Genus of fishes
Schindleria is a genus of marine fish. It was the only genus of family Schindleriidae, among the Gobioidei of order Perciformes but is now classified under the Gobiidae in the Gobiiformes. The type species is "S. praematura", Schindler's fish. The "Schindleria" species are known generically as Schindler's fishes after German zoologist Otto Schindler (1906–1959), or infantfishes. They are native to the southern Pacific Ocean, from the South China Sea to the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia, and Rapa Nui.
Description.
The infant fishes are so called because they retain many of their larval characteristics (an example of neoteny). Their elongated bodies are transparent, and many of the bones never develop. "S. praematura" reaches a length of . All of the "Schindleria" species are reef fishes. They may be among the most common fish of the reefs, based on the results of plankton tows, but because of their transparency and small size, they are infrequently seen in life.
A recently described species, the stout infantfish, "S. brevipinguis", was briefly the world's smallest known vertebrate at 8 mm (about one-third inch), smaller even than the dwarf gobies, until the new record was set by the 7.9-mm "Paedocypris progenetica" in early 2006 and supplanted by the 7.7-mm frog "Paedophryne amauensis" in 2012.
Apparently several (at least eight) further "Schindleria" species, native to the Ryukyu Islands, are yet to be described formally.
Species.
"Schindleria" contains the following species:
References.
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