Singaporean retailer Iwarna Aquafarm is offering an interesting fish originating from the temperate shores of Japan. Pterogobius elapoides goes by several names including Serpentine Goby, Brown Barred Hover Goby, or simply Kinubari in Japan, and it hangs out in rocky shores less than five meters (16′) deep, sometimes among seagrasses, where it dines on pelagic copepods as juvenile and benthic amphipods as it grows larger.
Unlike most bottom-hugging goby species, P.elapoides is semi-pelagic, hence the name Hover Goby, where it can both scan the bottom for prey items as well as hide itself from predators between boulders. Males are fully grown at 8.3cm/3.3″ and it is they who build a nest underneath a boulder and provide exclusive paternal care for eggs, which includes fanning and defending the brood until hatching. Adult individuals generally die at the completion of the breeding season.
Classed as temperate, these are common fish in the North West Pacific, Central Japan, and Korea, though they are rare aquarium imports, (at least in The West,) and their small size, temperate tolerance of up to 26C/78.8F, and breeding potential could make for interesting aquarium subjects. There are four species within the genus Pterogobius, including the colorful P.virgo, and the not so colorful zacalles and zonoleucus. The genus did draw the attention of goby Ichthyologist and now retired Emperor of Japan, Akihito, however, as he is named as an author on at least one scientific paper about them.
The Serpentine gobies are probably the least amazing items that were received by Iwarna Aquafarm on a bumper fish shipment from Japan that included Plectranthias sagamiensis, Wrought Iron Butterflyfish, and Pristigenys niphonia, to name just three species. But the last time they received Pterogobius elapoides was in 2014.
Image credits opencage, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons and Iwarna Aquafarm.
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