Morphological specificity in cultured starry flounder Platichthys stellatus reared in artificial facility

Abstract

The starry flounder Platichthys stellatus, like all flatfish, exhibits conspicuous lateral asymmetry in numerous traits, most obvious of which is the migration of one eye to the other side of the head during metamorphosis. Additional changes related to eye migration include asymmetrical pigmentation, and a behavioral shift from larvae that exhibit upright, open-water swimming to juveniles and adults that lie on the ocean floor, eye side up. However, the morphology of these juveniles has been quite plastic in recent years, a phenomenon which is thought to be related to a diverse suite of semi-intensive and intensive larviculture methods. The cause of morphological abnormalities in the farmed flatfish is poorly understood. In the present study, we observe the features of morphological specificity and abnormality of immature fish (mean total length 23 cm) and survey the occurrence frequency of the specificity and abnormality of juvenile (mean total length 6.70 cm) in artificial culture facility. We find 2 types of abnormality (e.g., albino in ocular side and hypermelanosis in blind side) and 1 type of specificity (e.g., lateral polymorphism). These considerably differ from normal individuals (has sinistral eye and pigmented on only one side) by several characteristics (dextral eye, ocular side albinism, blind side hypermelanosis). The incidences of albinism, hypermelanosis, and body reversal are 10.1 ± 2.56%, 91.7 ± 1.7%, and 13.1 ± 1.1%, respectively. These suggest that these morphometric and morphological differences occur more in artificial environment during and just after metamorphosis. © The Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science.