[Coral-List] Videos from Vamizi Island, Mozambique. What are these two fish?

Benjamin Cowburn benjamindcowburn at googlemail.com
Wed Apr 23 06:41:53 EDT 2014


Hi All,
Just got back from fieldwork on Vamizi Island at the northern end of the
Quirimbas islands, near the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. There's
two fish that I simply cannot ID. See youtube link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDAxUEpBSe8

This area is considered to be of exceptionally high diversity for the
Western Indian Ocean. While I was there I saw fish which are allegedly not
supposed to be on the East African coast, but were there never the less, so
don't be afraid to suggest something a bit out of range (i.e. Maldives or
Eastern Indian Ocean at a push).

The Pomacentid, was navy blue/dark grey with a distinctive black spot on
the caudal peduncal and the base of the pectoral fin as well. The tail was
yellow, but  the ventral fin had no different colour, that I could see. I
saw several individuals which looked like this on one area of leeward
fore-reef amongst soft corals at approximately 10m.

The Grouper was approximatley 40cm long. At first over the sand it was very
pale grey and quickly became dark grey over the reef. It had dark, but not
very prominent, small spots covering the face (not sure about the rest of
the body). I saw 2 or 3 individuals in an area of small, but vibrant patch
reefs, seperated by 10-50m of sand at about 8m depth in a sheltered area.

Thanks for your help!
Benjamin


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