Microgobius carri

Common Name

Seminole Goby

Year Described

Fowler, 1945

Identification

Dorsal Fin: VII, 15-18 (usually 16-17)
Anal Fin: 16-19 (usually 16-17)
Pectoral Fin: 20-24 (usually 21)
Gill Rakers: 5+15
Scales: 50-62 rows

Body elongate. Mouth large and upturned. Dentary with 4-5 teeth. Dorsal crest absent in both sexes. There are two preopercular pores. Supraorbital canals usually separate. Dorsal spines 2-5 elongate in males but not elongate in females. Body covered in mostly ctenoid scales.

Color

Body translucent to opaque with a lateral yellow stripe running from upper opercular edge to the tail. Yellow stripe is bordered with blue on both sides. A second blue stripe runs from the upper eye along the upper body to the caudal peduncle. Area between stripes yellow on the rear body. Gut is white. Cheek purplish to red with 2-3 transverse iridescent blue stripes (sometimes broken into segments). Eye white with a median dark band. Spiny dorsal clear with a aqua hue on the distal edge. Soft dorsal and anal fins clear with faint yellow stripes. Tail with a continuation of the body stripe, a yellow lower lobe, and a blue upper margin. Pelvic fin pale blue. Pectoral fin clear.

Size

Maximum size to 75mm SL.

Habitat

Over coarse sand bottoms from 6-21m.

Range

Florida to Tobago, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

References

Birdsong, R.S. 1981. A review of the gobiid fish genus Microgobius Poey. Bulletin of Marine Science v. 31 (no. 2): 267-306.

Tornabene, L. , J.L. van Tassell and D.R. Robertson. 2012. Microgobius urraca (Teleostei: Gobiidae), a new species of goby from the tropical eastern Pacific. Zootaxa No. 3447: 41-55.