Gobiosoma hemigymnum
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Gobiidae (Gobies)
Gobiosoma
Gobiosoma hemigymnum
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Short barbel; pectoral fin base and origin of second dorsal below posterior naris; posterior section of body scaled, except for area above line joining upper end of pectoral fin base and anal fin origin; head moderately depressed; rostral frenum present; mouth terminal and slightly oblique; upper jaw extends to level of pupil; jaw teeth pointed and arranged in narrow bands, with most of those in outer row enlarged in upper jaw and most of those in outer row and all teeth near symphysis enlarged in lower jaw; tongue truncate; gill opening extends ventrally from slightly above upper end of pectoral fin base to lower end of base; pectoral fin rays 18 to 21; first dorsal fin has seven spines; second dorsal fin has one spine and 11 or 12 rays; pelvic fins united by membrane to form disc, and pelvic fin spines joined by frenum; anal fin has one spine and 9 rays; caudal fin rounded; scales in horizontal series number about 36; preopercular sensory canal has three pores; two pores above operculum; vertebrae number 27: 11 precaudal and 16 caudal
Light olivaceous, with eight bars running from dorsal midline to midflank and eight black dots along midflank
Distribution
Western Atlantic from southern Gulf of Mexico to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including the Antilles
Río de la Máquina, Montepio, Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Brackish, marine. demersal. depth range 3-13 m.
Biology
Maximum known size is about 48 mm SL
The species occirs in estuarine, intertidal and shallow coastal areas and frequently found associated with epilithic organisms (2 centimeters or more in size) found at depths ranging from tidepools to 13 meters. Some specimens from Lagoa da Conceição (state of Santa Catarina) were collected while snorkeling along the granitic shores in 1.5 to 2 meters of water in an area where the non-native tunicate Styela plicata (Lesueur 1823) are found and this solitary ascidian forms extensive aggregations in bands about 1 meter below the lower limit of the intertidal zone. Other species collected in the area included: gobiid Bathygobius soporator (Valenciennes 1837), the native blenny Hypleurochilus fissicornis (Quoy & Gaimard 1824), the invasive blenny Omobranchus punctatus (Valenciennes 1836), and the gobiesocid Gobiesox barbatulus Starks 1913. In Mar Chiquita lagoon (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) this species has been recorded in high numbers associated with the reefs built by the invasive tubeworm Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel 1923; also known as Mercierella enigmatica) (Cervigón & Bastida, 1971). Nearby in Mar del Plata, this species inhabits the encrusting community in both the harbor and the mesolittoral zone of Cabo Corrientes; where in the latter community, composed of the mussels Brachidontes rodriguezii (d'Orbigny 1842) and Mytilus edulis platensis d'Orbigny 1842, this species is rare. In Uruguay, it was observed in tidepools 20 and 50 cm deep with clear water and sandy bottoms (A. Carvalho-Filho, pers. comm., 17 May 2013); other fish species in the pools included: H. fissicornis, juveniles of Mugil curema Valenciennes 1836 and adults of Jenynsia multidentata (Jenyns 1842). In São Paulo, both this species and Barbulifer enigmaticuswere collected within the same tidepools (J.L. Figueiredo, pers. comm., 20 September 2010). In northern Argentina and southern Brazil, this species has been collected at 8-13 meters. Also this species uses the empty shells of the cultured mussel Perna perna (Linnaeus 1758) for spawning and is an intermediary host of Bucephalus margaritae (Ozaki & Ishibashi 1934), a trematode worm parasitic on the mussel, in Santa Catarina (Ref. 104557).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2024-01-29. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
References
Ginsburg 1935
Robins 1960
Robins 1964 (as G. mediocricula)
Böhlke and Robins 1968
Castro-Aguirre 1978
Murdy and Hoese 2002b
Van Tassell, J.L., J.-C. Joyeux, R.M. Macieira and L. Tornabene (2015) Status of Gobiosoma (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from Brazil: description of a new species, redescription of G. hemigymnum, molecular phylogeny of the genus, and key to Atlantic species. Zootaxa 4007(4):451-480. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4007.4.1
Comments On Gobiosoma hemigymnum