Introduction, Diversity, Taxonomy
Table 6.2. Total number of species in the ichthyofauna of
coral reefs in different geographic regions; after: Gosline
(1971); Goldman and Talbot (1976); Sale (1980)
Region
Philippines
New Guinea
GBR, Australia
Seychelles
One Tree Reef, southern GBR
Marshalls and Marianas
Alligator reefs, Florida
Bahamas
Venezuela
Hawaii
Barbados
California bay
Mafia Arch, eastern Africa
Fanning atoll
Johnston atoll, Pacific Ocean
Western coast of Florida
Total number of
fish species
2200
1700
1500
880
850
670
600
510
490
450
310
260
240
230
186
130
Table 6.3. Scale of relative abundance of fish specimens from
12 most common families of reef fish out of a total of 52
families discovered in samples collected at the reef fiat of the
Great Reef of Tulear, Madagascar (after Vivien 1973)
Family
Muraenidae
Serranidae
Apogonidae
Chaetodontidae
Pomacentridae
Labridae
Scaridae
Eleotridae
Gobiidae
Salariidae
Acanthuridae
Scorpaenidae
Number of species
in family
14
10
12
10
28
31
6
10
10
6
6
13
Total number of
specimens of a
given family found
in samples
144
65
1036
137
2256
382
165
104
108
82
187
71
217
reefs), and Scorpaenidae (over 15 species on reefs). Many fish families are
represented on reefs by one or by several species.
An example of the domination hierarchy of fish families in collections
from the Barrier Reef of Tulear, Madagascar, is given in Table 6.3. It shows