Yellowline goby facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Yellowline goby |
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| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Gobiiformes |
| Family: | Gobiidae |
| Genus: | Elacatinus |
| Species: |
E. horsti
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| Binomial name | |
| Elacatinus horsti (Metzelaar, 1922)
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| Synonyms | |
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The yellowline goby, also known as Elacatinus horsti, is a small fish. It is a type of goby fish. You can find it living in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
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About the Yellowline Goby
The yellowline goby is a small fish. It can grow up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long. It has a round snout and a long, thin body. Its top parts are black, and its belly is grey. This grey color slowly turns white underneath.
Cool Stripes and Colors
Many yellowline gobies have bright yellow stripes. These stripes run along each side of their body. They start near the eye and go all the way to the tail. Sometimes, there is also a yellow spot or short line on their nose.
When these fish are young, their yellow stripe is shorter. It only goes a little past their front fins, called pectoral fins. Another fish, the young Elacatinus chancei, looks very similar. But its yellow line barely reaches its pectoral fin.
Some yellowline gobies have a white stripe instead of yellow. This white stripe can turn a bluish-grey color past their pectoral fins.
Their Fins
The yellowline goby has two main back fins, called dorsal fins. The first part has seven stiff spines. The second part has 11 to 12 soft rays. Its front fins, the pectoral fins, have 18 rays. The fin on its underside, the anal fin, has one spine and 10 soft rays.
Where They Live
You can find the yellowline goby in several places. It lives along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is also found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Other places include the Bahamas, Curaçao, and Panama.
This fish loves to live on coral reefs. It usually stays at depths between 7 and 27 m (23 and 89 ft) underwater.
What They Eat and How They Live
The yellowline goby is a very special fish. It always lives closely with certain types of sponges. These can be tube-shaped sponges like Verongia aerophoba or large, solid sponges like Neofibularia nolitangere.
The goby helps these sponges by eating tiny worms. These worms, called Haplosyllis spongicola, are parasites. They live in large numbers on the sponges. So, the goby gets food, and the sponge gets cleaned! The yellowline goby also eats other small creatures that live on the seabed. It also eats tiny floating organisms called plankton.
How the Goby Got Its Name
The yellowline goby's scientific name is Elacatinus horsti. The "horsti" part of its name honors a Dutch biologist. His name was Cornelius van der Horst. He lived from 1889 to 1951. He found the first example of this fish in 1920 while he was staying on Curacao.
