Abundance and Diversity of Coral Reef Fish Larvae at Hurghada, Egyptian Red Sea

The larvae of coral reef fishes have been studied in Hurghada at the Egyptian Red Sea on exposed and sheltered inshore and offshore sites. Ichthyoplankton samples were taken by plankton net of 0.5 mm mesh size on a monthly basis from January to December 2005. The total abundance of fish larvae at all sites was 1993/1000m³. There were significant differences in larval abundance between sites and months. The sheltered inshore site (H3) showed a significantly higher abundance of all sites, whereas the exposed inshore Abu Sadaf site had the lowest abundance. The most abundant 10 taxa were Atherinomorus lacunosus (Atherinidae), Spratelloides delicatulus (Clupeidae), Gerres oyena (Gerreidae), Hypoatherina temmincki (Atherinidae), Petroscirtes mitratus (Blennidae), Vinciguerria mabahiss (Phosichthyidae), Enneapterygius sp. (Triptrygiidae), Mulloides flavolineatus (Mullidae), Benthosema pterotum (Myctophidae) and Gobiidae, forming about 82.5% of all collected larvae. The most dominant species was Atherinomorus lacunosus, contributing 19% of all taxa with a total abundance of 113 larvae/1000m³. Larvae of families Siganidae and Soleidae were the least abundant both with 0.23 larvae/1000m³