Abstract
The cardinalfish Siphamia tubifer has been selected as a model for the study of genetic connectivity in reef-associated fishes among marine-protected-areas in Socotra Island in the northwestern Indian Ocean (part of the Socotra Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008). Twenty-six novel microsatellite markers are described for S. tubifer and are now available for studies on its genetic population structure. In a population sample from Socotra Island, the newly developed markers possessed between three and 20 alleles. Expected and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.56-0.96 to 0.55-0.95, respectively. The markers did not show deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and were not in linkage disequilibrium.