---
title: Butterfly Goby (Amblygobius albimaculatus)
scientific_name: Amblygobius albimaculatus
common_name: Butterfly Goby
taxon: Gobies
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-28T21:06:58.670Z
updated: 2026-08-16T06:46:15.963Z
tags: Butterfly Goby, Amblygobius albimaculatus, Gobies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/butterfly-goby
---

# Butterfly Goby (*Amblygobius albimaculatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Gobies (*Gobiidae*)
- **Size:** 18 cm
- **Depth:** 1-20 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and seagrass in shallow water, in pairs over a burrow
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- hovers just above the sand, almost always in pairs
- takes mouthfuls of sand and blows the cleaned grains out through the gill covers
- males with three dark spots at the base of the second dorsal fin
- females with a brown-edged band from the upper lip to the gill cover
- up to 18 cm

It eats sand. Not what is lying on the sand, the sand itself: the goby takes a full mouthful, sorts it inside, swallows the worms, crustaceans and organic scraps, and blows the cleaned grains back out through the gill openings in a small cloud. Then it does it again, and again, all day.

A pair working one patch turns over a remarkable amount of seabed that way, and sand-sifting gobies are part of the reason sediment around a reef stays turned and aerated instead of going stagnant.

They live in pairs and the pairing holds. Two fish share one burrow dug under a rock or a slab of rubble, excavated mouthful by mouthful the same way they feed, and they hover a few centimeters above the entrance where they can drop into it the moment anything approaches.

The sexes are marked differently, which is unusual enough in gobies to be useful: the male carries three dark spots at the base of the second dorsal fin, the female a brown-edged band running from her upper lip to the top of the gill cover.

## Also known as

- **English:** butterfly goby, Whitelined Goby, tailspot goby
- **Arabic:** قوبيون بقعة الذيل
- **German:** Grüne Höhlengrundel, Grüne Höhlengrundel
- **Dutch:** Staartvlekgrondel
- **Czech:** hlaváč běloskvrnný
- **Japanese:** Sarasahaze
- **Chinese:** 白条钝鰕虎鱼, 白條鈍鰕虎魚
- **Russian:** Пятнистохвостый рифовый бычок
- **AF:** Vlinder-dikkop
- **FI:** Perhostokko
- **TAH:** 'O'opu
- **TGL:** Bia
- **TH:** ปลาบู่ปะการัง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Gobius albimaculatus* Rüppell, 1830
- *Gobius albomaculatus* (Rüppell, 1830)
- *Gobius papilio* Valenciennes, 1837
- *Gobius quinqueocellatus* Valenciennes, 1837
- *Gobius vonbondei* Smith, 1936

## Range

Kenya, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/butterfly-goby)*
*Updated: August 16, 2026*