Cozumel Fish Guide

[Arsalan Ahmed]

The question isn't really specific to Cozumel but in general. I've been wondering if there were reef fish that were commonly found around the world as opposed to just at Cozumel or Mexico/Caribbean. While I realize there are trumpetfish everywhere, and even angelfishes, I was looking to get more specific e.g. does the Rock Beauty exist in all the oceans? Would you find a honeycombed cow fish everywhere?

I'm compiling my own database of fish so I can keep track of all this information.

Thank you

 

[Himself]

I would suggest that you contact Reef.org, they have database of fish broken down by area, and even by reef.

 

[lionfish-eater]

or buy the fish id book by Humann and Deloach

 

[sharky60]

The question isn't really specific to Cozumel but in general. I've been wondering if there were reef fish that were commonly found around the world as opposed to just at Cozumel or Mexico/Caribbean. While I realize there are trumpetfish everywhere, and even angelfishes, I was looking to get more specific e.g. does the Rock Beauty exist in all the oceans? Would you find a honeycombed cow fish everywhere?

I'm compiling my own database of fish so I can keep track of all this information.

Thank you

Many 'types' of fish are fund all over the world, sharks & rays, parrots, angels, butterflies, eels, wrasse, grouper etc. The specific variety of fish may change with a region or ocean. In Hawaii for instance, 1/3 of all the fish found are only found in Hawaiian waters because of he isolation of the islands.

There are many fish ID books specific to ocean regions, to compile a complete database of the literally thousands of different types of fish, different variety of species & locations they are found would be quite daunting ... best of luck!!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

I absolutely agree with lion fish-eater. After thousands of dives in the Caribbean, and seeing all kinds of weird things (try Venus Girdle) I have yet to find one that could not be found in those books. About the Indo-pacific I can't swear to it since I don't have as many dives in Asia, and there are more species there. I wonder does the latest Humann book have Lionfish in the Caribbean edition? My signed copy is 10 years old!

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

I absolutely agree with lion fish-eater. After thousands of dives in the Caribbean, and seeing all kinds of weird things (try Venus Girdle) I have yet to find one that could not be found in those books. About the Indo-pacific I can't swear to it since I don't have as many dives in Asia, and there are more species there. I wonder does the latest Humann book have Lionfish in the Caribbean edition? My signed copy is 10 years old!

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Appreciate the information and I will definitely check it out. This is what I'm compiling right now

Reef Watchers: Reef Watchers: Fish Identification at it's finest
The site is in construction but the goal is that at one point, I can allow people to login and basically use it as a scrapbook, letting people save fish they have seen to their account. Think of it as checking off the fish you wanted to see. I'm not going to get thousands of fish in there but I want to at least get close to a 1000, large enough so people can interact and at that time, allow users themselves to add in more fish species and such.

 

[mmmbelows]

The question isn't really specific to Cozumel but in general. I've been wondering if there were reef fish that were commonly found around the world as opposed to just at Cozumel or Mexico/Caribbean. While I realize there are trumpetfish everywhere, and even angelfishes, I was looking to get more specific e.g. does the Rock Beauty exist in all the oceans? Would you find a honeycombed cow fish everywhere?

I'm compiling my own database of fish so I can keep track of all this information.

Thank you

There are more fish found outside the Mexico/Caribbean than exist in the Mexico/Caribbean area.The bio diversity in the Indo/pacific regions outnumbers the Caribbean away by about 4 to 1.

The caribbean is mostly isolated, it's attached to the Atlantic ocean which is cold and mostly lacking in reefs, while the pacific ocean is huge, warmer, has a large magnitude of more islands and reefs. You can consider the caribbean basically cut off from the pacific so it's isolated. If you consider how isolated it is, it's actually quite amazing that there are as many species in it as there is.

 

[jlyle]

http://www.fishbase.org/