Ctenogobiops aurocingulus
A small sand-dwelling goby seen with shrimp burrows in Nouméa and Dili, active in warm 26-29C reef water year-round.
A slender, pale sand-coloured goby around 6 cm long with a faint gold-streaked stripe running along the upper body and a scattering of fine dark speckles. It holds a low, alert hover just above the substrate, propped near a burrow entrance rather than swimming freely across open reef. The body shape is typical shrimp-goby: elongated, tapered head, large eyes set high for spotting movement above the sand.
Found hovering just above sandy or rubble patches near its burrow, usually shared with a pistol shrimp that keeps the tunnel maintained while the goby watches for danger. It reacts to divers by dropping tail-first into the burrow at the first sign of a close approach, then re-emerging cautiously once the diver holds still. Best looked for during daylight hours on flat sand aprons at the base of reef slopes rather than on the reef structure itself.
Like other prawn-gobies it lives in a burrow dug and maintained by a partner pistol shrimp, keeping one fin in constant contact with the shrimp as an early-warning system against predators.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the sightings, and its comfort range of roughly 26 to 29C matches warm tropical reef water most of the year, so it is best treated as a year-round find at the sites where it occurs.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most consistently logged around Nouméa in New Caledonia, with further sightings off Dili in Timor-Leste, and single records from Sulawesi in Indonesia and Queensland in Australia. At every site it turns up it is logged as uncommon to rare, so it takes a patient, sand-scanning eye rather than a lucky drift past a reef wall.
Mapping where Gold-streaked Prawn-goby is logged…
It has been logged around Nouméa in New Caledonia, near Dili in Timor-Leste, and at single sites in Sulawesi (Indonesia) and Queensland (Australia). New Caledonia currently holds the strongest run of sightings.
There is no detected season in the sighting data, and its preferred water temperature of roughly 26 to 29C is typical of tropical reefs year-round, so any time of year is worth trying.
Look for a small, pale goby around 6 cm long hovering low over sand near a burrow, with a fine gold-toned stripe and light speckling along the body. It stays close to its burrow entrance and dives in tail-first when approached.
They stay small, reaching about 6 cm in length, which is typical for prawn-gobies sharing burrows with pistol shrimp.
It shares a burrow with a pistol shrimp in a mutualistic partnership: the shrimp digs and maintains the tunnel while the goby, which has sharper eyesight, watches for predators and signals the shrimp to retreat when danger is near.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Slender Goby
803 sites
