| References: | J.L.B. Smith: | The sea fishes of southern Africa | |
| The fishes of Seychelles | |||
| R.H. Carcasson: | Coral reef fishes of the Indian and | ||
| West Pacific Oceans | |||
| Note: | Numbers in brackets in the present list refer to numbers given to the species in this field guild | ||
Many other ornamental species were seen during the explorations of the reefs which lasted only about 5 hours and were made without SCUBA diving gear, but could not be identified properly.
To put the potential for exports into its proper perspective a survey of the five fish families, which from the backbone of ornamental marine fauna trade, reveals that the eastern coast of Africa is known to be the habitat of:
| Chaetodontidae (butterfly fishes) | 28 | species of which | 4 | are endemic |
| Pomacanthidae (angel fishes) | 16 | species of which | 5 | are endemic |
| Amphiprionidae (clown fishes) | 3 | species of which | 3 | are endemic |
| Pomacentridae (damsel fishes) | 10 | species of which | 1 | are endemic |
| Acanthuridae (surgeon fishes) | 18 | species of which | 0 | are endemic |
| 75 | 13 |
Out of 1 600 species of coral reef fishes mentioned in the field guide of Indo-Pacific fishes by R.H. Carcasson (not including the Elasmobranchii) about 50 percent are found along the African coastline in the Indian Ocean. More than 200 species which have been located in the Persian Gulf, Indian peninsula, Sri Lanka and Mauritius, might eventually be found - or at least some of them - on the Cabo Delgado reefs.
Out of these 800 species about 50 are endemic to Africa, and it is the small species which are of interest to the ornamental fish trade that are more likely to be endemic, especially if coastal.
It is probable that, as it is done by fish collectors in other parts of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, deep SCUBA diving would help find more endemic species which have not yet been discovered along the African coastline, and especially in Mozambique which has been little explored scientifically with diving equipment.
It is evident that more than 100 species of fishes could be readily exported from the Cabo Delgado area, some of them in large numbers.
It is also certain that the export of coral reef fishes would be supported by the trade in colourful invertebrates (shrimps, crabs, dwarf lobsters, anemones, nudibranchs, etc.), live and dead coral heads, for which the demand is very large.
