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Can anyone make a rough ID on this critter?

Behaviour-wise, he moves a lot like a goby, with a fair bit of pectoral action and some body snaking. There is also some rotating eye things happening, and the eye itself is just fascinating, coloured just like his body! He seems to like being under things rather than on, camouflage isn't his strong suit. So far I've seen him attack and eat from a chunk of prawn meat, but he's been fairly nervous otherwise.

Note the 4 ray first dorsal before the main dorsal fin begins. I'm pretty sure this does place him in the goby category, I'm just not sure if it can be narrowed down further. The snout seems very ounced in comparison to the sand gobies too, but I think it may just be that the head is attached (? for lack of a better term) at a different angle. He isn't really designed to sit flat against substrate or objects, more to poke in and out of rock crevices or something.

Any clues?









For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

What's the pelvic fin like? In most it is fused into a single sucking fin for attachment. If the pelvics are not fused then it might not be a goby, which would be helpful since Gobiidae is huge.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

gah... you want me to flip it over!? It took 2 days to convince it to come out from under it's rock, it could be a while before I can tell you for sure.

I haven't seen it suction on to anything yet. That is probably wholly unhelpful, but even in the transport container it was not holding on to the base like the others so perhaps it can't?

I'll see what I can do about looking under there so I can be more definitive. Am I looking at the front or rear or both for the fusing? Assuming proximal, yes? or is it both sides and all the way up, very much cup-like?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

If the whole pelvic fin isn't fused into a single round fin, then they would be fused proximally. While I'm not an expert in gobies and there also are quite a few species and diversity among the gobies, I believe the pelvic fins are usually wholly fused, so it shouldn't really be an issue. In many species of goby, they often rest on their pelvic fin structure, make it easy to see the structure from the side. It's rather difficult to see the pelvic fin(s) in the pic of your fish, which makes me think it's not a goby.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Right, NOT fused. 2 rays (or 2 long and one short, hard to see) with minimal webbing. The rays seem to curve away from one another.

He is now bolder. Where the gobies will not come out for larger pieces of food, this little guy will take on the shrimp for his share. He is still nervy, but much less so.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett