Oplopomus oplopomus
Pretty Lagoon Goby
©Anne Hoggett: Oplopomus oplopomus about 7 cm long near the seawater inlet lines for Lizard Island Research Station, Casuarina Beach.
©Lyle Vail: Oplopomus oplopomus in the Lizard Island lagoon. Orange streak on the tail is a distinctive field character.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Perciformes
Family
Gobiidae
Genus
Oplopomus
Species
Oplopomus oplopomus
Colours
Distinguishing features
A small pale goby, well-camouflaged on sand. Males have a large dark spot on the first dorsal fin. Females have brown and blue/white spots with a row of dark dashes along sides separated by white spots. Both sexes have an orange/brown streak on the tail that is distinctive in the field.
Size
- Up to 7.5 cm (length according to Allen et al, 2003)
Depth range
- From 0 m to 10 m
Synonyms
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Local abundance
- Lizard Island: Common in the lagoon on sand away from reefs to at least 10 metres depth.
Behaviour
These gobies usually excavate their own burrows and are only occasionally found with alpheid shrimps at Lizard Island (Syms and Jones, 2004).
Web resources
References
- Caley, M.J. (1995). Reef fish community structure and dynamics: in interaction between local and larger-scale processes? Marine Ecology Progress Series, 129: 19-29. LIRS catalog number 448.
- Syms, C. and G.P. Jones (2004). Habitat structure, disturbance and the composition of sand-dwelling goby assemblages in a coral reef lagoon, Marine Ecology Progress Series, 268: 221-230. LIRS catalog number 881.