Diversity and Community Composition of Fishes in Tropical Estuary Pahang Malaysia

A study was conducted to determine the diversity and composition of fish communities in Pahang estuary during monsoon and non-monsoon seasons from April to December, 2008. A total of 145 individuals of fish representing 24 species belonging to 14 families were caught during the study period. The fish fauna in the Pahang estuary was dominated by species belonging to the family Ariidae (69.32%) followed by Sciaenidae (8.82%). Pristigasteridae and Latidae constituted 4.2% each of the estuarial fish diversity. Most dominant species were Arius tenuispinis (47.06%) followed by Arius sumatranus (10.5%) and Arius thalassinus (8.82%). These species were abundant during June and April. Setipinna taty (Family: Engraulidae), Pennahia microdon (Family: Sciaenidae), Eleutheronema tetradactylum (Family: Polynemidae) were the least dominant species in the Pahang estuary with 0.42% of total abundance individually. Physico-chemical parameters, such as temperature (26.76 - 30.61 degrees C), salinity (0.02 - 27.01 ppt), pH (4.69 - 8.31), dissolved oxygen (2.9609 - 7.44mg/L), nitrate (0.09 - 1.00mg/L) and phosphate (0.015 - 0.103mg/L) level in the water column were also monitored. Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that fish diversity of Pahang estuary was high in non-monsoon compared to monsoon seasons.