Common names: goby (English), gobio (Espanol)
 
Gobiosoma hildebrandi (Ginsburg, 1939)


Hildebrand's goby


Body robust; head almost round; snout blunt, slopes abruptly down at front; narrow between eyes (< ½ eye diameter); head without barbells;  mouth oblique;  upper lip separated from snout by a groove along its top edge; upper and lower jaws with 3-4 rows of teeth, outer and inner enlarged; no teeth on sides of roof of mouth; tongue round to blunt; front nostril tubular, rear with raised rim; dorsal fin VII (first 2 of males prolonged) + I, 11 (10-11) rays; anal I, 10 (9-10) rays; pectoral rays 17 (16-18); pelvics fused in disc; genital papilla broad, 2-lobed in male, notched & fringed in female; body scales large, rough, body completely scaled behind a line under of center of soft dorsal, with a triangular extension of scales forwards along midflank under pectoral to its base; scales in 25-28 longitudinal rows; 4-6 large very rough scales on base of tail fin; head scaleless.

Light brown; ~ 6 forward-sloping wide dark bars on body, with narrow dark bars in between, centers of bars with series of longitudinal dashes along midside; head with a dark bar from eye down, an oblique, forward-pointing bar behind eye, another on preopercle, and 2 more on operculum; pectoral base with short bar, a spot at top & bottom bases of pectoral fin, joined by a narrow row of pigment; fins dusky, pelvics darker in males; dorsal & anal with 1-2 stripes along entire midline; tail with faint wavy bars in female.

Size: 4.6 cm TL

Habitat: fresh and brackish water, with mud/rock substrate

Depth: 0-6 m.

The W Atlantic coast of Panama; Jamaica; Barbados; also at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.