Bone lipids of Jamaican reef fishes

1. Fourteen species from 12 different families of fish from the Jamaican coral reef environment were analyzed for bone lipid content and class. Acanthurus bahianus (Acanthuridae), the ocean surgeon, had 29.7% lipid (as per cent dry wt) in the neurocranium. 2. Eight species had 7.4-17.9% lipid in the neurocranium and include A. chirurgus, Priacanthus arenatus, Equetus acuminatus, Eupomacentrus planifrons, A. coeruleus, Malacanthus plumeri, Haemulon flavolineatum and Pempheris schomburgki. 3. Five species had low bone oil (0.1-2.5% neurocranium lipid), including the chondrocranium of Urolophus jamaicensis, an elasmobranch. 4. Most fish 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% 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% with a low of 5.5% in Sparisoma aurofrenatum and a high of 81.1% in Acanthurus chirurgus. 7. These data provide a basis for choice of a suitable experimental animal to study function of bone lipid. Acanthurus bahianus appears most suitable, because it has the most bone oil, is most common over Jamaican reefs and is easily obtained by trapping.