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Gobie

Fish · Least Concern

Gobie

Amblyeleotris steinitzi

About

Steinitz' prawn goby, or simply Steinitz' goby, is a small fish in the family Gobiidae. It lives in partnership with an alpheid shrimp and ranges from the Red Sea across the Indian Ocean into the western Pacific.

Family
Gobiidae
Avg size
6-9 cm
Habitat
The goby occurs in shallow areas of the Red Sea and the adjacent western Indian Ocean, as well as the Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius, the Seychelles, the Marshall Islands, southern Japan, and the Great Barrier Reef. It favours sandy bottoms on reef flats, outer lagoons, estuaries, and bays, down to depths of about 43 m (141 ft).
Behaviour
The goby shares a large burrow with alpheid shrimp such as Alpheus purpurilenticularis or Alpheus djeddensis, contributing no digging itself while the shrimp does all the excavation in sandy or silty ground. The burrow has one or more entrances whose positions shift as the shrimp works, and a new opening may appear after the goby pushes its head up through the sediment from within. Entrances can move by as much as 80 cm (31 in) in a single day, while the main body of the burrow stays in place.

Where & when

Where & When to See It

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