---
title: Black Coral Goby (Bryaninops tigris)
scientific_name: Bryaninops tigris
common_name: Black Coral Goby
taxon: Gobies
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-21T09:19:55.179Z
updated: 2026-08-17T16:33:31.844Z
tags: Black Coral Goby, Bryaninops tigris, Gobies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/black-coral-goby
---

# Black Coral Goby (*Bryaninops tigris*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Gobies (*Gobiidae*)
- **Size:** 2.5 cm
- **Depth:** 15-53 m
- **Diet:** Planktivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Black coral colonies on current-swept outcrops, 15 m and deeper
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- two and a half centimeters, the upper part of the body transparent
- six or seven narrow yellow to red bars, each with a small spot above it
- white line along the spine, showing through the body
- clinging to a black coral in current, in small groups
- up to 2.5 cm

This fish lives for about a year. The animal it lives on can live for thousands.

Black corals grow at a fraction of a millimeter a year, and colonies have been dated at over four thousand years old, which makes them among the longest-lived animals on earth. They are not black in the water: the skeleton is, under a thin living tissue that is usually orange, white or gray, and they grow as wire and bush shapes on current-swept outcrops where nothing else takes hold.

The goby is two and a half centimeters and transparent over its upper half, so what you see against the coral is a row of narrow bars and a white line where the spine is. It clings on and faces the current, taking small planktonic animals as they come past, and it does not leave the colony. A pair clears a patch of polyps and lays its eggs on the bare branch.

It is a deeper animal than most reef gobies, from about fifteen meters down past fifty, and in this sea it was first confirmed from underwater photographs taken off Hurghada.

## Also known as

- **English:** Black Coral Goby, Antipatharia Goby, Black-coral Goby
- **French:** Gobie de corail noir
- **Portuguese:** Góbio-imitador
- **Japanese:** スジグロガラスハゼ, Sujigurogarasuhaze

## Range

Republic of Mauritius

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/black-coral-goby)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*