Bone lipids of Jamaican reef fishes

ABSTRACT

1. Fourteen species from 12 different families of fish from the Jamaican coral reef environment were analyzed for bone lipid content and class. Acanthrus bahianus (Acanthuridae), the ocean surgeon, had 29.7 percent lipid (as per cent dry wt) in the neurocranium. 2. Eight species had 7.4-17.9 percent lipid in the neurocranium and include A. chirurgus, Priacanthus arenatus, Equetus acuminatus, Eupomacentrus planifrons, A. ceoruleus, Malacanthus plumeri, Haemulon flacolineatum and Pempheris schomburgki. 3. Five species had low bone oil (0.1-2.5 percent neurocranium lipid), including the chondrocranium of Urolophus jamaicensis, an elasmobranch. 4. Most fist stored more lipid in the neurocranium than in the vertebral centra. 5. Triglyceride is the major lipid class in most of these fishes with oily bones (74.1-93.7 percent as per cent lipid); cholesterol and phospholipid were two other lipid classes in the bones. 6. The average skeletal lipid (for neurocranium plus vertebral centra, as per cent total body lipid) for 13 species is 22.5 percent with a low of 5.5 percent in Sparisoma aurofrenatum and a high of 81.1 percent in Acanthurus chirurgus. 7. These data provide a basis for choice of a suitable experimental animal to study function of bone lipid. Acanthrus bahianus appears most suitable, because it has the most bone oil, is most common over Jamaican reefs and is easily obtained by trapping. (AU)