Over the past decade, awareness of plastic pollution has significantly increased, leading to a focus on its potential adverse effects on biota, including the ingestion of microplastics by fish. This study investigates the abundance, composition, and characteristics of microplastics in the gills and gastrointestinal tracts (GITs) of 96 coral reef fish with different feeding habits (herbivorous fish: Scarus rivulatus, Naso lituratus, and Acanthurus triostegus
omnivorous fish: Abudefduf vaigensis
carnivorous fish: Epinephelus merra) from the Xisha Islands Waters, South China Sea. The relationships between microplastic abundance and fish length, weight, and feeding habits were also analyzed. Results show that 97.92% of the sampled coral reef fish contained microplastics. The average abundance of microplastics in the gills and GITs was 1.09 ± 0.25 items individual