Structure of the fish community at a reef in Los Monjes Archipelago, Venezuela

Abstract

In order to determine the community structure of reef fishes, visual counts were made along a transect established in a section of Monje Grande del Sur Island (Venezuela). A total of 57 fish species were identified. The families with the highest number of species were Pomacentridae (6), Scaridae (6), Labridae (6) and Serranidae (5), while the families with the highest total number of individuals were Pomacentridae (2083), Labridae (513), Hemiramphidae (440) and Scaridae (246), with 79.9% of the 4105 individuals observed. Though most of the fish species were carnivorous, the planktivors Chromis multilineata (23.7%) and Stegastes partitus (19.4%) were the two most numerically important species. In general, our results suggest a different species composition of reef fishes compared with other coralline regions of Venezuela. Some commercial fish species that are subject to intense fishing activities elsewhere (e.g., Sphyraena barracuda) were also found.

Keywords

• fish
• coral
• Los Monjes Archipelago
• census