Amblyeleotris is a genus of fish in the familyGobiidae 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 alpheidshrimps. 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 (Burdigalian) suggesting a possible mutualistic association since then.[1]
The species of Amblyeleotris vary considerably in size from less than 30 mm to almost 200 mm standard length.[2]
Species
There are currently 39 recognized species in this genus:
^ abCarolin, Nora; Bajpai, Sunil; Maurya, Abhayanand Singh; Schwarzhans, Werner (2022). "New perspectives on late Tethyan Neogene biodiversity development of fishes based on Miocene (~ 17 Ma) otoliths from southwestern India". PalZ. doi:10.1007/s12542-022-00623-9. S2CID249184395.
^Prokofiev, A.M. (2016): New Species of Amblyeleotris (Gobiidae) from Phan Thiet Bay (South China Sea, Vietnam). Journal of Ichthyology, 56 (3): 467-469.
^Jaafar, Z. & Randall, J.E. (2009): A pictorial review and key to the shrimp gobies of the genus Amblyeleotris of the Red Sea, with description of a new species. Smithiana Bulletin, 10: 23-29.
