Experimental removal of piscivorous groupers of the genus Cephalopholis (Serranidae) from coral habitats in the Gulf of Aqaba (Red-Sea)

Elimination of adult groupers (Cephalopholis spp.) from various reef formations in the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea) resulted in replenishment by other predatory fishes of different taxa and only partly (21.6%) by species of the same genus. Three years later, the initial population composition had not been restored. Recolonization by juvenile groupers presumably settling from the plankton was only 11.3%. Censuses of the typical piscine prey of groupers, before and 36 months after the removal of Cephalopholis, showed virtually no change in abundace and species composition.