River creature — with ‘metallic’ blue head — is a new species in Taiwan. Watch it swim
Researchers aren’t the only ones who move science forward.
Sometimes, all it takes is passion, a hand-net and a camera.
More than a decade ago, in 2012, a group of hobbyists were in a river in northern Taiwan looking at fish when they saw one they didn’t recognize, according to a study published June 24 in the Journal of Fish Biology.
They caught the fish, a “medium-sized chartreuse or yellow” creature, according to the study, and took photos before they released it back into the river.
The photos were published in the Taiwan Freshwater Fishes Guide, but listed only as an unidentified goby, a group of small, ray-finned fish.
Later, more of the fish were caught in Taiwan and Luzon, the northern island of the Philippines, and preserved. Then, in 2022, ichthyologists took a closer look at seven of the unidentified specimens.
They were a new species.
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Just over an inch long, the goby has small fins that flap quickly and close to their body, researchers said.
The species is sexually dimorphic, meaning the males and females have different color patterns.
Male goby bodies are “chartreuse, silvery gray or golden yellowish,” and their head is a “metallic” blue or green color, according to the study. They have three to five rows of white spots on their anal fins, and a criss-cross-like pattern on their scales.
Females, on the other hand, have a “pale yellowish-brown” head and body, with similar body markings, researchers said.
The species differs from other known gobies because of its large head size and big eyes, according to the study, and it has more rays in its fins.
The species is named Stiphodon chlorestes, or the green hummingbird goby.
“The specific name is from the Latin chlorestes, a genus of hummingbirds, referring to this species often quickly flapping its pectoral fins in the mid-layer of water, like a hovering hummingbird with its rapidly flapping wings,” researchers said. “Additionally, males of this species have a metallic turquoise head and chartreuse body sides, similar to the plumage of the hummingbird, Chlorestes cyanus.”
Video of the fish, shared by the researchers in 2023, shows them swimming with other related species.
The species have only been found in the Goron River in northern Luzon and the streams of northern and eastern Taiwan, according to the study.
“The bottom of habitats is gravel and sandy. Stiphodon chlorestes prefers deep and fast-flowing water and cohabitates with other stiphodon species,” researchers said.
This story was originally published July 2, 2024 at 9:00 AM with the headline "River creature — with ‘metallic’ blue head — is a new species in Taiwan. Watch it swim."
