While visiting Rabaul, New Britain, during
Cruise 6 of the Stanford University vessel "Te
Vega" we observed and collected specimens of
a small gobioid fish that swam and hovered
vertically, with its head up, in midwater close to
pockets in the wall of an underwater cliff at
depths below 30 feet. Many kinds of fishes, for
example scorpaenids and cottoids, are known to
orient vertically in contact with a substrate.
There are fewer examples of vertically oriented
fishes in midwater; among the best known are
the seahorses and centriscids. Observations have
also been made on vertically oriented mesopelagic
fishes. Barham (1966) has seen myctophids
hovering vertically, as well as swimming
upward and downward. Paralepidids are also
known to be vertical swimmers (Peres, 1958;
Bernard, 1958; Cohen, personal observations).
We have found, however, no previous record of
this habit in gobioid fishes and our observations
are presented herewith. We have been unable to
identify the fish with any known form, and we
describe it as a ne
