Antitropical Shrimpgoby, Amblyeleotris ogasawarensis (Yanagisawa 1978)

Introduction

The Antitropical Shrimpgoby is a small fish that lives in a burrow with a snapping shrimp. The common name of the Antitropical Shrimpgoby refers to the distribution of the species.

Identification

The Antitropical Shrimpgoby is cream to white with five deep red bars on the body. The first bar, which crosses the operculum, contains a red-brown spot. The second bar ends dorsally in a semicircular spot at the base of the first dorsal fin.

There is a dusky bar between the eye and the mouth. The head has scattered blue and red spots. The caudal fin is marked with a deep reddish arc, and the pale spaces between the body bars contain blue spots.

Habitat

It lives in a burrow with a snapping shrimp, often Alpheus bellulus.

Distribution

The common name of the Antitropical Shrimpgoby refers to the distribution of the species. It is known from the Ryukyu and Ogasawara Islands in southern Japan and from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland to northern New South Wales in Australia. It is not recorded from the tropical waters in between.

The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Click on the map for detailed information. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.

References

1. Kuiter, R.H. 1992. Tropical Reef-Fishes of the Western Pacific. Indonesia and adjacent Waters. Penerbit PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Pp. 314.
2. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.