---
title: Large Sandgoby (Fusigobius maximus)
scientific_name: Fusigobius maximus
common_name: Large Sandgoby
taxon: Gobies
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-12-04T17:29:11.620Z
updated: 2026-08-17T15:46:05.893Z
tags: Large Sandgoby, Fusigobius maximus, Gobies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/large-sandgoby
---

# Large Sandgoby (*Fusigobius maximus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Gobies (*Gobiidae*)
- **Size:** up to 7.5 cm
- **Depth:** 3-21 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble patches beside reef
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- semi-translucent body dusted with orange-yellow spots
- black mark on the first membrane of the front dorsal fin
- black spot at the middle of the tail base
- sits on open sand with no burrow, and only shifts a short distance when pushed
- up to 7.5 cm

The name means the largest, and it earns it at seven and a half centimeters. That is the scale of the group: this is the giant of its genus, and it would fit across your palm with room to spare.

What makes it worth stopping for is that it does none of the things the other sand gobies do. No burrow, no shrimp, no hole to bolt into. It simply sits on open sand, semi-transparent, dusted with orange-yellow speckles, and relies on not being worth the trouble. Chase it and it moves a meter and settles again, in plain sight, and after two or three repeats you start to feel like the unreasonable one.

The two black marks are the identification: one on the front membrane of the first dorsal fin, one at the middle of the tail base. The rest of the animal is close to transparent, and on pale sand it disappears at a distance of about a meter.

## Also known as

- **English:** Large Sandgoby
- **Japanese:** ゴイシサンカクハゼ, Goishisankakuhaze
- **Chinese:** 巨紡錘鰕虎, 巨紡錘鰕虎魚

## Scientific synonyms

- *Coryphopterus maximus* Randall, 2001

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