Common Name
Orange-sided Goby
Year Described
Robins & Bohlke, 1964
Identification
Dorsal Fin: VII, 10-12 (usually 11)
Anal Fin: 9-10
Pectoral Fin: 15-18 (usually 17)
Pelvic Fin: I, 5
Caudal Rays: 17 (segmented)
Vertebrae: 11 precaudal, 17 caudal; 27 total
Snout blunt and mouth underslung. Teeth small and pointed. Tongue shallowly bilobed. Gill opening a small slit not reaching ventrum. Two large modified scales with enlarged ctenii on the caudal base. Body otherwise scaleless. Dorsal fin spines 6 and 7 spaced further apart than first five. Dorsal fin spines not elongate. Pecotral fin reaches beyond anus. Pelvic fin relatively small. Four supraorbital pores, one infraorbital pore, two preopercular, and one lateral pore.
Color
Body translucent with around 14 faint, narrow golden bands that become red-orange spots at the midline. The gut area, head, thorax, and vertebral column is bright white. There are two bright red-orange blotches on the gut surrounded by jet black borders. The vertebral column is banded in orange, black, and white. Red-orange spots on head are surrounded by black melanophores. Golden markings in interorbital region and on eye margin also sprinkled with melanophores. Fins translucent.
Size
Maximum size to 25mm SL.
Habitat
Coral and rocky reefs up to 30m depth. Usually found perched on corals.
Range
Found in the Caribbean Sea from the Bahamas to the Lesser Antilles. Also off Belize and Honduras at insular reef localities.
References
Böhlke, J. E., & Robins, C. R. 1968. Western Atlantic seven-spined gobies, with descriptions of ten new species and a new genus, and comments on Pacific relatives. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 120, 45-174.
Robins, C. R. and J. E. Böhlke. 1964. Two new Bahaman gobiid fishes of the genera Lythrypnus and Garmannia. Notulae Naturae (Philadelphia) No. 364: 1-6.