Pralaya Ranjan Behera

First Record of the Longfin Gaper, Champsodon Longipinnis Matsubara and Amaoka, 1964 (Family: Champsodontidae) Along Indian Coast

Four specimens of the longfin gaper, Champsodon longipinnis, were caught by commercial trawlers off Gopalpur, Odisha coast and landed at Visakhapatnam fishing harbor on 23rd December 2014. The morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded specimens are described and discussed. This is the first occurrence of the species from Indian waters, exhibiting an extension in distribution within the Indian Ocean.

Occurrence of Pacific Gregory, Stegastes fasciolatus (family Pomacentridae) off Visakhapatnam, east coast of India

Two specimens of Stegastes fasciolatus of total length 110.1 mm and 112.2 mm were collected from gillnet at Visakhapatnam fishing harbour, north-east coast of India on 5 January 2013. The morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded specimens are described and discussed.

First record of the African spadefish, Tripterodon orbis Playfair, 1867 (family: Ephippidae) from the north-east coast of India

The family Ephippidae, commonly known as spadefishes, comprises eight genera (Nelson, 2006) and 15 valid species (Eschmeyer & Fong, 2014), mostly inhabiting coastal waters around reefs, up to a depth of 30 m (Nelson, 2006). The genus Platax is the most speciose, while the genus Tripterodon is monotypic (Jawad et al., 2012). The maximum length attained by Tripterodon orbis is 750 mm (Fischer & Bianchi, 1984; Heemstra & Heemstra, 2004), with common lengths reaching 300 mm. They feed on rock and coral-dwelling organisms and their flesh is edible (Froese & Pauly, 2014). The species had earlier been reported from the Western Indian Ocean (Somalia, Kenya, south to Algoa Bay, South Africa), from the Red sea and from the eastern Indian Ocean (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Sri Lanka) (Froese & Pauly, 2014). Indrasenan (1960) had also reported the occurrence of Tripterodon orbis from Rameswaram Island, in the Gulf of Mannar, south-east coast of India. However, this is the first occurrence of the species at Visakhapatnam along the north-east coast of India, a signifi- cant extension of its distribution from the southern to the northern region, along the Bay of Bengal.