Species: Varicus cephalocellatus, Ocellated Splitfin Goby
body: 4 yellow blotches + 7 yellow saddles
Ds yellow stripes; C yellow bars, yellow below

Varicus cephalocellatus Gilmore, Van Tassell & Baldwin, 2016
Ocellated Splitfin Goby
Body short, robust; head without pores; both nostrils tubular; a groove across top of front lip; gill opening restricted to length of pectoral fin base; gill membranes with 5 rays; dorsal fin VII + I, 10, tips of spines and tips of soft dorsal rays 1-6 with fleshy extensions; length of 2nd dorsal base > distance from 2nd dorsal base to tail fin; anal fin I, 9; pectoral fin 19-20, rays 13-16 greatly extended, reach to front of anal fin base; pelvic fins I, 5, completely separate, no membrane between 5th rays, no front frenum between spines, all rays unbranched, with flattened fleshy tips, 5th ray ¼ -1/5 length of 4th ray, fins long, extend to front of anal fin base; body with rough scales in a wedge-shaped patch from tail base to under center of 2nd dorsal fin, 12-23 lateral scales, none on belly; base of tail fin with 2 large, rough scales; no lateral line.
Head and body translucent; head with numerous bright yellow marks: a thin bar down from eye, a bar down along edge of preopercle, two across nape, a cluster of small yellow ocelli surrounded by dark dots behind eye; iris yellow-green; body with 4 large mid-side yellow blotches, 1 under 1st dorsal, 2 under 2nd dorsal, 1 in center of end of tail base; top midline of body with 7 yellow saddles; 1st dorsal fin white, with 3 yellow stripes; 2nd dorsal white, with bright white submarginal stripe, base with extensions of 3 yellow saddles, center with 2 longitudinal rows of yellow spots; tail fin translucent white, with 4-6 vertical rows of small yellow spots, lower ¼ of fin yellow; anal fin with translucent base, yellow outer ¾, that suffused with black; pectoral base with yellow blotch above, a yellow spot below, fin with yellow pigment on rays; pelvics with yellow on inner membranes, tips of rays bright white. Note: fish on dark substrates can have darker colors, including yellow marks on body.
Reaches at least 8 cm
Rocky, to sand and rubble bottoms
Depth range 114-186 m
The lesser Antilles: Barbados, St Vincent, Bonaire.

High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
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- Rocks
- Sand & gravel
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Reef and soft bottom
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Data
- Parasitic
- Diet
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- Data
- Zooplankton
- Egg Type
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- Benthic
- Data
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- All species
- Greater Caribbean endemic
- West Atlantic Endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Antilles endemic
- Caribbean endemic
- GC endemic
- Island (s)
- Island (s) only
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Tropical (10-23N, Nicaragua / Cuba)
- IUCN Red List
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- Data deficient
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 8
- Depth Range Min
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- 114
- Depth Range Max
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- 186