©Catheline Froehlich
Colours
Distinguishing features
Adults are bright yellow and may have a pinkish cheek and a whitish streak along the upper side.
Juveniles can be almost as large but look quite different: translucent with a whitish head and vertebral column and with two dark red-brown streaks on sides, one above and one below centre and numerous spots on head and tail.
Marty Hing noted (May 2020) that this juvenile colour pattern is also found in Gobiodon acicularis and G. ceramensis and that (supposed) adults of G. heterospilos and G. spilophthalmus are also similar. He suspects that the latter two names are based on juveniles of other species.
Size
- Up to 3.5 cm (Total Length)
Depth range
- From 2 m to 15 m
Synonyms
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Distribution and habitat preferences
Western Pacific: north to southern Japan, south to Rowley Shoals and the southern Great Barrier Reef. Palau and Marshall Islands in Micronesia.
Lives among staghorn Acropora corals in lagoons and hovers among or above the branches and also rests on them. (Fishbase)
Web resources
References
References that assist with identification
- Allen and M.V. Erdmann, G.R. (2012). Reef fishes of the East Indies. Volumes I-III in: Reef fishes of the East Indies. Tropical Reef Research, Perth, Australia. LIRS catalog number 90162.
Other references
- Hing, M.L., O.S. Klanten, M. Dowton, K.R. Brown and M.Y.L. Wong (2018). Repeated cyclone events reveal potential causes of sociality in coral-dwelling Gobiodon fishes. PLoS ONE, 13(9): e0202407. LIRS catalog number 2204.
- Lassig, B.R. (1983). The effects of a cyclonic storm on coral reef assemblages, Environmental Biology of Fishes, 9(1): 55-63. LIRS catalog number 253.
- View all references