Biodiversity Data Journal 7: €47537 OO)
doi: 10.3897/BDJ.7.e47537 open access
Taxonomic Paper

An updated checklist of the marine fish fauna of

Redang Islands, Malaysia

Jianguo Du*§!, Kar-Hoe Loh!, Wenjia Hu*S!, Xinging Zheng*S, Yang Amri Affendi’, Jillian Lean
Sim Ooi*, Zhiyuan Ma*S!, Mohammed Rizman-ldid‘, Albert Apollo Chan*

¢ Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen, 361005, China

§ Fujian Provincial Station for Field Observation and Research of Island and Coastal Zone in Zhangzhou, Xiamen, 361005, China
| Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Ecological Conservation and Restoration, Xiamen, 361005, China

q Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

# Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

= Marine Park and Resource Management Division, Department of Fisheries Malaysia, Putrajaya, 62628, Malaysia

Corresponding author: Kar-Hoe Loh (khloh@um.edu.my)
Academic editor: Felipe Ottoni
Received: 23 Oct 2019 | Accepted: 01 Dec 2019 | Published: 06 Dec 2019

Citation: Du J, Loh K-H, Hu W, Zheng X, Amri AY, Ooi JLS, Ma Z, Rizman-ldid M, Chan AA (2019) An updated
checklist of the marine fish fauna of Redang Islands, Malaysia. Biodiversity Data Journal 7: e47537.
https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e47537

ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F940F7FD-0A35-41E9-8BDD-33F83C2369D5

Abstract

Background

Redang Islands Marine Park consists of nine islands in the state of Terengganu, Malaysia.
Redang Island is one of the largest off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, which is
famous for its crystal-clear waters and white sandy beaches. The ichthyofauna of the
Redang archipelago was surveyed by underwater visual observations between August
2016 and May 2018. Census data were compiled with existing records into the checklist of
the marine fish of the Redang archipelago presented herein. A total of 314 species
belonging to 51 families were recorded. The most speciose families (Pomacentridae,
Labridae, Scaridae, Serranidae, Apogonidae, Carangidae, Gobiidae, Chaetodontidae,
Lutjanidae, Nemipteridae and Siganidae) were also amongst the most speciose at the
neighbouring Tioman archipelago (except Chaetodontidae). The coral fish diversity index
value for the six families of coral reef fishes (Chaetodontidae, Pomacanthidae,

© Du J et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

2 Du Jet al

Pomacentridae, Labridae, Scaridae and Acanthuridae) of the study sites was 132. We
estimated that there were 427 coral reef fish species in the Redang archipelago. According
to the IUCN Red List, eight species are Near Threatened (Carcharhinus melanopterus,
Chaetodon _ trifascialis, _Choerodon schoenleinii, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, E.
polyphekadion, Plectropomus leopardus, Taeniura lymma and Triaenodon obesus), eleven
are Vulnerable (Bolbometopon muricatum, Chaetodon trifasciatus, Chlorurus sordidus,
Dascyllus_ trimaculatus, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, E. polyphekadion, Halichoeres
marginatus, Heniochus acuminatus, Nebrius ferrugineus, Neopomacentrus cyanomos and
Plectropomus areolatus) and three are Endangered (Amphiprion clarkia, Cheilinus
undulatus and Scarus ghobban) in the Redang archipelago.

New information

Five species are new records for Malaysia (Cfenogobiops mitodes, Epibulus brevis,
Halichoeres erdmanni, H. richmondi and Scarus caudofasciatus) and 25 species are newly
recorded in the Redang archipelago.

Keywords

Coral Fish Diversity Index, fish diversity, ichthyofauna, new record species

Introduction

Redang archipelago is located about 45 km to the northeast of Kuala Terengganu and it
has a surface area of about 2,484 ha, making it the largest of the nine islands within the
Redang archipelago. The Redang archipelago comprises the islands of Redang, Pinang,
Ling, Ekor Tebu, Kerengga Besar, Kerengga Kechil, Paku Besar, Paku Kechil and Lima
(Fig. 1). The waters surrounding the Redang archipelago have been protected as a Marine
Park under the Establishment of Marine Park Malaysia Order 1994 (Fisheries Act in 1995)
Comley et al. 2004. It is famous for its crystal-clear waters, white sandy beaches and for
being an important conservation site for sea turtles.

The coral reefs of the Redang Islands are amongst the best on the east coast of Malaysia
and are generally in good condition. Reef Check Malaysia has established an annual
survey programme in Redang to assess the health of coral reefs since 2011. In 2016, the
study showed that the reefs around Redang Islands are considered to be in “Good”
condition, with live coral cover of 55.42%, which is above the average of 43.71% for reefs
in Malaysia (Reef Check Malaysia 2016). Nevertheless, only the indicator fish species
were monitored, for example, butterflyfish (targeted for the aquarium trade), humphead
wrasse (live-food fish), snapper and grouper (food fish) (Reef Check Malaysia 2017).

A total of 209 species and 92 genera from 40 families of fish were reported from Redang
Islands Marine Park by Harborne et al. (2000) and 173 species and 86 genera from 40
families of coral reef fish species were reported from the park by Yusuf et al. (2001).