Eleotridae is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
fish commonly known as sleeper gobies, with about 34 genera and 180
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
.
Most species are found in the tropical
Indo-Pacific region, but there are also species in
subtropical and temperate regions, warmer parts of the Americas and near the Atlantic coast in Africa. While many eleotrids pass through a
plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...
ic stage in the sea and some spend their entire lives in the sea; as adults, the majority live in
freshwater streams and
brackish water.
One of its genera, ''
Caecieleotris'', is
troglobitic.
They are especially important as predators in the freshwater stream ecosystems on oceanic islands such as
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
and
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...
that otherwise lack the predatory fish families typical of nearby continents, such as
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
.
Anatomically
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
, they are similar to the gobies (
Gobiidae
Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising more than 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and t ...
), though unlike the majority of gobies, they do not have a pelvic sucker.
[Helfman, G.S., Collette, B.B. & Facey, D.E. (1997): ''The Diversity of Fishes''. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. p. 264. ]
Like the
true gobies
True gobies were a subfamily, the Gobiinae, of the goby family Gobiidae, although the 5th edition of the ''Fishes of the World'' does not subdivide the Gobiidae into subfamilies. They are found in all oceans and a few rivers and lakes, but most ...
, they are generally small fish that live on the
substrate
Substrate may refer to:
Physical layers
*Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached
** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...
, often amongst
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic charact ...
, in burrows, or in crevices within rocks and
coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secre ...
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic processes—deposition (geology), deposition of ...
s. Although goby-like in many ways, sleeper gobies lack the pelvic fin sucker and that, together with other
morphological differences, is used to distinguish the two families. The Gobiidae and Eleotridae likely share a common ancestor and they are both placed in the order
Gobiiformes
The Gobiiformes are an order of fish that includes the gobies and their relatives. The order, which was previously considered a suborder of Perciformes, is made up of about 2,211 species that are divided between seven families. Phylogenetic re ...
, along with a few other small families containing goby-like fishes.
''
Dormitator
''Dormitator'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae mostly found in marine, fresh and brackish waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, with one species occurring along the Pacific coast of the Americas.
Species
There are currently ...
'' and ''
Eleotris
''Eleotris'' is a genus of fish in the family Eleotridae with a circumglobal distribution in tropical and subtropical regions.
Species
There are currently 27 recognized species in this genus:
* '' Eleotris acanthopoma'' Bleeker, 1853 (Spiny s ...
'', two of the most widespread and typical genera, include a variety of species that inhabit
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
,
estuarine
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...
and freshwater habitats. Among the largest members of the family are predatory species such as the
bigmouth sleeper
Bigmouth may refer to:
* "Bigmouth", a song by Underworld
* Bigmouth, an ogre in ''The Smurfs'' comics and animated cartoon series
Marine life
* Bigmouth buffalo, fish
* Bigmouth goby, fish
* Bigmouth skate, fish
* Bigmouth rocksnail, snail
Se ...
(''Gobiomorus dormitor'') at up to from freshwater near the West Atlantic region and the
fat sleeper (''Dormitator maculatus''), which grows to and is widely found in fresh to brackish and shallow marine waters of the southeastern United States and Mexico,
[Hoedeman, J.J. (1974): ''Naturalists' guide to fresh-water aquarium fish''. Sterling Publishing. p. 1152. ] However, most are much smaller, such as the fresh- and brackish-water species from Australia and
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...
, including ''
Hypseleotris
''Hypseleotris'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae. Most are from fresh water in Australia and New Guinea, but species in fresh and brackish water are found around islands in the western Indian Ocean, southern and eastern Africa, s ...
'', known locally as gudgeons (not to be confused with the Eurasian freshwater cyprinid ''
Gobio gobio
''Gobio gobio'', or the gudgeon, is a species of fish in the family Cyprinidae.
This small fish is widely distributed in fresh-water streams and lakes across central and temperate Eurasia.
The gudgeon inhabits various fresh-water habitats with ...
'', also known as the gudgeon and after which the Australian sleeper gobies were likely named).
[Riehl, R. & Baensch, H.A. (1997): ''Aquarium Atlas'' (Volume 2). Voyageur Press. p. 1216. ] A few of these, such as the
empire gudgeon
''Hypseleotris compressa'', the empire gudgeon, is a species of Gobiiform fish in the family Eleotridae endemic to Australia and south-central New Guinea.
