Elacatinus chancei
A tiny 4cm goby logged across reef sites in Sint Eustatius and Saba, sitting still on the reef year-round in 27C water.
A tiny goby, barely 4 cm, with a slender pale body and a dark stripe running along its side from snout to tail. It perches motionless on coral rubble, sponges or dead coral rather than swimming in open water, and its small size and stillness are often the first clue you're looking at a goby rather than a blenny. Look closely at the head, where the stripe often narrows or breaks, a useful cue when comparing it to similar reef gobies.
Expect to see it sitting still on a patch of rubble, sponge or coral rather than cruising the reef, often close to the substrate where its small size and stripe blend into the background. It tends to stay put when divers approach slowly, making it a patient subject for a macro lens once you've spotted it. Given how small and site-loyal it is, divers usually find the same individual holding a favourite perch across a dive.
Like many small Caribbean reef gobies, it likely spends time cleaning parasites off larger fish that pause near its perch, a behaviour shared across the Elacatinus genus.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the sighting data, and with water sitting comfortably between 26.6 and 28.1C year-round, this is a fish you can look for on any dive trip to Saba or Sint Eustatius.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
Most reliably logged in Sint Eustatius, where sightings cluster heavily around the island's dive sites, and in Saba, particularly at Tent Reef and The Pinnacles. Both islands sit in the same stretch of the Dutch Caribbean, so a trip covering either gives you a solid shot at spotting one.
Mapping where Shortstripe Goby is logged…
It's most consistently logged around Sint Eustatius and on Saba, especially at Tent Reef and The Pinnacles. Both are Dutch Caribbean islands with a strong track record of sightings.
There's no detected season, so it's a year-round sighting on Saba and Sint Eustatius reefs, where water stays in the mid-to-upper 20s C throughout the year.
Look for a tiny, pale-bodied goby around 4 cm long with a dark stripe running along its side, usually perched still on rubble or coral rather than swimming freely.
They stay small, topping out around 4 cm, so they're easy to miss unless you're looking closely at rubble and coral surfaces.
No. They're harmless, tiny reef fish that pose no risk to divers and typically stay still as you approach.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Slender Goby
803 sites
