Smallest fish (Freshwater)
Last updated: April 10, 2020 at 13:56 pm
The sleeper goby (Leptophilypnion pusillus) has a maximum standard length of 9.1 mm (0.36 in)—with males of the species being even shorter—which makes it the smallest fish in the world (freshwater & marine). The genus Leptophilypnion is endemic to stagnant or slow-flowing shallow water in the Amazon Basin. Mature females of Paedocypris progenetica, a member of the carp family discovered in an acidic peat swamp in Indonesia in 2006, grow to 10.3 cm (0.41 in). The pygmy goby (Pandaka pygmaea) has a maximum length of 11 mm (0.43 in). It is found in streams near Luzon (Philippines).
Roberts, T.R. (2013). Leptophilypnion, a new genus with two new species of tiny central Amazonian gobioid fishes (Teleostei, Eleotridae). aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 19 (2): 85-98.
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Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.
