''Discordipinna griessingeri'' is a small, brightly colored, marine

neritic The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

fish in the family Gobiidae that is commonly called the spikefin goby or flaming prawn goby. Occasionally it is mislabeled as "Stonogobiops griessingeri" which is a binomial species name that does not formally exist. The spikefin goby has a wide distribution across reefs throughout the western tropical Pacific, Pacific Islands such as Hawai'i or

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. It is also occasionally collected and traded as an exotic

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

fish in multiple countries.

Description

''Discordipinna griessingeri'' is mostly white in the body, with orange stripes down the body and length of the dorsal fin, and dark spots on the face. Additionally, they have a large protruding dorsal fin just behind the head that characterizes them. The pectoral fin rays are also elongated. The body of spikefin gobies are completely scaled, with ctenoid scales on the posterior and cycloid scales on the anterior. It is between 10-22 mm (0.5-0.75 in) in SL as an adult. Sexual dimorphism, if any, within the species is currently unknown.

Distribution and habitat

The spikefin goby is found throughout the western Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. It is a benthic fish that inhabits crevices and pockets in coral reefs between 2 and 50 meters in depth along the reef rock, rubble, and sand. It is reclusive and is not associated with burrows or prawns.

Binomial name

The genus name comes from Latin, where ''discors'' translates to English as "different", and ''pinna'' translates as "fin". This is in reference to the peculiar location of the highly elongated dorsal fin, and the long rays of the dorsal and pectoral fins of the genus. The species name is after Mr. S. Griessinger, the collector of one of the paratype specimens.

References

Fish of the Pacific Ocean Marine fish Fish described in 1978 Gobiidae {{Gobiidae-stub