Gobionellus oceanicus (Pallas, 1770)
Highfin goby
Gobionellus oceanicus
photo by NOAA\NMFS\Mississippi Laboratory

Family:  Gobiidae (Gobies), subfamily: Gobionellinae
Max. size:  27 cm TL (male/unsexed); max.weight: 73.3 g
Environment:  demersal; freshwater; brackish; marine, amphidromous
Distribution:  Western Atlantic: USA (Virginia) to southern Brazil; occasionally taken as far north as Great Bay estuary, New Jersey; including Mississippi Sound, Gulf of Mexico off Port Aransas, Texas; the muddy coast of French Guiana and especially common along the lower Cayenne River.
Diagnosis:  Dorsal spines (total): 7-7; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12-14; Anal spines: 1-1; Anal soft rays: 13-14. This species differs from its congeners by the following characters: mouth terminal and oblique; most distinct pigmentation, a large blotch on trunk located anterodorsally beneath pectoral fin; opercle with a triangular patch; pectoral-fin base with a blotch; second dorsal-fin 14 elements, anal fin with 15 elements; dorsal fins separate; adults with small ctenoid scales covering trunk and nape, 57-89 scales in a lateral series; upper jaw with several rows of teeth; first gill arch with 8 thin rakers on ceratobranchial, 1at the angle, and 6 or 7 on epibranchial (Ref. 55435).
Biology:  Adults are found on shallow mud or mud-sand bottoms in turbid and generally brackish water near estuaries (Ref. 13628). Also encountered in weedy backwaters (Ref. 7251) and hyper-saline waters (Ref. 13628) with salinity ranging from 0.15 to 37.2 ppt (Ref. 97140).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC); Date assessed: 16 August 2018 Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless
Country info:  Reported in Ref. 4343; outside distributional range (Ref. 55435); referring to Gobionellus occidentalis (F. Pezold, pers.comm. 10/15).


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