Gobies & Gudgeons · waters

The waters behind the fish

The gobies and gudgeons come from very different waters — a cool, fast Japanese river full of Rhinogobius, a Bornean peat swamp, a crystal island stream where Stiphodon scale a waterfall, an Australian desert spring that boils in summer and freezes at dawn, a West African mudflat at low tide. Knowing which system a species comes from — its temperature, salinity and flow — is the foundation of keeping it well, and explains why a desert goby and a brackish bumblebee goby want such different tanks. Here are the freshwater and brackish systems that shaped 209 of the 220 species in this atlas.

East Asian rivers & streams

83 species

Temperate East Asia · China, Japan, Korea & Taiwan

The clear, cool-to-temperate streams and rivers of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan — the heartland of Rhinogobius, the bold little river gobies that drive this section, and of many amphidromous cling-gobies (Stiphodon, Sicyopterus) that run up short coastal rivers from the sea. These are often NOT tropical fish: many Rhinogobius want cooler, well-oxygenated, flowing water, and several are seasonal. A genus still gaining species fast, with many undescribed trade forms.

Mainland Southeast Asia

8 species

Indochina · the Mekong, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy & Salween

The floodplain rivers, tidal reaches and rice country of mainland Southeast Asia — the Mekong, Chao Phraya, Irrawaddy and Salween. Home to the knight goby (Stigmatogobius sadanundio) and other brackish gobies of the tidal rivers, Glossogobius and Awaous of the lowland streams, and a freshwater mudskipper or two (Periophthalmodon septemradiatus). Conditions run from soft forest streams to measurably brackish estuaries.

Sundaland & the Malay archipelago

24 species

Sundaland · the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo & Java

The forest streams, blackwater peat swamps, tidal rivers and mangrove fringes of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and Java. The home of the bumblebee gobies (Brachygobius) of brackish estuaries, Sundaic Stiphodon and Schismatogobius of the clear hill streams, and the mangrove mudskippers of the coasts. Water ranges from acidic blackwater to genuinely brackish.

The Philippines, Wallacea & the Pacific islands

49 species

Island streams · the Philippines, Sulawesi, New Guinea & Oceania

The short, fast, crystal-clear streams of the volcanic islands — the Philippines, Sulawesi and the rest of Wallacea, New Guinea and the Pacific archipelagos. This is the world capital of the amphidromous cling-gobies: Sicyopterus, Lentipes, Sicyopus, Smilosicyopus and the neon Stiphodon, fish that scale waterfalls with a fused pelvic sucker, breed in fresh water but send their larvae to sea — and so generally cannot be bred in captivity. Sulawesi's ancient lakes (Poso, Malili) hold their own endemic gobies and sleepers.

Australia & the desert springs

27 species

Australia · the arid-zone springs, the Murray–Darling & the tropical north

The continent of the gudgeons. Australia's fresh waters are full of sleepers and gudgeons — the purple-spotted gudgeons (Mogurnda), carp gudgeons (Hypseleotris), the empire gudgeon (Hypseleotris compressa) and the sleepers (Oxyeleotris) — and, most remarkably, the desert gobies (Chlamydogobius), tiny survivors of the artesian springs, bores and salt lakes of the arid interior, fish that shrug off heat, cold and salinity that would kill almost anything else. Conditions span cool temperate rivers, tropical northern streams and hot, hard desert springs.

South Asia & the Indian subcontinent

4 species

South Asia · India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & the estuaries

The rivers, estuaries, paddies and hill streams of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. A realm of Glossogobius and Awaous in the lowland rivers, brackish gobies and mudskippers (Boleophthalmus, Periophthalmus) on the tidal flats of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, and Sicyopterus and Schismatogobius in the Western Ghats and Sri Lankan hill streams. Soft hill water through to salt-laced estuary.

Africa, Madagascar & the Indian-Ocean coast

6 species

Africa · the West African coast, the Indian-Ocean rim & Madagascar

The coastal rivers, mangroves and mudflats of Africa and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. The West African mudflats are the home of the Atlantic mudskipper (Periophthalmus barbarus); Awaous, Glossogobius and Eleotris run up the coastal rivers from both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts; and Madagascar and the Mascarenes hold amphidromous cling-gobies (Sicyopterus) in their short, steep island streams. Mostly warm fresh-to-brackish coastal water.

Tropical America

8 species

The Neotropics · the Caribbean, Central America & both coasts

The estuaries, coastal rivers and mangroves of the warm Americas, on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides. The realm of the fat sleeper (Dormitator maculatus) and its Pacific twin (D. latifrons), the spinycheek and largemouth sleepers (Eleotris), the river gobies Awaous and the climbing Sicydium of the Caribbean island streams. Mostly fresh-to-brackish lowland and tidal water, from the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil.

Other waters

11 species

Worldwide

Gobies and gudgeons whose recorded range falls outside, or spans, the named systems above — including widely-distributed estuarine species and several little-collected stream gobies known from a single island or river. The Gobioidei are vast and incompletely mapped, and the family-level taxonomy is still moving, so some species sit here until their range is pinned down.

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