Species: Gobiosoma hildebrandi, Hildebrand's Goby

Gobiosoma hildebrandi (Ginsburg, 1939)

Hildebrand's Goby

Body robust; head almost round; 1 pore between eyes; no pore over opercle; preopercle with 2-3 pores; snout blunt; narrow between eyes (<1/2 eye diameter); no head barbels; mouth oblique; upper lip separated from snout by a groove along its top edge; no teeth on roof of mouth; upper and lower jaws with 3-4 rows of teeth, outer and inner enlarged; gill membranes broadly joined to body under throat, with 5 rays; dorsal fin VII (1st 2 elongate in male) + I, 10 (10-11); length of 2nd dorsal base > distance from 2nd dorsal base to tail fin; I, 9 (8-9) anal fin rays; 17 (16-18) pectoral fin rays; pelvics fused in round disc; genital papilla broad, 2-lobed in male, notched & fringed in female; body completely scaled behind a line under of center of soft dorsal, with a triangular extension of scales forwards along midflank under pectoral to its base; scales in 25-28 longitudinal rows; 4-6 large very rough scales on base of tail fin; no lateral line.

Light brown; ~6 forward-sloping wide dark bars on body, with narrow dark bars in between, centers of bars with series of longitudinal dashes along midside; head with a dark bar from eye down, an oblique, forward-pointing bar behind eye, another on preopercle, and 2 more on operculum; pectoral base with short bar, a spot at top & bottom bases of pectoral fin, joined by a narrow row of pigment; fins dusky, pelvics darker in males; dorsal & anal with 1-2 stripes along entire midline; tail with faint wavy bars in female.

Size: 4.6 cm.

Habitat: fresh and brackish water, with mud/rock substrate.

Depth: 0-6 m.

Panama; also at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.