Diets, growth rates and secondary production of herbivorous coral reef fishes
Russ GR and St. John J. 1998. Diets, growth rates and secondary production of herbivorous coral reef fishes. Pages 37-43. In Author unknown: Proceedings of the 6th international coral reef symposium, Volume 2. Australia. 1998
Literature on diets, growth rates and secondary production of herbivorous coral reef fishes was reviewed. The gut contents of the vast majority of species were dominated by algal turfs or turfs and detritus mixed with large amounts of inorganic material. Macroalgae and seagrasses dominated gut contents rarely. Limited growth data suggest that scarida may grow more quickly than acanthurids of similar size. Far more data on site-specific growth rates are needed before generalizations can be made. Few data exist to calculate the rate of secondary production of herbivorous coral reef fishes. The percentage contribution of herbivores to total yields of fishes from coral reefs range from 4 to 16%. Total yields of herbivorous fishes per unit area of coral reef range from 0.05-2.89 metric tons/km2/yr and provide a guide to maximum potential harvests. Estimates of yields of scarida from three Philippine reefs ranged from 9% to 38% of the standing crop per year. Estimates of secondary production of scarida from these three reefs range from 3.56 to 7.64 metric tons/km2/uyer. This represents secondary production in the range of .05-0.3% of net primary production. Yield values are lower than for tropical fish ponds but comparable to those of tropical lakes and reservouirs.