''Brachygobius'' is a small

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

gobies Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and the fam ...

. They are popular

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

fish where a number of species are sold as bumblebee gobies because their colours are similar to those of

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

Morphology

Bumblebee gobies range in size from 1.5 cm to 4 cm.Schäfer F: Brackish Water Fishes, pp 49–51, Aqualog 2005, They are generally coloured black with pale yellow to orange bands.Naomi Delventhal in Monks, Neale (2006): ''Brackish Water Fishes'', pp 131–132, TFH Publishing. Males are generally slimmer than females and often have more vivid colours, typically orange rather than yellow. Females may also have smaller and rounder heads. When spawning, the colours of the males become deeper, the orange bands becoming red in the case of ''Brachygobius doriae''.

Taxonomy

This genus is informally divided by taxonomists into the dwarf ''Brachygobius nunus''-

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

(e.g., ''B. nunus'', ''B. aggregatus'', and ''B. mekongensis'') and the bigger ''Brachygobius doriae''-species group (e.g., ''B. doriae'', ''B. sabanus'', and ''B. xanthomelas'').

Species

There are currently nine recognized species in this genus: * ''

Brachygobius aggregatus ''Brachygobius'' is a small genus of gobies. They are popular aquarium fish where a number of species are sold as bumblebee gobies because their colours are similar to those of bumblebees. Morphology Bumblebee gobies range in size from 1.5 ...

'' Herre, 1940 (Schooling bumblebee goby) * '' Brachygobius doriae'' ( Günther, 1868) (Bumblebee goby) * '' Brachygobius kabiliensis'' Inger, 1958 (Kabili bumblebee goby) * '' Brachygobius mekongensis'' Larson & Vidthayanon, 2000 * '' Brachygobius nunus'' ( F. Hamilton, 1822) * ''

Brachygobius sabanus ''Brachygobius sabanus'' is one of 8 species of goby in the ''Brachygobius'' genus, which all share the common name of bumblebee fish or bumblebee goby due to their characteristic black and yellow stripes. Over the past two centuries, efforts to ...

'' Inger, 1958 * '' Brachygobius sua'' ( H. M. Smith, 1931) * '' Brachygobius xanthomelas'' Herre, 1937 * '' Brachygobius xanthozonus'' ( Bleeker, 1849) (Bumblebee fish)

Ecology

Bumblebee gobies are found across Southern and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

primarily in

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

habitats but also in slightly

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

waters.

Reproduction

These gobies are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

. Eggs are deposited in a cave where they are guarded by the male. Clutch size is around 150–200 eggs.Riehl R. & Baensch H: Aquarium Atlas (vol. 1), pp 836–837, Voyageur Press, 1996, The eggs hatch after around seven days and the fry become free swimming another five to seven days later.

In the aquarium

Bumblebee gobies are popular

fish. A tank around 40 liters in size will house a dozen specimens comfortably. Under good conditions, they can live in an aquarium for around 5 years. The most commonly traded species in the hobby belong to the ''Brachygobius doriae''-species group but the smaller ''Brachygobius nunus'' is also traded occasionally. Although many aquarium books use the name ''Brachygobius xanthozona'', this species is very rare in the wild and is not commercially traded.

References

{{Authority control Gobionellinae Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker Freshwater fish genera