A Survey of the Small Reef Fishes of Kane'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawaiian Islands

Abstract

The small, sedentary fishes, many of which are cryptic, in Kane'ohe Bay, O'ahu, Hawaiian Islands, were surveyed based on 75 small rotenone stations from 10 different habitats. These stations resulted in a total of 192 species from 48 different families. An additional 10 other small species were recorded from the bay in other samples ancillary to this study for a total of 202 species from 49 families. Assemblage structure for specific taxa was investigated using detrended correspondence analysis. Only the following taxa demonstrated various levels of clustering of stations from specific habitats in ordination space: Blennioidei, Labridae, Apogonidae, Gobiidae, Serranidae, and Anguilliformes. When these taxa were combined into a single analysis the distinctiveness of sheltered patch reefs within the bay from all other habitats was reinforced. These findings support earlier conclusions based on studies in the Atlantic Ocean that a search for a single model to explain assemblage structure of coral reef fishes is ill founded.