Species identification and morphological differences of anguillid glass eels recruiting to Viti Levu Island of Fiji in the western South Pacific

摘要

There are six species of anguillid eels that live in various regions of the western South Pacific but the species compositions of glass eels recruiting to many of the islands of the region are not well known. A total of 1368 anguillid glass eels werecollected fortnightly at the mouth of a small river at Namelimeli near Navua in Fiji Islands between April 2015 and June 2016. These were found through DNA barcoding to have a species composition comprising of two longfin eels Anguilla marmorata and A. megastoma, and one shortfin eel A. obscura. 35 glass eels from each species were then selected for morphological studies, it was found that the external morphological characters of anodorsal length ratios, caudal pigmentation patterns, and the internal characters of total, pre-dorsal, and anodorsal vertebral counts were sufficient to classify these three species using morphological characters alone. These findings will simplify research and monitoring techniques of anguillid glass eel recruitment for conservation, fisheries management or aquaculture purposes in the South Pacific.