New record of the carangid fish from the Iraqi marine waters, Northwest Arabian Gulf

Abstract EN

Two species of carangid fish, Alectis ciliaris (Bloch, 1787) and A.

indica (Rüppell, 1830) were collected from Iraqi marine waters, northwest Arabian Gulf from January to November, 2014.

A.

ciliaris was recorded as a first time from Iraqi marine waters.

A.

ciliaris could be distinguished by nape, head profile broadly rounded, and gill rakers on lower limb of first arch ranged from 14-15, while the nape and head profile something angular, and gill rakers on lower limb of first arch ranged from 18-25 in A .indica.

The DNA fingerprints were identified of two species using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (PCR-RAPD) with six primers: P1 (212), P2 (239), P3 (244), P4 (250), P5 (265), and P6 (347).

The number of bands generated by primers varied between 46 in A.

indica to 48 in A.

ciliares.

The genetic similarity and genetic distance between two examined species were 0.42 and 0.57, respectively.