Abundance Of Coral Reef Fishes And Its Relationship To The Substrate Coverage; A Preliminary Study In Biak Waters, Irian Jaya

The study was conducted at five sites in June 1993. The abundance of coral reef fishes was observed by using Visual Census technique and substrate coverage was estimated by a 100 m transect line method. During the study, 19 species of ‘indicator fish’ 39 species of ‘target fish’ and 89 species of ‘major family’ were obtained. Abudefduf vaigiensis, Pomacentrus moluccensis, Anthias hutchii, Pterocaesio tile and Ctenochaetus striatus were the most species in all sites. The “Correpondence analysis” was used to analyse the relationship between fish abundance and substrate coverage. Pterocaesio tile, Plotosus lineatus, Apogon cyanosomma and Anthias sp2 tended to associate with living coral, whereas Caesio cuning showed an interaction with coral covered by algae. Anthias sp1 has a relationship with coral covered bu other fauna, while Acanthurus triostegus and emitaurichthys polylepis tended to associate with abiotic substrate. Pseudocheilinus hexataenia and Chromis ternatensis had rather good relationship with dead coral. Some species such as Acanthurus nigricans, Pomacentrus moluccensis, Meiacanthus sp. And Anthis hutchii failed to show any relationship with substrate coverage on coral. Perairan Maluku dan Sekitarnya, Vol.10 1995. P: 35-47