Royal Gramma Basslet

Photo Ark

Royal Gramma Basslet

Scientific Name Gramma loreto

Photo Taken At Pure Aquariums, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

IUCN Red List Status Least Concern

Population

This species is common between depths of one to 30 m (Randall 1967, Bohlke and Chaplin 1993). Over three years, Gramma populations showed a consistent annual cycle where density peaked in late summer and was lowest in early spring (Webster 2003). In the Gulf of Mexico, there is very little immigration and emigration to different populations experienced by the species according to observations by Webster in the central Bahamas, where the effect of intercohort competition on density dependency was studied (2004). Read More

Threats

There are no known major threats to this species. While it is a common aquarium species, it is currently being bred in captivity and the level of extraction from the wild has declined as a result. It has been found to comprise up to 5% of the diet of the invasive lionfish in the Bahamas and has also been recorded in its diet in the Mexican Caribbean, the Cayman Islands and likely throughout the remainder of its range (Morris and Akins 2009, Cote and Maljkovic 2010, Green et al. 2012, Valdez-Moreno et al. 2012, Green and Cote 2014, Villasenor-Derbez and ... Read More

Region

gulf_of_mexico

Geographic Range

This species is distributed in the western Atlantic from the Bahamas, in the Gulf of Mexico from the Flower Garden Banks and Tuxpan, Mexico along the northern Yucatan to northwestern Cuba, and throughout the Caribbean Sea including the Aves Islands and Misteriosa Bank (Webster and Hixon 2000, Webster 2004, R. Robertson pers. comm. 2014). Its depth range is one to 100 m. Records off Florida require verification. Read More

Habitat

This is a reef-associated species found in caves or under ledges. It forms aggregations of up to 10 to 100 individuals (Webster 2003). It is most abundant in insular coral reef systems. It tends to occur in localized regions of high vertical relief within reef areas and does not show preference for a particular coral species (Freeman and Alevizon 1983). It swims with ventral orientation towards substratum, and thus is seen under ledges upside down. It feeds on suspended plankton and, to a small extent, on ectoparasites of other fishes (Böhlke and Chaplin 1993). It is gonochoristic (Asoh and Shapiro ... Read More

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RECENTLY ADDED SPECIES

Fraser, T. & Gilmore, G. 2015. Gramma loreto. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T185921A1789128. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T185921A1789128.en