The Hawaiian freshwater goby, or ‘O‘opu (''Lentipes concolor)'' (''‘o‘opu ‘alamo‘o ''or ''‘o‘opu hi‘u koleis''), is a species of goby

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, where it occurs in mountain streams. Males of this species can reach a standard length of , while females only reach . This species is important to the native people as a food fish. In

Ancient Hawaiʻi Ancient Hawaii is the period of Hawaiian history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaii by Kamehameha the Great. Traditionally, researchers estimated the first settlement of the Hawaiian islands as having occurred sporadicall ...

, this species, and others such as mullet and '' Kuhlia sandvicensis'', were cultivated in a form of freshwater aquaponics or aquatic

polyculture In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species in the same space, at the same time. In doing this, polyculture attempts to mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. Polyculture is the opposite of monoculture, i ...

. In this system of farming, the

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

in the upland paddies (taro being the primary staple in Ancient Hawaiʻi) was aided by the fish such as the Hawaiʻian freshwater goby, through these fish pruning the leaves and eating the pests, thus leading to a symbiotic system of food production. The Hawaiin goby is

diadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...

. The adults live in fresh water where they also spawn. The eggs and embryos float down the stream into the sea where they eventually reach the juvenile stage. The juveniles then return to the fresh water streams to become adults.Carl M. Way, Albert J. Burky, Juliana M. Harding, Skippy Hau, William K.L.C. Puleloa (1998). Reproductive biology of the endemic goby,'' Lentipes concolor'', from Makamaka'ole Stream, Maui and Waikolu Stream, Moloka'i ''Environmental Biology of Fishes ''01-1998, Volume 51, Issue 1, pp 53-65 ''L. concolor'' is notable for its unusual method of returning to the spawning beds (something they however share with a few other gobies, including another Hawaiian species, ''

Sicyopterus stimpsoni ''Sicyopterus stimpsoni'', commonly known as the Nopoli rockclimbing goby, oopu nopili, or Stimpson's goby, is a species of amphidromous goby endemic to Hawaii. This species can reach a length of SL. Ecology Juveniles move from saltwater to f ...

''); they use suction disks on their ventral sides to climb the wet rocks behind waterfalls, even scaling the

Akaka Falls Daniel Kahikina Akaka (; September 11, 1924 – April 6, 2018) was an American educator and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States Senator from Hawaii from 1990 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), De ...

.Mack, E. (25 February 2014)
Where badass fish climb rock cliffs... with their mouths
CNET.

References

Hawaiian freshwater goby The Hawaiian freshwater goby, or ‘O‘opu (''Lentipes concolor)'' (''‘o‘opu ‘alamo‘o ''or ''‘o‘opu hi‘u koleis''), is a species of goby endemic to Hawaii, where it occurs in mountain streams. Males of this species can reach a sta ...

Fish of Hawaii Freshwater fish of Hawaii Endemic fauna of Hawaii Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fish described in 1860 {{Gobiiformes-stub