Valenciennea longipinnis
Ocellate Glider Goby
©Mark Shepherd: Ocellate Glider Gobies at Lizard Island
©Anne Hoggett: A small individual of Valenciennea longipinnis (7-9 cm) at base of shallow reef in the Lizard Island lagoon. The bright white cheek stripe is conspicuous in these small individuals.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Perciformes
Family
Gobiidae
Genus
Valenciennea
Species
Valenciennea longipinnis
Colours
Distinguishing features
Pale with about five widely-spaced spots along midline, a broad white stripe bordered with pink on cheek and gill cover, and paler pink/brown stripes running along upper sides. Usually in pairs.
Size
- Up to 15 cm (Length)
Depth range
- Depth range data is not yet available.
Synonyms
Similar taxa
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Local abundance
- Lizard Island: Abundant in the lagoon at the base of reef patches with coarse sediment.
Behaviour
These gobies usually excavate their own burrows and are only occasionally found with alpheid shrimps at Lizard Island (Syms and Jones, 2004). Usually found in very shallow water, often less than 3 metres and rarely below 6 metres (Hoese and Larson, 1994)
Web resources
References
References that assist with identification
- Allen, G., R. Steene, P. Humann and N. Deloach (2003). Reef fish identification: Tropical Pacific New World Publications Inc., Jacksonville, FL, USA.
Other references
- Caley, M.J. (1991). Mechanisms of coexistence in communities of coral-reef fishes, Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney. LIRS catalog number 307.
- Caley, M.J. (1995). Community dynamics of tropical reef fishes: local patterns between latitudes, Marine Ecology Progress Series, 129: 7-18. LIRS catalog number 447.
- View all references