Priolepis hipoliti
A 4cm reef goby found tucked into holes off Cayman Brac and Dominica, in warm 24-28C water, year-round.
Barely 4cm long and built like a typical goby: a slim, tapered body that perches on its fused, sucker-like pelvic fins rather than swimming freely. Colour runs rusty red-brown over a pale body, often with faint darker bands or speckling that blend into the shadows of a hole or crevice. Look for the perched, still posture on a wall or ledge rather than open swimming, since size and colour alone are easy to miss against similarly toned rubble and sponge.
Divers usually find this goby wedged into a crevice, sponge cavity or the underside of a ledge rather than out in the open, sitting motionless with its head poking out. It tends to hold its ground as divers pass rather than dart off, which helps if you slow down and scan holes closely with a torch. Most sightings come from patient reef and wall dives rather than open water or sandy stretches.
Like most gobies, it lacks a swim bladder, which is why it perches on the reef instead of hovering in midwater like many other small reef fish.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the sighting data, and its comfortable range of roughly 24 to 28C matches Caribbean reefs year-round, so any month is fair game.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most reliably logged in the Cayman Islands, especially around Cayman Brac, and a strong showing in Dominica around the Soufriere-Scotts Head Marine Reserve. Also turns up on reefs in Guadeloupe's Basse-Terre region, with a scattering of sightings in Martinique around Les Anses-d'Arlet.
Mapping where Rusty Goby is logged…
The strongest sightings come from Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands and the Soufriere-Scotts Head Marine Reserve in Dominica. It also shows up on reefs around Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe.
There's no detectable season in the sighting data, and its preferred water temperature of roughly 24 to 28C is typical of Caribbean reefs all year, so it can be found in any month.
Look for a tiny, 4cm rust-brown fish perched still in a crevice or under a ledge rather than swimming in the open. It can be confused with the Red-mouthed Goby, Rock Goby or Goldspot Goby, so a close look with a torch helps confirm subtle colour differences.
They stay small, topping out around 4cm, which is typical for gobies in this family.
No, they pose no threat to divers and simply hold still in their crevice as you pass.
Like other gobies, it has no swim bladder, so instead of hovering in the water column it rests on its fused pelvic fins, which act like a small sucker against the reef.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Slender Goby
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