LOS PECES DEL GENERO BATHYGOBIUS (PERCIFORMES: GOBIIDAE) DEL CARIBE COLOMBIANO

Abstract

Morphological, ecological and zoogeographical information of three gobiid species of the genus Bathygobius (Pisces: Gobiidae) found in the Colombian Caribbean is presented; B Soporator is the most, common and eurytopic species, being found in a great variety of coastal habitats from estuaries to coralline areas; B. curacao and B. mystacium are rare and restricted to coralline areas, the former on soft bottoms of mangroves-sea grass beds ecotones, and the later on shallow, mixed sand and rocky bottoms. Taxonomic differentiation of the three species is difficult because of partial overlap in their diagnostic features.