Kar-Hoe Loh

• PhD
• Senior Researcher Fellow at University of Malaya

Groupers of the family Epinephelidae constitute a diverse and commercially valuable group of reef fishes globally. They comprise an assemblage of carnivorous marine fishes, comprising more than 177 species across 16 genera. The epinephelid genus Epinephelus, which consists of over 90 species, is found worldwide in the tropics and subtropics. To dat...

Within the Malaysian context, whilst numerous efforts have been carried out over the years to identify, study, and analyse the extent and state of our coastal and marine ecosystem, these efforts are neither comprehensive nor have the available information been systematically consolidated and made available. To set more ambitious conservation target...

Simple Summary The Internet of Things (IoT) can improve small-scale aquaponics, a sustainable farming method that combines fish farming with plant growing in water without soil, by making the process more efficient and profitable by optimizing resource use, closely monitoring water quality, and ensuring the best conditions for both fish and plants...

Microplastics are plastic debris smaller than 5 mm in size. In recent decades, the issue of microplastics contamination in marine organisms from the marine environment has gained more attention. This study focuses on the occurrence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of the crescent perch (Terapon jarbua). Sixty-two crescent perch...

Small coastal demersal sharks form a major proportion of the sharks landed in Malaysia. However, little is known about their feeding ecology and reproduction. This study sought to elucidate the dietary patterns, role of ontogeny in prey consumption, and reproductive biology of four dominant small demersal shark species in Malaysian waters: the Hass...

Simple Summary The selection of fish community survey methods based on their efficiency and reliability is critical for ecosystem conservation, protection and management. In this study, we used environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding and traditional (gillnet) fishing to assess the diversity of fishes along a mangrove–seagrass–coral reef continuum of...

Simple Summary One-third of shark and ray species are threatened due to overfishing, but a lack of information on each species makes conservation decisions difficult. To address this issue, we conducted a study to identify the different species of sharks and rays in Malaysian waters using DNA barcoding of the CO1 gene, which is akin to DNA fingerpr...

Recent IUCN assessments had resulted in up listing of the status of butterfly rays due to concerns of overfishing, but inadequate biological understanding of these rays prevents meaningful conservation and management measures. Therefore, this study was undertaken to address knowledge gaps in the reproductive biology and diet of longtail butterfly r...

Due to the highly similar external morphology of the Pampus species, misidentifications frequently occur and hinder the understanding of the taxonomy and species distributions of the genus. In this study, we generated 271 mitochondrial sequences and obtained 1,226 sequences from the public databases to understand the species diversity and distribut...

The giant freshwater stingray Urogymnus polylepis (Bleeker, 1852) (family Dasyatidae) is an endemic species in the Southeast Asian region, but comprehensive records of the distribution of this species within local river systems and their biology are still lacking. We reviewed current information for this species based on media reports, published li...

Gymnothorax poikilospilus sp. nov. is described based on two specimens collected from Penghu Islands, western Taiwan. It is a medium-sized brown moray that body covered with several rows of inconspicuous large dark brown patches on the back of body and dorsal fin. It has slightly elongated and arched jaws similar to the common characteristic of the...

Sharks play an important role in marine ecosystems as top predators and have been increasingly accepted in recent years as a group for priority conservation worldwide. However, as one of the regions with the highest marine shark species richness, there is still a limited understanding of shark diversity patterns and conservation needs in China and...

Plastic contamination in the environment is common but the characterisation of plastic ingested by fish in different environments is lacking. Hence, a meta-analysis was conducted to identify the prevalence of plastic ingested by fish globally. Based on a qualitative analysis of plastic size, it was determined that small microplastics (<1 mm) are pr...

Previous examination of the mitochondrial NADH2 gene and morphological characteristics led to the resurrection of Scoliodon macrorhynchos as a second valid species in the genus, in addition to S. laticaudus. This study applied an integrated taxonomic approach to revisit the classification of the genus Scoliodon based on new materials from the Malay...

Taiwan is one of the richest in the world in terms of eel fauna. In this study, we examined the osteological and morphological characteristics of eels under order Anguilliformes. Furthermore, we focused on the neurocranium of total of 30 Anguilliformes fishes under family Congridae (10), Muraenesocidae (1), Muraenidae (7), Nemichthyidae (1), Nettas...

Background Despite the high commercial fisheries value and ecological importance as prey item for higher marine predators, very limited taxonomic work has been done on cephalopods in Malaysia. Due to the soft-bodied nature of cephalopods, the identification of cephalopod species based on the beak hard parts can be more reliable and useful than conv...

