Common Name
Banner Goby
Year Described
Longley & Hildebrand, 1940
Identification
Dorsal Fin: VII, 16-20 (usually 18-19)
Anal Fin: 18-20
Pectoral Fin: 20-23 (usually 21-22)
Gill Rakers: 4+12
Scales: 68-78 rows
Body elongate. Mouth large and upturned. Dentary with 5-6 teeth. Females with a moderately developed fleshy dorsal crest. Males with a poorly developed dorsal crest. There are three preopercular pores (middle minute). Supraorbital canals usually separate. Dorsal spines 2-6 elongate. Body covered in weakly ctenoid scales.
Color
Body translucent mauve to pinkish with a yellowish cast to the dorsum. Head body colored with an orangish wash behind the eye and several pearly blue spots and blotches. Base of pectoral and pelvic fin with a pearly blue blotch. Eye white with orange upper and lower margins. Spiny dorsal fin pink basally with a yellow distal margin. Soft dorsal pink basally with a blue margin with a thin median yellow stripe. Caudal fin with a thin yellow line contiguous with the dorsal marking and a pink lower lobe contiguous with the anal fin. Rest of fin purplish-blue. Anal fin yellowish basally and pink on the margin. Pelvic fin purple-blue. Pectoral fin clear.
Size
Maximum size to 50mm SL.
Habitat
Calcareous sandy bottoms from 1.5-5m.
Range
S. Florida to the Bahamas and the Yucatan Peninsula to Belize.
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.