aqua 16(3)_Four gobies

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 16, Issue 3

15 July 2010

Sergey Bogorodsky, Marcelo Kova I and Helen K. Larson: The first records of four gobies (Pisces: Gobiidae) in the Red Sea, pp. 117-128

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 16, Issue 3

15 July 2010

Sergey Bogorodsky, Marcelo Kova I and Helen K. Larson: The first records of four gobies (Pisces: Gobiidae) in the Red Sea, pp. 117-128

Abstract
Four coral and coral-rock associated gobiid species (Feia nympha, Gobiodon prolixus, Pleurosicya plicata and Trimmatom nanus) were collected recently in southern Egypt, Sudan and Yemen; the last three species were also photographed underwater. These findings represent the first records of these species in the Red Sea. Data on morphology, including diagnostic features in comparison with similar species of the Red Sea and descriptions of live coloration based on underwater photographs, are provided. Some notes on the ecology of each species are included and the first data on associated corals for P. plicata is given. In addition, a Gobiodon species was identified as the undescribed Gobiodon sp.1 previously reported from the Gulf of Aqaba. Trimmatom nanus is now the smallest fish presently recorded from the Red Sea.