Species: Lythrypnus rhizophora, Spot-cheek goby
Lythrypnus rhizophora (Heller & Snodgrass, 1903)
Spot-cheek goby
Body robust; head round; no fleshy crest along top of head and nape; mouth very oblique; head without pores; papillae around mouth, on cheeks and operculum and over eye; front nostril a long tube, rear nostril a raised rim; tongue round to blunt; 5-7 gill rakers; dorsal fin VI (1st spine filamentous in male) + I, 11 (10-12) rays; I, 9 (8-10) anal rays; 18 (16-21) pectoral rays, rays unbranched; pelvics fused into disc; tail fin short, round, with 17 segmented rays; scales rough, body covered, none on head, nape, chest and pectoral base; 28-30 rows along mid-side.
Head and body brownish orange; head with 3-4 narrow bluish-grey bars, with conspicuous dark spots in orange areas between pale bars on cheek and opercle; body with 9-14 narrow blue-grey bars, each of those with a central thin dark line; tail fin with vertical rows of small brown spots forming 7 bars.
Size: grows to 3.4 cm.
Inhabits rocky reefs.
Depth: 1-20 m.
Costa Rica to Panama, Cocos and the Galapagos islands.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine Only
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
-
- Inshore
- Inshore Only
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Bottom only
- Habitat
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- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Rocks
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Reef only
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Data
- Planktivore
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Zooplankton
- Data
- Egg Type
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- Pelagic larva
- Benthic
- No data
- Global Endemism
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- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) endemic
- All species
- East Pacific endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- TEP endemic
- Continent + Island (s)
- All species
- Continent
- Island (s)
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo)
- IUCN Red List
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- Data deficient
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 20
- Length Max
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- 3.4
