that the relationships between sagitta and morphometric characteristics of various species are different and can be used as an indicator in species identification.