Gobiodon Explained

Gobiodon is a genus of gobies also known as coral gobies or "clown gobies" (which can also mean the related genus Microgobius). Generally, coral gobies, unlike the rest of the family Gobiidae, are not burrowers, but instead prefer to inhabit the branches of certain Acropora or similar hard corals.

As a group, they have a general fusiform shape and are small, most ranging about 6 cm, though there are exceptions.

Gobiodon burdigalicus from the Burdigalian (Miocene) of southwestern India is the first fossil (otoliths) record of this genus.^[1]

Species

Accepted species in this genus include:

• Gobiodon acicularis Harold & R. Winterbottom, 1995 (Needlespine coral goby)
• Gobiodon albofasciatus Sawada & R. Arai, 1972 (Whitelined coral goby)
• Gobiodon aoyagii Shibukawa, T. Suzuki & Aizawa, 2013^[2]
• Gobiodon ater Herler, Bogorodsky & T. Suzuki, 2013 (Black coralgoby)^[3]
• Gobiodon atrangulatus Garman, 1903
• Gobiodon axillaris De Vis, 1884
• Gobiodon bilineatus Herler, Bogorodsky & T. Suzuki, 2013 (Two-lined coralgoby)^[3]
• Gobiodon brochus Harold & R. Winterbottom, 1999
• Gobiodon ceramensis (Bleeker, 1853)
• Gobiodon citrinus (Rüppell, 1838) (Poison goby)
• Gobiodon fulvus Herre, 1927
• Gobiodon fuscoruber Herler, Bogorodsky & T. Suzuki, 2013 (Brown-red coralgoby)^[3]
• Gobiodon heterospilos Bleeker, 1856
• Gobiodon histrio (Valenciennes, 1837) (Broad-barred goby)
• Gobiodon irregularis Herler, Bogorodsky & T. Suzuki, 2013 (Rufous coralgoby)^[3]
• Gobiodon micropus Günther, 1861
• Gobiodon multilineatus H. L. Wu, 1979
• Gobiodon oculolineatus H. L. Wu, 1979
• Gobiodon okinawae Sawada, R. Arai & T. Abe, 1972 (Okinawa goby)
• Gobiodon prolixus R. Winterbottom & Harold, 2005
• Gobiodon quinquestrigatus (Valenciennes, 1837) (Five-lined coral goby)
• Gobiodon reticulatus Playfair (fr), 1867 (Reticulate goby)
• Gobiodon rivulatus (Rüppell, 1830) (Rippled coral goby)
• Gobiodon spilophthalmus Fowler, 1944
• Gobiodon winterbottomi T. Suzuki, Ko. Yano & Senou, 2012^[4]
• Gobiodon burdigalicus Carolin, Bajpai, Maurya & Schwarzhans, 2022 (otolith-based fossil species)

Notes and References

1. Carolin . Nora . Bajpai . Sunil . Maurya . Abhayanand Singh . Schwarzhans . Werner . 2022 . New perspectives on late Tethyan Neogene biodiversity development of fishes based on Miocene (~ 17 Ma) otoliths from southwestern India . PalZ . 10.1007/s12542-022-00623-9.
2. Shibukawa, K., Suzuki, T. & Aizawa, M. (2013): Gobiodon aoyagii, a New Coral Goby (Actinopterygii, Gobiidae, Gobiinae) from the West Pacific, with Redescription of a Similarly colored Congener Gobiodon erythrospilus Bleeker, 1875. Bulletin of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Series A, 39 (3): 143-165.
3. Herler, J., Bogorodsky, S.V. & Suzuki, T. (2013): Four new species of coral gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Gobiodon), with comments on their relationships within the genus. Zootaxa, 3709 (4): 301–329.
4. Suzuki, T., Yano, K. & Senou, H. (2012): Gobiodon winterbottomi, a New Goby (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Gobiidae) from Iriomote-jima Island, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Bulletin of the National Museum of Natural Science, Ser. A., Supplement No. 6: 59–65.