Peces criptobentónicos de arrecifes coralinos en el Parque Nacional Archipiélago de Los Roques, Caribe de Venezuela

Abstract

Cryptobenthic coral reef fishes in Los Roques National Park, Caribbean of Venezuela. A significant portion of coral reef fish assemblages are composed of small cryptobenthic fishes, but these are poorly represented in regional fish characterization works. We characterized the cryptobenthic reef fish community associated with coral reef in Los Roques National Park during six week surveys. The study included 11 locations in which these fish were registered in transects of 10x2m. Specimens were collected using the suction method and a fine-mesh net. A total of 31 species of six families were collected (four Blenniidae, six Chaenopsidae, one Gobiesocidae, 12 Gobiidae, seven Labrisomidae and one Tripterygiidae). Six represented new records to the park, and Coralliozetus cardonae (Chaenopsidae) was a new record for Venezuela. The most important families were Gobiidae, Chaenopsidae and Labrisomidae. Cryptic fish assemblages changed with the reef environments, with a clear distribution pattern: some species were only observed in shallow areas of less than 5m depth, while in fringing and barrier reef areas, other species were present and differentially distributed between the reef crest and the seaward slope. These patterns probably are related to the close association that these small fish maintain with the benthos.

Revealing organic carbon sources fueling a coral reef food web in the Gulf of Mexico using stable isotopes and fatty acids

“…Among these taxa, the copepods are the principal food of the planktivorous finfish H. burekae and C. personatus in the Flower Garden Banks, Florida (Weaver and Rocha 2007) and in the PNSAV (Santander-Monsalvo 2010). The cryptic fish C. personatus are more frequent in fringing reefs and are the most abundant fish (80%) of all individuals in Venezuelan Caribbean reefs (Rodríguez-Quintal 2010). In the PNSAV, C. personatus contributes with a biomass of 160 kg km 22 .…”

The marine palaemonid shrimps (Crustacea, Deapoda, Caridea) of the Dutch Caribbean

“…Distribution. Known from Florida and Colombia (Holthuis 1951b), Dominica (Chace 1972), Cuba (Martínez-Iglesias 1986), Caribbean coast of Panama (Pachelle et al 2018), Los Roques (Rodriguez 1986) to Brazil (Vieira et al 2012, Ferreira et al 2020) in depths of 1-73 m. This is the first record of the species for Bonaire. Remarks.…”