Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-smtgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-13T10:04:20.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First record and molecular systematics of a rare congrid eel Bathycongrus nasicus Alcock (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from western India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2025

Aju K. R. ,
Ratheesh Kumar R. Open the ORCID record for Ratheesh Kumar R. [Opens in a new window] ,
Durga V. ,
Alvin Anto Open the ORCID record for Alvin Anto [Opens in a new window] ,
Rekha J. Nair Open the ORCID record for Rekha J. Nair [Opens in a new window]  and
Sobhana K. S.
Aju K. R.
Affiliation:
Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Ratheesh Kumar R.*
Affiliation:
Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Durga V.
Affiliation:
Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Alvin Anto
Affiliation:
Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Rekha J. Nair
Affiliation:
Demersal Fisheries, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
Sobhana K. S.
Affiliation:
Marine Biodiversity and Environment Management Division, ICAR – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, India
*
Corresponding author: Ratheesh Kumar R.; Email: rkcmfri@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Deep-sea trawl samples collected from the west coast of India have revealed several previously undetected species inhabiting the deep waters. This study reports the first record of Bathycongrus nasicus from the western Indian waters and the second record from the entire western Indian Ocean. A single specimen of B. nasicus was collected from the Neendakara fishery harbour in southern Kerala. The species identity was confirmed morphometrically by comparing it with previous records, and the study provides the first molecular identification of this rare congrid eel. The presence of B. nasicus in the western Indian waters suggests its potential distribution throughout the northern Indian Ocean, with prior records from the Bay of Bengal and the western Arabian Sea. This new record indicates that there might be occurrences of several previously unknown fish species in the non-commercial fishery of this region, underscoring the importance of survey collections of non-commercial fishes, which play a crucial role in marine ecosystems.

Keywords

congrid eeldeep-sea fishesmolecular systematicsphylogeneticswestern India

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 105 , 2025 , e96
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alcock, A (1893) Natural history notes from H.M. Indian Survey Steamer ‘Investigator’, Commander, C. F. Oldham, R. N., commanding. Series 2, No. 9. An account of the deep sea collection made during the season of 1892–93. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 62, 177–184.Google Scholar
Ben-Tuvia, A (1993) A review of the Indo-west Pacific congrid fishes of genera Rhynchoconger and Bathycongrus with the description of three new species. Israel Journal of Zoology 39, 349–370.Google Scholar
Castle, PHJ (1995) Alcock’s Congrid Eels from the “Investigator” Collections in Indian Seas 1888–1894. Copeia 3, 706–718. https://doi.org/10.2307/1446768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castle, PHJ and Smith, DG (1999) A reassessment of the eels of the genus Bathycongrus in the Indo‐west Pacific. Journal of Fish Biology 54, 973–995. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.1999.tb00851.x.Google Scholar
Fricke, R, Eschmeyer, WN and der Laan R, V 2024. Eschmeyer’s catalog of fishes. Available at https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp (accessed 01 August 2024).Google Scholar
Hall, TA (1999) January. BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series 41, 95–98.Google Scholar
Huang, JF, Ho, HC, Chang, YH, Smith, DG and Chen, HM (2018) Two new species of the conger eel genus Bathycongrus (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from Taiwan. Zootaxa 4454, 107–117. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4454.1.11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, JF, Ho, HC, Chen, HM and Chan, TY (2022) A new species of the congrid eel genus Bathycongrus (Order Anguilliformes) from eastern Taiwan. Zootaxa 5189, 78–86. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5189.1.10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kumar, S, Stecher, G, Li, M, Knyaz, C and Tamura, K (2018) MEGA X: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution 35, 1547–1549. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Psomadakis, P, Thein, H, Russell, C and Tun, MT (2019) In Field Identification Guide of the Living Marine Resources of Myanmar. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. Rome: Republic of the Union of Myanmar, pp. .Google Scholar
Smith, DG (1989) Family congridae. In Bohlke, E. B. (ed.), Fishes of the Western North Atlantic Memoirs of the Sears Foundation for Marine Research. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University, pp. 460–567.Google Scholar
Smith, DG and Ho, HC (2018) The congrid eel genus Bathycongrus of Taiwan, with descriptions of three new species (Anguilliformes: Congridae). Zootaxa 4454, 118–146. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4454.1.12.Google ScholarPubMed
Thompson, JD, Higgins, DG and Gibson, TJ (1994) CLUSTAL W: Improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specifc gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Research 22, 4673–4680. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/22.22.4673.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ward, RD, Zemlak, TS, Innes, BH, Last, PR and Hebert, PD (2005) DNA barcoding Australia’s fish species. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360, 1847–1857. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2005.1716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed