A scientist has described two new species of goby from the coral reefs of the western Pacific Ocean.
Richard Winterbottom of the Royal Ontario Museum's Department of Natural History described the two new gobies as Trimma anthrenum and Trimma preclarum in a paper in the latest issue of the systematics journal Zootaxa.
Trimma anthrenum, which was discovered on reefs in Fiji and Tonga, is yellow in colour with a distinctive eye pattern made up of a pair of blue and black triangles giving a slit-like appearance to the eye.
Trimma preclarum has been found on reefs around Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Saipan and the Solomon Islands and has three yellow stripes running along its body. It also has an elongate second and third dorsal fin ray and a fifth pelvic fin ray that is only branched in certain geographic populations.
Like Trimma anthrenum, T. preclarum also has striking ocular markings consisting of a purple-red iris with four large yellow spots.
The Trimma genus contains around 85 species of colourful reef-associated gobies, most of which live in shallow (less than 10m) waters in the Indo-West Pacific. Many of them make excellent additions to the smaller reef aquarium, or nano reef set-up for more experienced reefkeepers.
For more information on the new tropical fish see the paper: Winterbottom R (2006) - Two new species of the gobiid fish Trimma from the coral reefs of the western Pacific Ocean (Pisces; Perciformes; Gobioidei). Zootaxa 1331: 55-68 (2006).