A Study on Reef Fishes of Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, Southeast Coast of India with New Records

The present study reports 140 species of reef associated fishes belonging to 87 genera and 52 families and 20 orders from Mandapm, Keelakarai, Tuticorin and Vember group of islands of Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve. The survey was done in the four groups of islands of the Marine National Park during December 2018 to March 2020 to assess the reef associated fishes. This study deals with the systematic and distributional list of the recorded species and description two species namely, Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir & Gueze, 1963 (Family-Epinephelidae) and Callionymus megastomus Fricke, 1982 (Family- Callionymidae) as the first record from the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India. This finding represent two first records to the ichthyofaunal diversity of Tamil Nadu, India.