The demersal brown banded bamboo shark Chiloscyllium punctatum is a major component of sharks landed in Malaysia. However, little is known about their population structure and the effect of high fishing pressure on these weak swimming sharks. Both mitochondrial DNA control region (1072 bp) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (1044 bp) were used to elu...

Changes in larval fish assemblages were studied before (1985-86) and after (2013–2014) rapid coastal development in the Klang Strait, Malaysia, based on a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) experimental design. Fish larvae were sampled by bongo-nets along an 18-km transect from the impact station at the Kapar power station (KPS) to four control sta...

Two new moray eels of the genera Diaphenchelys and Gymnothorax from Taiwan and the Philippines are described. Diaphenchelys laimospila sp. nov. is described based on two specimens that represent the third species and a new geographic record of the genus. It can be distinguished from the other two congeners by the number of cephalic sensory pores, v...

The launch of Roadmap towards Zero Single-use Plastics in 2018 demands baseline data on the management of marine debris in Malaysia. In 2021, Malaysia is placed 28th top plastic polluter in the world with plastic consumption at 56 kg/capita/year, therefore data on mismanaged plastic is imperative. This paper reviews the abundance and distribution o...

The Xisha Islands are composed of the Yongle Islands and the Xuande Islands in Hainan Province, China. It has one of the highest species diversity in the world and is also a typical oceanic distribution area of coral reefs globally. The ichthyofauna of the Xisha Islands were recorded by underwater visual census in May 2019 and July 2020. The survey...

The Xisha Islands are composed of the Yongle Islands and the Xuande Islands in Hainan province, China. It has one of the highest species diversities in the world and is also a typical oceanic distribution area of coral reefs globally. The ichthyofauna of the Xisha Islands were recorded by underwater visual census in May 2019 and July 2020. The surv...

Tropical seagrass meadows and coral reefs often function as interconnected marine habitats, but they are often studied and managed as homogenous units. As macrohabitats, seagrass meadows provide important benefits to adjacent reef ecosystems by acting as natural filters of sediments and nutrients, and by providing critical feeding, nursery, and ref...

Tropical mountain river systems that drain rainforests and experience tropical monsoons typically demonstrate high runoff and discharge a disproportionate amount of particulate load to the world''s oceans compared with other more temperate river systems. As a typical tropical small mountainous river with an broad continental shelf system and wave d...

The southern lesser pomfret ( Pampus minor ) is an economically important fish, and its numbers are declining because of overfishing and environmental pollution. In addition, owing to the similarities of its external morphological characteristics to other species in the genus Pampus , it is often mistaken for grey pomfret ( P. cinereus ) or silver...

Four specimens from Minami-iwo-to island of Volcano Islands were identified as Uropterygius oligospondylus Chen, Randall, and Loh in Loh et al., 2008. It is the first identified record from Japan and the northernmost record of the species. Uropterygius oligospondylus can be characterized by the following characters: total vertebrae 100–103; body gr...

Length-weight relationship provides basic information of a fish’s condition while the morphometric data of otolith has been traditionally used to determine the range of fish sizes for various purposes. The length-weight relationship of Terapon jarbua (Forskål, 1775) was examined from 165 specimens, while 132 specimens were used in sagittal otolith...

Larimichthys pamoides. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Nibea soldado. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Nibea leptolepis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Pennahia anea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Nibea microgenys. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Nibea squamosa. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Panna microdon. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Panna perarmatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Bahaba polykladiskos. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius australis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius cantori. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius hypostoma. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius carutta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius heterolepis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius latifrons. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius macropterus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius pacificus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius weberi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius macrorhynus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius trachycephalus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Johnius plagiostoma. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Atrobucca adusta. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Atrobucca brevis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Austronibea oedogenys. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

Aspericorvina jubata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020

The length‐weight relationships (LWRs) were studied for eight seagrass fish from Wenchang, China, using gill nets (150*1 m, mesh size 0.5 cm), including Gerres oblongus, Ambassis kopsii, Halichoeres nigrescens, Sillago aeolus, Yongeichthys criniger, Oxyurichthys tentacularis, Lethrinus haematopterus and Hypoatherina tsurugae, in November 2017, Marc...

A background study is important for the conservation and stock management of a species. Terapon jarbua is a coastal Indo-Pacific species, sourced for human consumption. This study examined 134 samples from the central west and east coasts of Peninsular (West) Malaysia and East Malaysia. A 1446-bp concatenated dataset of mtDNA COI and Cyt b sequence...

Fish species composition and spatio-temporal variability of the community were studied in a tropical seagrass meadow located in a lagoon in the eastern part of North Sulawesi. The diversity of fish community in the seagrass meadows was relatively high, with the Shannon-Wiener index ranging from 1.57 to 3.69. The family Apogonidae was the most domin...

