The largest family of marine fish and the one most divers walk past. Almost all are small, most sit on the bottom or on a host, and the pelvic fins are fused into a disc that lets them hold onto a surface.
Where the fish is sitting is usually the identification. Whip coral gobies live on one whip coral, ghost gobies on soft coral or a sea fan, cleaner gobies at a station on a coral head, sand gobies on open sand. The entries say the host because it narrows the list faster than the markings do.
The cleaners in this family do the same job as the cleaner wrasses and are the Atlantic's version of them. A neon or sharknose goby holds a station on a coral head and larger fish stop and hold still for it, including fish that would otherwise eat it.
The dartfish and wormfish are filed here and behave differently: they hover above a burrow rather than sitting on the bottom, and drop into it at any speed of approach. Getting close to one is a matter of moving slowly enough that it never goes in, because once it does it stays down.
Every one has a page. They are shown as a list rather than as pictures because nothing has been photographed or logged for them yet, and a species with nothing behind it should not sit in front of one that has.
How many of the 29 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 29.
All 1316 species in one index, with filters for destination, rarity and hazard.
