Gobiodon micropus Gunther, 1861

Hildebrandt, Courtney A., Froehlich, Catheline Y. M., Klanten, O. Selma & Wong, Marian Y. L., 2025, Goby spotting: An updated guide to coral gobies (Genus: Gobiodon) in the Indo-Pacific Region, Zootaxa 5723 (2), pp. 151-188 : 169

Gobiodon micropus Gunther, 1861 : Small eyed Coralgoby

Synonyms or described as: No recorded synonyms.

Description: Gobiodon micropus has had a conflicted identification history, like many other species in this genus. Most recently, G. micropus was described as having an overall body shape and pigmentation pattern akin to that seen in G. brochus ( Harold and Winterbottom, 1999) ( Figure 19). The similarity in appearance resulted in numerous specimens of what was G. brochus , being identified as G. micropus until 1999, when the formal description of G. brochus was published and a distinction between the two species suggested. The distinction was based on morphological characteristics, such as the lack of dentigerous pads and varying number of branched dorsal rays. Additionally, Harold and Winterbottom (1999) do note that the shape of the dorsal fin seen in G. micropus is distinctive with the spines and rays of the first and second dorsal fin being quite long and approximately equal. However, this latter distinction was based on a singular account of the species from Winterbottom and Emery (1986). The only large scale physical distinguishing feature between G. micropus and G. brochus , is that the first dorsal fin of G. micropus is approximately the same length as the second dorsal fin, giving an appearance of equal height between the two fins ( Harold and Winterbottom, 1999).

Distribution: From the species descriptions, G. brochus is predominantly found in the Pacific Ocean, whereas G. micropus is thought to be restricted to the Indian Ocean ( Harold and Winterbottom, 1999).

Habitat: No host usage patterns are known for this species.

Status: Unfortunately, the species population status is unknown, with the IUCN status listed as ‘Data Deficient’ ( Larson, 2020d).

Sociality: There are no known social analyses conducted on this species.

Genetics: There are no known genetic analyses conducted on this species.