Three specimens of the serranid fish (Serranidae), Plectranthias kamii Randall, 1980 were collected from fish market, Bitung, North Sulawesi on May and June 2010. Some morphological characters P. kamii is closely related to P. sheni, P. megalophthalmus, P. retrofasciatus, P. rubrifasciatus, P. knappi, P. helenae, P. pelicieri, P. jothyi, P. retrofa...

Redang Islands Marine Park consists of nine islands in the state of Terengganu, Malaysia. Redang Island is one of the largest off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, which is famous for its crystal-clear waters and white sandy beaches. The ichthyofauna of the Redang archipelago was surveyed by underwater visual observations between August 2016 a...

Larval descriptions of tropical marine and coastal fishes are very few, and this taxonomic problem is further exacerbated by the high diversity of fish species in these waters. Nonetheless, accurate larval identification in ecological and early life history studies of larval fishes is crucial for fishery management and habitat protection. The prese...

Five specimens of Epinephelus epistictus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) were collected from a major landing site located on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia during a fish faunal survey on 23 August 2017. The present study extends the distribution range of E. epistictus southwards from Andaman Sea to the Strait of Malacca. Species identification wa...

Five specimens of Epinephelus epistictus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) were collected from a major landing site located on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia during a fish faunal survey on 23 August 2017. The present study extends the distribution range of E. epistictus southwards from Andaman Sea to the Strait of Malacca. Species identification wa...

Five specimens of Epinephelus epistictus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) were collected from a major landing site located on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia during a fish faunal survey on 23 August 2017. The present study extends the distribution range of E. epistictus southwards from Andaman Sea to the Strait of Malacca. Species identification wa...

Fish species composition and spatio-temporal variability of the community were studied in a tropical seagrass meadow located in a lagoon in the eastern part of North Sulawesi. The diversity of fish community in the seagrass meadows was relatively high, with the Shannon-Wiener index ranging from 1.57 to 3.69. The family Apogonidae was the most domin...

Three specimens of the serranid fish (Serranidae), Plectranthias kamii Randall, 1980 were collected from fish market, Bitung, North Sulawesi on May and June 2010. Some morphological characters P. kamii is closely related to P. sheni, P. megalophthalmus, P. retrofasciatus, P. rubrifasciatus, P. knappi, P. helenae, P. pelicieri, P. jothyi, P. retrofa...

Gymnothorax minor is a moray eel of the family Muraenidae found in the Western Pacific Ocean. We report here its complete mitogenome as determined by Illumina next-generation sequencing and the phylogenetic relationship with its congeners and other taxa of the family Muraenidae. The whole mitogenome of G. minor had a total length of 16,574 bp, comp...

Periodic fish ingressions into intertidal areas during high tide are known to occur on tropical mudflats. This study aimed to elucidate the feeding ground function of coastal mudflats for three common stingray species in the Klang Strait, Malaysia. Stingrays (disc width range from 5.65–54.50 cm) sampled over 17 months using a large barrier net (~2...

A new identification of Gymnothoraxminor (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) is documented based on morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding. Sixty-one individuals of G.minor were collected from the East China Sea and the South China Sea. This species was previously reported as Gymnothoraxreticularis Bloch, 1795 in China because of the similarity in...

The main focus of this study has been on the distinctive pre-spawning snout-gripping behaviors and mate choice of two moray species (Gymnothorax pictus and G. thyrsoideus). The behavior of snout-gripping means that the male grips the female’s snout with its jaws. It is the most distinctive behavior to confirm the success of mating pair formation na...

Pampus minor is often mistakenly identified as the larva of Pampus argenteus or Pampus cinereus because of its small size. Despite its importance, studies on the population genetics of P. minor are not yet available. In the present study, the mitochondrial Cytb gene was employed to investigate the population genetics of P. minor collected along the...

To understand the source-to-sink of pollutants in the Kelantan River estuary and the adjacent shelf area in Malaysia, a total of 42 surface sediment samples were collected in the Kelantan River-estuary-shelf system to analyze for grain size, total organic carbon (TOC) content, Al and heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb). The surficial sediments...

Combined multiple 2D views (proximal, anterior and ventral aspects) of the sagittal otolith are proposed here as a method to capture shape information for fish classification. Classification performance of single view compared with combined 2D views show improved classification accuracy of the latter, for nine species of Sciaenidae. The effects of...

Five rare moray species: Anarchias cantonensis (Schultz), Gymnothorax dorsalis Seale, G. intesi (Fourmanoir & Rivaton), G. phasmatodes (Smith) and G. sagmacephalus (Böhlke) belonging to the subfamilies Uropterygiinae and Muraeninae are reported for the first time in the surrounding waters off Taiwan. Diagnoses of these five species, including fresh...

