Fish population of artificial reef in Khuzestan coastal waters, Northwest of Persian Gulf

This study was done on artificial reefs in Khuzestan coastal waters in Bahrakan region from 2004 to 2006. Visual stationary census of fishes was done from four reef areas and also one area as control site. In general 15 families of fishes were observed. Sparidae with 3 species were the most diverse family. Serranidae (85%) was the most abundant family during the study period. Some species such as Epinephelus coioides، Neopomacentrue Sindensis، Scolopsis sp. and Diplodus sargus were frequently observed around the artificial reefs. The number of species (58%) and frequency (49%) of economic fishes in the mixed structure sites were more than other reef structure and showed increasing trend but no significant difference were observed (p>0. 05). The percentage of species number between stations and season had no significant difference (p>0. 05) but the relative frequency of species had significant difference between season (p>0. 05).