Trimma maiandros is a new species of nano goby from the Indo-Pacific which was recently described. Although it seems like countless new species of Eviota and Trimma gobies are frequently described that are lacking in the color department, the new Trimma maiandros is far from bland. The beautiful coloration of Trimma maiandros reminds us of a cross between the candy cane goby, Trimma cana, and the coolwater classic Catalina goby, Lythripnus dahli.
Trimma maiandros has an orange base coloration that fades to tangerine yellow towards the tail and a brighter orange eye. The body is flanked by a blue chainlink pattern which is thin towards the tail and nearly solid near the head, encasing the head and very brightly framing the colorful orange eye. Normally when a new species of reef fish is this cool and colorful it comes from a far away locale, never to be seen in the aquarium hobby but Trimma maiandros has a very wide range.
Trimma maiandros has been found at Cocos-Keeling Island in the Indian Ocean, Japan, the Marshall and Marianas Islands as well as some reef locations in Australia. With such a wide home turf we imagine that Trimma maiandros must occur within the collection locales for some of our reef aquarium fish and with a sensational coloration like that, we hope it’s only a matter of time before the new orange and blue nano goby is gracing our nano reefs. The new Trimma maiandros goby was described by Douglass F. Hoese, Richard Winterbottom and Sally Reader in the ichthyological journal, Aqua.
