A new species of fish has been described from the Red Sea, much to its misery. At less than 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long, it’s managed to pack enough fury into its tiny face to earn the common name grumpy dwarfgoby, and I’m in love.
Scientists first spotted the new-to-science species while diving in the Farasan Banks in Saudi Arabia, before later finding more near Thuwal in the Red Sea. At first, it looked similar to the fiery dwarfgoby (Sueviota pyrios) – a rare beauty known only from one specimen collected way back in 1972 – but later they realized it was an entirely new species.
It’s scientific name is Sueviota aethon, a nod to one of the four horses of the Greek Sun god, Helios, with S. pyrios being named after another. And, the researchers add, “the common name, Grumpy dwarfgoby, refers to the fish’s apparent grumpy and rather unhappy appearance, primarily due to the extremely upturned mouth position.”
Pretty much hits the nail on the head.
How do you make a grumpy dwarfgoby even grumpier? Image it without its skin.
Image credit: Viktor Nunes Peinemann
At about the size of a grape, our mini grumpy killer might not sound terribly impressive, but it didn’t get its name for nothing. A set of impressive canines add to the vengeful expression, and spell death to the goby’s even tinier prey.
“I imagine in its own tiny world, it is a fearsome predator,” said Lucía Pombo-Ayora, who gave the species its grumpy common name, in a statement. “Its grumpy expression and large canines certainly make it look the part, despite its small size.”
The grumpy dwarfgoby even comes in a hue of disgruntled red, helping it blend into its natural habitat. It can be found grumbling through the overhangs of coral reefs that are covered in red corraline algae, where it lurks in nooks and crannies waiting to capture small invertebrates in its jaws.
As well as being very small, it seems the goby is also quite rare, which may explain why it’s taken until now to find. Its discovery marks an important find for the Red Sea, demonstrating the untapped biodiversity potential of this ecosystem, and why it’s important we get looking now before it’s too late.
The grumpy dwarfgoby, Sueviota aethon.
Image credit: Viktor Nunes Peinemann
“The ongoing discovery of distinctive new species like this grumpy dwarfgoby shows how much biodiversity remains undiscovered in the Red Sea,” Viktor Nunes Peinemann, who first discovered the grumpy dwarfgoby, explained. “This is concerning given the recent environmental changes in the region. In some cases, species could go extinct before we even describe them.”
The study is published in ZooKeys.
