Caribbean Neon Goby

Description: Larvae of the cleaner gobies are likely identical (described above under E. illecebrosus). Transitional recruits develop two wide dark stripes along the top of the head separated by a thin clear line. The stripes meet behind the head and extend along the base of the dorsal fin fading out before the caudal peduncle. Anterior to the head stripes, the dorsal snout area is uniformly dark, covering most of the area between the eye and the upper jaw. Below the dorsal midline stripe is a prominent lateral clear band outlining a white iridescent stripe (blue in life), running from the dorsal aspect of the eyeball back to the upper half of the tail. The snout has a short extension of the blue stripe forward of the eyes, but there is no meeting of the color across the snout or midline bars or spots of color. Below the light band there is a wide dark stripe running from the eye along the body just below the lateral midline to the caudal fin, widening at the caudal-fin base and then extending out along the lower central caudal-fin rays. Deep to this surface stripe is a broad streak of internal melanophores extending above and below the lateral midline. New recruits develop a "sharknose" appearance, where the tip of the snout extends forward over the upper jaw.

Analogues: Larvae of the cleaner gobies are likely identical (analogues discussed above under E. illecebrosus), but recruits and juveniles of E. lobeli are separated from the species with V, bar, and spot markings on the nose tip by having a uniformly dark dorsal snout area.

Diagnosis: Fused pelvic fins and modal fin-ray counts of D-VII,12 A-11 and Pect-16-17 indicate some of the cleaner gobies of the genus Elacatinus (formerly considered Gobiosoma). The common shallow-water cleaner goby in the Bay of Honduras is E. lobeli, the recently-described neon goby of the MAB, closely-related to the Florida neon goby E. oceanops. This species, without a bar or spot on the snout, is common along the Meso-American Barrier Reef from Xcalak in Yucatan across Belize to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Dorsal rays VII + I, 10–12 (usually 11); anal rays I,10 (10–11, rarely 11); pectoral rays 15–17(usually 16); branched caudal rays 10–12 (usually 11); mouth ventral, the snout overhanging; tongue truncate; rostral frenum present; color in alcohol pale yellowish with a black stripe from front of snout, through lower half of eye, across upper part of operculum and dorsal third of pectoral-fin base, broadening along lower sideof body, to posterior end of caudal fin; a broad black middorsal stripe on snout, continuing onto postorbital head (where often divided medially), then along base of dorsal fin, joining to a single narrow stripe dorsally on caudal peduncle, and extending submarginally to end of caudal fin; color in life pale gray to white, with black stripes as described; a narrow, pale blue, pale yellow, or white stripe from anterior nostril through dorsal part of eye, continuing as a narrow bright blue stripe within lower part of pale gray stripe on upper side of body, and extending as a narrow blue band into caudal fin.

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10 - 12; Anal spines: 1; Analsoft rays: 10 - 11