Gobies are so plentiful and diverse we knew it was only a matter of time until we got a new species this year. The highly species rich genus Trimma gets first billing for 2019 with the official description of T. christianeae from Papua New Guinea.
Christiane’s pygmy goby was found in the infamous Milne Bay of PNG and its color and pattern are part of the ‘uniform’ for the Trimma caesiura complex of closely related species. Like these other Trimmas T. christianeae is a light orange to brown color with small blue markings scattered across the dorsal surface.
Compared to the closely related Trimma caesiura, T. lantana & T. naudei the newly described T. christianeae is much less colorful and more muted in pattern. Its spots are much less pronounced, less distinct and it would always get picked over by the other species for feature in a nano aquarium – if we ever saw them in the trade that is. Christiane’s pygmy goby was collected just below the surface between 1 and 4 meters deep so it’s not a hard fish to find, but its more subtle appearance has created a challenge in separating it from other closely related and similar looking pygmy gobies. [JOSF]
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