Golden-red Stiphodon

Interesting Info

• The Golden-Red Stiphodon is found in a few short, steep rainforest streams of northern Queensland, particularly in the Wet Tropics, and also occurs in parts of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
• Males are brilliantly coloured, flashing fiery red to golden-orange bodies with iridescent blue-green highlights, especially during breeding season. Females are smaller, pale, and patterned in browns for camouflage.
• Their pelvic fins are fused into a suction disc, allowing them to grip rocks in fast-flowing rainforest creeks where other fish would be swept away.
• Like other Stiphodon gobies, it is amphidromous: adults live and spawn in freshwater, but the tiny larvae are swept out to sea, spend weeks to months in the plankton, and later return to climb back upstream as juveniles.
• Breeding usually happens in the wet season, when males clear and guard stones. Females attach eggs to the underside of rocks, and males fan and protect them until hatching.
• Once the eggs hatch, the larvae drift downstream with floodwaters and are carried into the ocean before eventually returning to freshwater creeks.
• Their diet consists of algae and biofilm scraped from rocks, making them important grazers that help keep stream habitats healthy.
• Males often display to females by flaring fins and flashing their golden-red colours, a behaviour that helps them compete for mates.
• They are considered rare and patchily distributed in Queensland, where they are highly sensitive to changes in stream flow and water quality.
• The lifespan is short, typically 1–2 years, meaning populations depend on strong recruitment every season.