Abstract

An analysis of the community of fish associated to the reef lagoon in the reef of Mahahual, located in the South part of the state of Quintana Roo, by means of visual censuses. For which the lagoon in two was divided habitats, the part average of the lagoon and the arrecifal crest. In each one of these transects perpendicular to the coast were made. The samplings were conducted in September to December 2000. A total of 67 species, pertaining to 23 families was registered, of who the most important families as far as the number of species were Lutjanidae, Pomacentridae, Guerreidae and Carangidae. Of both areas analyzed, the reef crest displayed a total of 59 species divided in 17 families, of who the Pomadasyidae family had to species, the Labridae with 7 species and the families Pomacentridae and Scaridae with 6 species each. In the average part of the reef lagoon, a total of 42 species distributed in 17 families was registered, of who the Scaridae family had 6 species. The species that had the greater simple coefficient of dominance were Haemulon sciurus, Abudefduf saxantilis, Stegastes fuscus and Lutjanus apodus, with a 70%. Registry a general value of diversity of 5,091 bitslind, with a minimum value for station 1 of 2.760 and a 4,638 maximum of bits/ind for station 8. These preliminary results turn out to be similar to the reported ones by other authors for the region of the Mexican Caribbean.

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