Species: Lythrypnus okapia, Okapi Goby

Lythrypnus okapia Robins & Böhlke, 1964

Okapi Goby

Body relatively deep, compressed; head compressed, profile round; head without pores; papillae around mouth, on cheeks and operculum and over eye; front nostril a long tube, rear a raised rim; mouth very oblique; tongue rounded to pointed; gill opening narrow, ~pectoral base; gill membranes with 5 rays; dorsal fin VI (none elongate) + I, 8; length of 2nd dorsal base > distance from 2nd dorsal base to tail fin; anal fin I, 7; pectoral fins 14, all rays unbranched; pelvic fins I, 5, fused into disc; tail fin short, round, with 17 segmented rays; scales rough, body scaled except chest and pectoral base, 25-30 lateral rows, none on head and nape; no lateral line.

Five to eight narrow black bars (without a dark centerline) cross the body behind the pectoral fin to end of tail base, rear bars irregular and broken; dark line present or absent on pale interspaces between dark bars; head with 2-3 black saddles on nape and scattered black spots on lower half; a large black spot covers the entire pectoral-fin base including the bases of the rays.

Reaches only 1.7 cm.

Isolated coral heads.

Depth range 1.2 to 29 m.

Bermuda to the S Caribbean.