Orangespotted Goby, Nes longus

Orangespotted Goby, Nes longus. Fish caught from within the Indian River Lagoon, St. Lucie County, Florida, June 2023. Length: 9.4 cm (3.7 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Dominick Porcelli, Lighthouse Point, Florida.

The Orangespotted Goby, Nes longus, is a member of the Goby or Gobiidae Family. They are the only global member of the Nes Genus. They are also known as the Atlantic Shrimp Goby and in Mexico as Gobio De Manchas Naranja, Gobio Camaronícola and Góbido Largo.

Scientifically they are of interest due to their symbiotic relationship with alpheid shrimp.
The Orangespotted Goby has an elongated body with a compressed head that has a rounded profile and large eyes that protrude from the top of the head that has a short snout with a slightly oblique mouth that opens in the front. They are a grayish white or brown and they are darker dorsally and the top of the head is covered with brown to orange spots, three or four pairs of orange to brown blotches along the mid-side, small irregular brown or orange spots on the fins with those on the caudal fin being arranged in irregular, narrow, vertical bands and a short dark bar on the caudal base. Their anal fin has 1 spine and 12 rays; their caudal fin is elongated and rounded; their first dorsal fin has 7 or 8 spines, the first of which is elongated, and 10 to 13rays; their pectoral fins have 16 to 19 rays; and their pelvic fins have 1 spine and 5 rays and are fused to form a complete oval disk. They do not have scales and they do not have a lateral line.

The Orangespotted Goby is found within soft substrate near reefs at depths up to 38 m (125 feet) They live in a symbiotic relationship with the Snapping Shrimp, Alpheus floridanus, providing watch full protection for the poorly sighted shrimp against predation by larger fish. Their communication system is tactile. In turn the shrimp provides shelter via building burrows which they share with the goby. Both the shrimp and the goby can quickly flee into the burrow when predation is eminent where they can hide for several minutes. The burrows can be 100 cm in length and have chambers, side-tunnels, and incorporate rocks and coral blocks as ceilings. They move the entrance on a daily basis and the shrimp closes the burrow at night. They reach a maximum of 10 cm (3.95 inches) in length. They consume crustaceans, decapods, small gastropods, isopods and ostracods. They are preyed upon by groupers, sandperches and various wrasses.

The Orangespotted Goby is a resident of Mexican waters of the Atlantic Ocean but has a limited distribution being found from Campeche to Belize along the northern and eastern Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

The Orangespotted Goby, due its body profile and markings, is a straightforward identification that is not easily confused with any other species.

From a conservation perspective the Orangespotted Goby is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are small in stature and utilized by the aquarium trade at a small level.