Sagittal otolith morphometric measurements from Malaysian Mugilidae species were selected to investigate their possible role in species identification, due to the Mugilidae species' morphological similarities, and age determination. Fish standard length (cm), otolith length (μm), width (μm) and mass (g) measurements were taken from eight species: C...

Fish species may be identified based on their unique otolith shape or contour. Several pattern recognition methods have been proposed to classify fish species through morphological features of the otolith contours. However, there has been no fully-automated species identification model with the accuracy higher than 80%. The purpose of the current s...

Background. Fish species may be identified based on their unique otolith shape or contour. Several pattern recognition methods have been proposed to classify fish species through morphological features of the otolith contours. However, there has been no fully-automated species identification model with the accuracy higher than 80%. The purpose of t...

An annotated checklist of eels, orders Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes, occurring in Taiwanese waters is presented. The checklist is the result of a series of systematic studies conducted by the authors in the past few years. The eel fauna of Taiwan is one of the richest in the world with a total of 206 species in 74 genera and 13 families i...

The following nine elongate unpatterned muraenid species of the subfamily Muraeninae, including one new species, are recognized from Taiwan and adjacent waters: Gymnothorax albimarginatus (Temminck & Schlegel), G. dorsalis Seale, G. melanosomatus Loh, Shao & Chen, G. phasmatodes (Smith), G. prolatus Sasaki & Amaoka, G. sagmacephalus Bohlke, Pseudec...

Background. Fish species may be identified based on their unique otolith shape or contour. Several pattern recognition methods have been proposed to classify fish species through morphological features of the otolith contours. However, there has been no fully-automated species identification model with the accuracy higher than 80%. The purpose of t...

Background. Fish species may be identified based on their unique otolith shape or contour. Several pattern recognition methods have been proposed to classify fish species through morphological features of the otolith contours. However, there has been no fully-automated species identification model with the accuracy higher than 80%. The purpose of t...

Zooplankton samples collected before (1985-86) and after (2013-14) the establishment of Kapar power station (KPS) were examined to test the hypothesis that increased sea surface temperature (SST) and other water quality changes have altered the zooplankton community structure. Elevated SST and reduced pH were detected between before and after impac...

A new ophichthid worm-eel, Neenchelys gracilis sp. nov., is described from a specimen collected from southwestern Taiwan. It differs from its congeners by having: a minute pectoral fin, many filamentous cirri on the anterior nostril rim; a very slender body; a very small gill opening; and a vertebral formula of 30-78-200.

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of two moray eels of Gymnothorax formosus and Scuticaria tigrina (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome, with the length of 16,558 bp for G. formosus and 16,521 bp for S. tigrina, shows 78% identity to each other. Both mitogen...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the longfang moray, Enchelynassa canina (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The length of the assembled mitogenome is 16,592 bp, which includes 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and 2 ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition o...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Zebra moray, Gymnomuraena zebra (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,576 bp includes 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and two ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition of Zebra mora...

Elucidating the phylogenetic relationships of the current but problematic Dasyatidae (Order Myliobatiformes) was the first priority of the current study. Here, we studied three molecular gene markers of 43 species (COI gene), 33 species (ND2 gene) and 34 species (RAG1 gene) of stingrays to draft out the phylogenetic tree of the order. Nine characte...

In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Clarion angelfish, Holacanthus clarionensis (Perciformes: Pomacanthidae) has been sequenced by next-generation sequencing method. The length of the assembled mitogenome is 16,615 bp, including 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and two ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base composition...

Abstract In this study, the complete mitogenome sequence of the Blue-face angelfish, Pomacanthus xanthometapon (Perciformes: Pomacanthidae) has been sequenced by the next-generation sequencing method. The assembled mitogenome consisting of 16,533 bp includes 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs, and two ribosomal RNAs genes. The overall base c...

Two new records of moray eels (Muraenidae), Gymnothorax margaritophorus Bleeker, 1864 and Strophidon sathete (Hamilton 1822), are reported for Malaysia. They are represented by two specimens each, all collected from Sabah waters. The present study also provides the current taxonomic and distributional information of the Malaysian moray eels. To dat...

A new species of microsporidia, Microgemma tilanpasiri n. sp., is described infecting the burrowing goby, Trypauchen vagina, from Malaysia. The microsporidian forms macroscopic xenomas in the host liver which are packed with mature spores. Mature spores are slightly pyriform to oval in shape measuring 3.92 ± 0.21 μm in length and 2.87 ±0.16 pm in w...