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Bluebanded Goby

Bluebanded gobies live a life of change – individuals can change their sex between male and female depending on their place in the social hierarchy!

 

The bluebanded goby is a tiny, vibrantly colored reef fish found in the tropical eastern Pacific, from central California to central Peru. Its slender, orange-reddish body is marked with the electric blue horizontal stripes that give this fish its name. A highly social animal, the bluebanded goby lives in groups of varying sizes that make their home in reefs, kelp forests, or rocky areas. Individuals stick close to the ocean floor, where they forage for prey like small crustaceans and plankton. If they need to take shelter, these gobies often hide among crevices or in the spines of purple sea urchins.

Bluebanded goby groups are not only territorial but also maintain a strict dominance hierarchy within themselves, led by a dominant male while the rest are female. When the male dies, the biggest female in the group will change sex and take over as the dominant male – a transition that can start mere minutes after the male is lost. In the event that a group of males find themselves with no females handy, some can switch back to being female!

 

 

Although these fish are common among the aquarium trade, their populations in the wild remain abundant and there are no major threats to the species at this time.

 

 

Protecting ocean habitats helps ensure that species like the bluebanded goby can continue to thrive — and gives more vulnerable species a chance to recover. Oceana has led three expeditions to the waters of California’s Channel Islands, where bluebanded gobies are found, to document the region’s unique underwater habitats and gather the science needed to safeguard this biodiverse ecosystem. The data collected during these expeditions deepens our understanding of the wildlife that calls this area home and strengthens efforts to secure lasting protections.

 

 

  •  Fishbase 
  • Hartney KB (1989) The foraging ecology of two sympatric gobiid fishes: importance of behavior in prey type selection. Environmental Biology of Fishes 26: 105-118. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001027 
  • IUCN Red List  
  • Solomon-Lane TK, Willis, MC, Pradham, DS, and Grober MS (2014) Female, but not male, agonistic behaviour is associated with male reproductive success in stable bluebanded goby (Lythrypnus dalli) hierarchies. Behaviour 151: 1367-1387. DOI:10.1163/1568539X-00003188 
  • St. Mary CM (1994) Sex allocation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the blue-banded goby (Lythrypnus dalli): the effects of body size and behavioral gender and the consequences for reproduction. Behavioral Ecology 5(3): 304-313. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/5.3.304 
  • Steele M (1996) Effects of predators on reef fishes: separating cage artifacts from effects of predation. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 198(2): 249-267. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-0981(96)00011-1 
  • Wiley JW (1976) Life histories and systematics of the western North American gobies Lythrypnus dalli (Gilbert) and Lythrypnus zebra (Gilbert). Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 18: 169-183. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.15548 

 

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