habitat_narrative
Marine
Chrysoblephus puniceus adults are abundant on offshore rocky reefs from 20 m to 130 m depth (Garratt 1984, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004). Small (<0.5 cm FL) juveniles occur on shallow rocky reefs from 10 to 30 m off Pondoland in the Eastern Cape (Mann et al. 2006) while juveniles (>0.5 cm FL) are widespread on reefs along the KwaZulu-Natal coast from 20 m to 60 m depth (Garratt 1984). Adults of this species are opportunistic predators feeding primarily on benthic crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms (Garratt 1986) while juveniles feed on small benthic crustaceans including decapods, amphipods, copepods, and mysids as well as echinoderms including crinoids, ophiuroids and echinoids (Garratt 1985c, 1986). Adults seem to show fairly resident behaviour (Punt et al. 1993) but it is possible that juveniles migrate northwards between the Eastern Cape and northern KwaZulu-Natal/southern Mozambique (Buxton 1992, Maggs et al. 2013).The maximum age recorded for C. puniceus is 11 years but it is likely that this species can grow older than this (Garratt et al. 1993, Mann and Fennessy 2013). The maximum length recorded was approximately 52.2 cm FL and maximum weight was four kg (South African Deep Sea Angling Association 2012). Natural mortality in KwaZulu-Natal was recorded as M = 0.3 year- and fishing mortality was F = 0.4 per year in 1993 (Punt et al. 1993, Govender et al. 2000).
Reproduction
Chrysoblephus puniceus is a protogynous hermaphrodite that exhibits serial spawning (Garratt 1985b, Garratt 1993). Length at 50% maturity is 24cm FL for females and they under-go sex change at a size >24 cm FL (Garratt 1985b, Lichucha 2001) and age at 50% maturity is three years for females and sex change occurs at five years or more (Garratt et al. 1993). Chrysoblephus puniceus has an extended spawning period with peak spawning occurring between August and October in KwaZulu-Natal (Garratt 1985b) with most spawning taking place in southern Mozambique and northern KwaZulu-Natal on offshore reefs (Garratt 1985b).
Generation length for C. puniceus is estimated to be five years, using the following equation for a protogynous fish species: Generation length =SR* (Σxlxmx/Σlxmx)+(Σlxmx/Σlxmx) (Provided by Prof. Colin Attwood, University of Cape Town).
