Amblyeleotris


Amblyeleotris is a genus of fish in the family Gobiidae found throughout the Indo-Pacific region. This is the largest genus of the shrimp gobies or prawn gobies, so-called because of their symbiotic relationship with certain alpheid shrimps. The shrimp excavates and maintains a burrow used by both animals while the goby, which has far superior eyesight, acts as a lookout for predators. The shrimp maintains almost constant contact with the fish with an antenna. Fossil Amblyeleotris otoliths have been found together with alpheid shrimp remnants from as early as late early Miocene suggesting a possible mutualistic association since then.
The species of Amblyeleotris vary considerably in size from less than to almost standard length.

Species

There are currently 38 recognized species in this genus:Amblyeleotris arcupinna Mohlmann & Munday, 1999 Amblyeleotris aurora Amblyeleotris bellicauda J. E. Randall, 2004Amblyeleotris biguttata J. E. Randall, 2004 Amblyeleotris bleekeri I. S. Chen, K. T. Shao & J. P. Chen, 2006 Amblyeleotris callopareia Polunin & Lubbock, 1979 Amblyeleotris cephalotaenia Amblyeleotris delicatulus J. L. B. Smith, 1958Amblyeleotris diagonalis Polunin & Lubbock, 1979 Amblyeleotris downingi J. E. Randall, 1994 Amblyeleotris ellipse J. E. Randall, 2004Amblyeleotris fasciata Amblyeleotris fontanesii Amblyeleotris guttata Amblyeleotris gymnocephala Amblyeleotris harrisorum Mohlmann & J. E. Randall, 2002Amblyeleotris japonica Takagi, 1957