Animal Species:Black-lined Sleeper Goby, Valenciennea helsdingenii (Bleeker, 1858)
The Black-lined Sleeper Goby has 2 distinct longitudinal stripes along the side of it's head and body.The adults are found in shallow areas of large coastal bays and on deep slopes. While juveniles are usually close to rocks in clear estuaries.
A Black-lined Sleeper Goby at the Osprey Reef
Erik Schlögl
© Erik Schlögl
Identification
The Black-lined Sleeper Goby is white with two black to orange stripes on the head and body. There is a white-edged black spot on the first dorsal fin.
The caudal fin of juveniles is rounded. Adults have a pair of elongate caudal fin filaments.
Size range
The species grows to 18 cm in length.
Distribution
It occurs in tropical and some temperate waters of the Indo-West Pacific.
In Australia it is known from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland to southern New South Wales.
The map below shows the Australian distribution of the species based on public sightings and specimens in Australian Museums. Click on the map for detailed information. Source: Atlas of Living Australia.
Distribution by collection data
Ozcam map of Black-lined Sleeper Goby specimens in the Australian Museum.
Habitat
Adults are found in shallow areas of large coastal bays and on deep slopes. Juveniles are found close to rocks in clear estuaries.
Classification
- Species:
- helsdingenii
- Genus:
- Valenciennea
- Family:
- Gobiidae
- Order:
- Perciformes
- Class:
- Actinopterygii
- Subphylum:
- Vertebrata
- Phylum:
- Chordata
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
References
- Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
- Kuiter, R.H. 2000. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Gary Allen. Pp. 437.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
Mark McGrouther
, Collection Manager, Ichthyology
Last Updated:
Tags fish, ichthyology, Black-lined Sleeper Goby, Valenciennea helsdingenii, Gobiidae, white, long and skinny, 10 cm - 30 cm, stripes, coral reef, marine, black to orange stripes on the head and body,
4 comments
Hi MattD, Great image! Thank you for submitting it. I don't think that your fish is a Black-lined Sleeper Goby. I think that it is probably the Red-Lined Sleeper Goby, Valenciennea sp. The species is shown on page 361 of Kuiter (2000) - see references above. I don't believe that the species has been formally named (ie, it has no species name) but I will check and let you know.
Hi MattD, I have heard back from the expert, the Australian Museum's own Doug Hoese. He said that the fish could in fact be an undescribed species as stated in Kuiter (2000). In Hoese and Larson's 1994 revision of the genus Valenciennea, the species was called V. immaculata.