SOLITARY ISLANDS
UNDERWATER
RESEARCH GROUP, INC.

Amblyeleotris wheeleri
(Polunin and Lubbock, 1977)

Common Name: Burgundy Shrimpgoby

Distribution: Uncommon in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Found throughout the Indo-Pacific: East Africa to Fiji, north to southern Japan, south to the Great Barrier Reef. In Australia recorded from Exmouth in Western Australia across the tropical north to northern New South Wales but excluding the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Ecological Notes: Frequents sandy gravel bottoms, coastal sand slopes and lagoons. It lives, sometimes in pairs, in a burrow with alpheid shrimps (most often with Alpheus ochrostriatus). Shallow to at least 40 m depth.

Additional Notes: Similar to A. periophthalma but has seven red bars (first on head often faint) with distinct yellow spaces and numerous small whitish blue spots over head and body. Feeds on small crustaceans, crabs and other invertebrates. Grows to 10 cm. 

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.385.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.fishbase.se/summary/Amblyeleotris-wheeleri.html. Accessed 16/04/18.