Taxonomy
Gerard Krefft described the empire gudgeon in 1864 as ''Eleotris compressus'', ha ...
(''H. compressa'') and
peacock gudgeon
The peacock gudgeon or peacock goby (''Tateurndina ocellicauda'') is a tropical freshwater species of fish in the family Eleotridae that is endemic to the eastern part of Papua New Guinea. It can be found in schools hovering over the substrate i ...
(''Tateurndina ocellicauda''), are sometimes kept in aquariums. The smallest in the family are the Amazonian ''
Leptophilypnion
''Leptophilypnion'' is a genus of tiny fishes in the family Eleotridae endemic to the Amazon Basin in South America. At less than in standard length they are the smallest sleeper gobies and among the smallest fish. The larger ''Microphilypnus' ...
'' with a
standard length
Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology.
Overall length
* Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...
of less than .
Taxonomy

The family has been divided into three subfamilies: Butinae, Eleotrinae and Milyeringinae.
[ However, because of the deep ]divergence
In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of t ...
between the three, some authorities have recommended splitting them into separate families: Butidae
Butidae is a family of sleeper gobies in the order Gobiiformes. The family was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Eleotridae but the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World classifies it as a family in its own right. Molecular phylogenetic anal ...
, Eleotridae and Milyeringidae
Milyeringidae, the blind cave gobies, is a small family of gobies, in the order Gobiiformes. There are two genera and six species within the family, which is considered to be a subfamily of the Eleotridae by some authorities. Milyeringidae includ ...
.[Thacker, C. (2011). Systematics of Butidae and Eleotridae. ''in'' Patzner, R.; J.L. Van Tassell; and M. Kovacic. The Biology of Gobies. Verlag Science Publishers. ] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World
''Fishes of the World'' by the American Ichthyology, ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classificat ...
follows this classification and this means that the following genera are currently included within the Eleotridae. However, the family Xenisthmidae
Collared wrigglers are perciform fishes in the family Xenisthmidae. They are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where they are mostly reef-dwelling.
Species
The 10 species in 7 genera are:
* Genus ''Allomicrodesmus'' Schultz, 1966
:* '' A ...
is regarded as a synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...
of the Eleotridae, according to the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World.
* ''Allomicrodesmus
Dorothea's wriggler, ''Allomicrodesmus dorotheae'', is a species of fish in the monotypic genus ''Allomicrodesmus'' which is regarded by some authorities as being in the family Xenisthmidae, the wriggler family, but in the 5th edition of Fishes o ...
'' Schultz, 1966
* '' Allomogurnda'' Allen, 2003
* ''Belobranchus
''Belobranchus'' is a small genus of Eleotrid sleeper gobies from south-east Asia, New Guinea and the western Pacific.
Species
The genus was considered to be a monotypic taxon until the description of ''Belobranchus segura'' in 2012. The two spe ...
'' Bleeker, 1857
* '' Bunaka'' Herre, 1927
* '' Caecieleotris'' Walsh & Chakrabarty, 2016
* '' Calumia'' Smith, 1958
* ''Dormitator
''Dormitator'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae mostly found in marine, fresh and brackish waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, with one species occurring along the Pacific coast of the Americas.
Species
There are currently ...
'' Gill, 1861
* ''Eleotris
''Eleotris'' is a genus of fish in the family Eleotridae with a circumglobal distribution in tropical and subtropical regions.
Species
There are currently 27 recognized species in this genus:
* '' Eleotris acanthopoma'' Bleeker, 1853 (Spiny s ...
'' Bloch & Schneider, 1801
* ''Erotelis
''Erotelis'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae native to the fresh, marine, and brackish coastal waters of the Americas.
Species
The recognized species in this genus are:
* '' Erotelis armiger'' ( D. S. Jordan & J. A. Richardson, 18 ...
'' Poey, 1860
* '' Giuris'' Sauvage, 1880
* ''Gobiomorphus
''Gobiomorphus'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae native to New Zealand and Australia. They are typically small, benthic fishes with large, rounded fins and two dorsal fins. Many have an amphidromous lifecycle: the eggs are laid in ...
