Eviota nigrispinna underwater photo by H. Kanehara

Eviota nigrispinna is a new species of reef goby fish described from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. This small goby was previously known as ‘Eviota sp. 2′ and was known from just a handful of photographs of the species in it’s natural environment. Eviota nigrispinna is distinguished by a distinct black stripe running along the backbone, a clearish body and a thin yellow line extending from the eye to the midsection. E. nigrispinna was described in the October issue of ZooTaxa by David Greenfield and Toshiyuki Suzuki. Since the new Eviota species is so far only known from Japan we don’t expect to see this species in the trade anytime soon, but there’s a slew of nano reef gobies still waiting to be discovered. One more shot after the break.

Freshly preserved Eviota nigrispinna photo by Toshiyuki Suzuki