Valenciennea
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Golden-browed sand goby ( Valenciennea strigata ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Valenciennea | ||||||||||||
| Bleeker , 1856 |
Valenciennea is a genus of gobies (Gobiidae). The fish live in the tropical Indian Ocean and the western Pacific in shallow water on sandy bottoms between coral reefs . The genus was named after the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes . Because of their way of life, they are also called sand gobies in German, and seawater aquarists also call them excavator gobies. Around six to seven species are imported into Germany for the purpose of keeping aquariums.
features
The fish have an elongated body with a round cross-section and, depending on the species, are 7 to 25 centimeters long. Their mouth is large and the color is usually sandy, light gray or almost white. The dorsal fins are clearly separated, some rays of the first are elongated. The filaments of the males are longer. Their pelvic fins are completely separate, in contrast to most other gobies, which have pelvic fins that have grown together to form a bag-shaped suction organ.
Way of life
Valenciennea species live in shallow water over sandy bottoms. They feed by ingesting sand with their mouths, chewing it through, sieving out small organisms and then expelling the chewed sand through the gill slits. Foraging takes about 70% of the day. The rest of the time is spent building caves. A couple maintains several caves within the area, which serve as refuge and in which spawning takes place. The fish are monogamous and a pair spawns about every ten days to four weeks. The spawn is then guarded by a parent in the brood cavity. The larvae are about 2 mm long when they hatch and initially live pelagic .
species
- Valenciennea alleni Hoese & Larson , 1994 .
- Valenciennea bella Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Decorative sand goby ( Valenciennea decora ) Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Double- lined sand goby ( Valenciennea helsdingenii ) Bleeker , 1856 .
- Valenciennea immaculata Ni , 1981 .
- Valenciennea limicola Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Longfin sand goby ( Valenciennea longipinnis ) Lay & Bennett , 1839 .
- Four-lane sand goby ( Valenciennea muralis ) Valenciennes , 1837 .
- Parva sand goby ( Valenciennea parva ) Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Valenciennea persica Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Maiden sleeper goby ( Valenciennea puellaris ) Tomiyama , 1956 .
- Randall's sand goby ( Valenciennea randalli ) Hoese & Larson, 1994 .
- Blaupunkt sand goby ( Valenciennea sexguttata ) Valenciennes, 1837 .
- Golden- fronted sand goby ( Valenciennea strigata ) Broussenet , 1782 .
- Valenciennea wardii Playfair, 1867 .
- Valenciennea yanoi Suzuki et al., 2016 .
literature
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 1 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-020-1
- Ewald Lieske, Robert F. Myers: Coral fish of the world . 1994, year publisher, ISBN 3-86132-112-2
- Dieter Eichler, Robert F. Myers: Korallenfische Indopazifik , Jahr-Verlag GmbH & Co., 1997, ISBN 3-86132-225-0
- Rudie H. Kuiter / Helmut Debelius : Atlas der Meeresfische , Kosmos-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-440-09562-2
- Joachim Freshness: The genus Valenciennea . In Der MeerwasserAquarianer, specialist magazine for seawater aquaristics, 2/2009, Rüdiger Latka Verlag, ISSN 1432-1505
Web links
- Valenciennea on Fishbase.org (English)