A transparent goby that hovers in small groups above branching coral rather than resting on it.
A glass-bodied goby of about 2 cm, so nearly transparent that the vertebral column and the silvery gas bladder are the most visible parts of it. The eyes are large and a strong pink to orange-red, and in most light they are the first thing seen — a pair of coloured dots apparently suspended in mid-water. A diffuse yellow-orange wash runs along the back and over the head. Congeners such as Bryaninops amplus and B. yongei are longer-bodied, sit in contact with sea whips and black coral rather than hovering, and lack the pink eye.
Unusual among the whip gobies in that it does not perch. Small aggregations, often a dozen or more, hang a few centimetres above and within the branches of living Acropora, holding station against the current and dropping into the thicket when disturbed. Recorded from about 3 to 30 m wherever suitable branching coral grows, including on the coral patches scattered through otherwise sandy muck sites. Common where it occurs, but small, transparent and in constant motion, so it is more often overlooked than genuinely absent.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
