From Vietnam we received this very nice bumble bee goby. The identification of bumble bee gobies is still in many cases a very tricky matter and often succeeds only with many question marks. Brachygobius sabanus was originally described from Borneo (Sabah), but our animals originate from Vietnam. However, the figure attached to the first description of B. sabanus agrees very well with our animals. In the scientific literature (Taki et al, 2021), this bumble bee goby from the Indochinese Mekong River is also assigned to the species B. sabanus.
B. sabanus grows to only about 2.5 cm in length and is individually quite variable in coloration. The animals live in pure freshwater and also spawn here. Females ready for spawning are very light in color.
For our customers: the animals have code 407252 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply to wholesalers.
Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer
Literature:
Taki, Y., R. Ohtsuka, M. Komoda, Y. Natori, K. Utsugi, K. Shibukawa, T. Oizumi, S. Ottomanski et al. (eds.) (2021): Fishes of the Indochinese Mekong. Nagao Natural Environment Foundation, Tokyo, Japan. i-xii + 1-546.
