REEF BITE ON PORITIIDS CORAL IN REEF FLAT AREA OF SOUTH JAVA’S SEA, INDONESIAOktiyas Muzaky LuthfiAbstract Coral reef provides many services for human and coastal environment, such as protection of shoreline, development of carbonate material and fisheries. Naturally coral reef had development and accretion destruction process. In process of destruction corallivorous fish has important role to erode the reef and balance the reef building process. Pantai Kondang Merak located at the southern of Java (8023Â’48.73"S, 112031Â’3.59" E) had faced on Indian Ocean that has reef flat area with 27.29 life coral coverage. We monitored on 4 massive Porites coral for 14 months long. The result showed that number of bites were 4,315 that came from 3 family of fish, i.e. Chaetodontidae, Scaridae and Tetraodontidae. In case of bite preference in coral, the upper segment (A) was 1,441 bites, in the middle segment (T) was 1,913 bites and the lower segment was 961bites. Chatodontidae and Tetraodontidae be main actor of coral erosion in this area, in this study also showed that corallivorous fish preferred prey on upper and middle segment of coral colony rather than button segment. Knowing the corallivorous feeding rate is important for Managers to manage healthy ecosystem of coral reef and make a decision for sustainable development in the future.
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