FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78, NO. 2 



vertebrates with calcareous or chitinous hard 

 parts. Although rarely implicated in serious cases 

 of poisoning, it is capable of being ciguatoxic. 

 Halstead (1967) listed 11 references attesting to 

 its toxicity. 



Five specimens, 277-362 mm SL (0.73-1.6 kg), 

 from Enewetak were tested for toxicity. Four were 

 nontoxic and one gave a reaction of 1 from the 

 mongoose feeding. 



Randall (1955a) reported on the gut contents of 

 two specimens, 158 and 160 mm SL, from the Gil- 

 bert Islands; these consisted mainly of crushed 

 shells of small mollusks and sea urchins. Hiatt 

 and Strasburg (1960) examined the contents of the 

 digestive tracts of eight specimens, 195-220 mm 

 SL, from the Marshall Islands. One fish was 

 empty. Crushed gastropods (including Atys sp. 

 and Cerithium sp.) were found in all stomachs, 

 pelecypods in 71%, crabs in 42%, hermit crabs in 

 28% , and spatangids and polychaetes each in 14% . 

 Hobson ( 1974) collected five specimens in Hawaii. 

 He found the principal prey, in order of importance 

 in the diet, to be prosobranch gastropods, 

 ophiuroids, echinoids, opisthobranch gastropods, 

 and pagurid crabs. 



Forty-eight specimens of M. grandoculis, 155- 

 440 mm SL, were collected from the Marshall Is- 

 lands, Line Islands, Cook Islands, Society Islands, 

 Pitcaim, Hawaiian Islands, New Guinea, and the 

 Red Sea for the study of food habits. Unless fish of 



this species are captured during the night or very 

 early morning hours, their stomachs are nearly 

 always empty. Occasional feeding by M. grand- 

 oculis does occur during the day, as indicated by 

 Hiatt and Strasburg's (1960) observation of its 

 "blowing" away sand to expose fossorial forms. 

 Also one specimen taken at 2 p.m. during the au- 

 thor's survey had the remains of a freshly ingested 

 crab in its stomach. Five of the fish collected in late 

 afternoon hours had completely empty digestive 

 tracts. The remaining fishes contained, on a vol- 

 ume basis, 39.4% gastropods, 18.9% crabs, 16.8% 

 pelecypods, 13.9% echinoids (principally 

 Echinometra and spatangoids such as Clypeaster), 

 6.1% pagurid crabs, 1.7% ophiuroids, 1.2% 

 polychaetes, 1.0% unidentified worms, 0.7% 

 fishes, and 0.3% foraminifera. 



Kyphosidae (Sea Chubs) 



Kyphosus cinerascens (Forsskal) (Figure 36): 

 This chub may be distinguished from the other 

 Kyphosus by the high soft portion of the dorsal fin 

 (longest dorsal spine contained about 1.8 times in 

 longest soft ray). It occurs in lagoon or outer reef 

 areas and is often seen in loose aggregations. It is 

 associated with hard substratum for its algal food, 

 generally in the vicinity of crevices or caves with 

 more than one entrance. Bartsch et al. (1959) re- 

 ported this species as toxic from Majuro, Marshall 

 Islands, but their data and the few other records of 



Figure 36. — Kyphosus cinerascens, 234 mm SL, Enewetak, Marshall Islands. 



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