'' Gill, 1863
* ''Gobiomorus
''Gobiomorus'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae native to marine, fresh and brackish waters along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the Americas.
Species
The recognized species in this genus are:
* ''Gobiomorus dormitor'' Lacépè ...
'' Lacépède, 1800
* ''Guavina
''Guavina'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae native to fresh, marine, and brackish waters of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the Americas.
Species
The recognized species in this genus are:
* ''Guavina guavina'' ( Valenciennes, ...
'' Bleeker, 1874
* ''Gymnoxenisthmus
''Gymnoxenisthmus tigrellus'', is a species of family Xenisthmidae
Collared wrigglers are perciform fishes in the family Xenisthmidae. They are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where they are mostly reef-dwelling.
Species
The 10 spec ...
'' Gill, Bogorodsky & Mal, 2014
* ''Hemieleotris
''Hemieleotris'' is a genus of small fishes in the family Eleotridae native to Central America and Colombia, where they are only found in freshwater habitats.
Species
The recognized species in this genus are:
* '' Hemieleotris latifasciata'' (M ...
'' Meek & Hildebrand, 1916
* ''Hypseleotris
''Hypseleotris'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae. Most are from fresh water in Australia and New Guinea, but species in fresh and brackish water are found around islands in the western Indian Ocean, southern and eastern Africa, s ...
'' Gill, 1863
* ''Kimberleyeleotris
''Kimberleyeleotris'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae endemic to Australia, where they are only known from rivers in the Kimberley region of Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Austra ...
'' Hoese & Allen, 1987
* ''Leptophilypnion
''Leptophilypnion'' is a genus of tiny fishes in the family Eleotridae endemic to the Amazon Basin in South America. At less than in standard length they are the smallest sleeper gobies and among the smallest fish. The larger ''Microphilypnus' ...
'' Roberts, 2013[
* '' Leptophilypnus'' Meek & Hildebrand, 1916
* '']Microphilypnus
''Microphilypnus'' is a genus of small fishes in the family Eleotridae native to the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America. At up to in standard length, they are among the smallest sleeper gobies, but however larger than the ''Leptophilypni ...
'' Myers, 1927
* ''Mogurnda
''Mogurnda'' is a genus of freshwater fishes in the family Eleotridae native to eastern and northern Australia and New Guinea. Several species are endemic to Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea.
Species
The currently recognized species in this g ...
'' Gill, 1863
* ''Paraxenisthmus
''Paraxenisthmus'' is a genus of goby from the western Pacific. They were classified as being in the family Xenisthmidae but this family is regarded as a synonym of the Eleotridae.
Species
Two specvies are classified as members of the ''Paraxenis ...
'' Gill & Hoese, 1993
* ''Philypnodon
''Philypnodon'' is a genus of fishes in the family Eleotridae endemic to Australia and the coastal waters around it.
Species
Two species in this genus are recognized, though molecular studies indicate another undescribed species similar to the d ...
'' Bleeker, 1874
* ''Ratsirakia
''Ratsirakia legendrei'' is a species of fish in the family Eleotridae endemic to fresh waters of Madagascar. This species can reach a length of . It is the only known member of its genus. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Ratsir ...
'' Maugé, 1984
* ''Rotuma
Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a large and unique Polynesian indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognisable minority within the population of Fiji, known as ...
'' Springer, 1988
* ''Tateurndina
The peacock gudgeon or peacock goby (''Tateurndina ocellicauda'') is a tropical freshwater species of fish in the family Eleotridae that is endemic to the eastern part of Papua New Guinea. It can be found in schools hovering over the substrate i ...
'' Nichols, 1955
* ''Tyson
Tyson is a male given name of old French origin meaning 'high-spirited', 'fire'. It is from this that a surname arose 'son of Tyson'.
Surname
* Alan Tyson (1926–2000), British musicologist
* Barbara Tyson (born 1964), Canadian actress
* Bill Ty ...
'' Springer, 1983
* ''Xenisthmus
''Xenisthmus'' is the most well-known genus in the family Xenisthmidae, which is regarded as a synonymous with the Eleotridae, a part of Gobiiformes. These small to very small fish are known as wrigglers, and live in reefs and among rubble in the ...
'' Snyder, 1908
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q773959
Gobiiformes
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte