Bottom dweller mystery

[lime_smash]

I recently saw some fish in my friends aquarium that I had never seen before. I wanted to know what they were but he had no idea himself as he had inherited them from his roommate.

They were very small bottom dwellers. Maybe .75 in. Dull coloring brown/grey, longish bodies, small caudal fin. They reminded me of a goby in appearence. They were mingling with ghost shrimp (which were about the same size as them) and tended to be rather still, not swimming around alot.

Anyone have any idea what this fish might be? Sorry I don't have a picture.

 

[Madding]

If he inherited a brackish species that is doing okay in freshwater than the possibilities could be endless. If it's absolutely a freshwater fish I will have to think very hard about it.

What did their head look like? Absolutely not baby loaches?

 

[lime_smash]

Actually it looked alot like this:

Maybe some type of goby?

 

[Madding]

It could be a true freshwater gob, though they're not very common. That certainly looks like one though.

 

[toddnbecka]

Hillstream fish (Sewellia lineolata or a similar species) maybe?

 

[lime_smash]

Not the sewellia lineolata. I am almost positive now after doing some research that it is some type of goby, maybe even a brackish kind. I'll probably never know the exact species, but at least it gives me a direction to look in.
Thanks

 

[Gobioides]

Are there any bright colors (yellow specifically) on the fish's body or fins? A lot of the brackish species around that size have yellow markings, be it the stripes of a bumblebee goby or the distinctive yellow of a Mugilogobius dorsal fin.
Is the fish stout and round like a bumblebee goby, or thin and elongated like a stiphodon? If it looks like the one in that picture, it's probably a brackish goby.
If it is a goby, it should have its ventral fins fused to form a little suction cup.
You may want to do an image search on some of the following species:
Mugilogobius abei
M. mertoni
Brachygobius (they don't all look like bumblebees)
Pandaka (unlikely, considering their small size, but they have similar markings and some species are a little bit larger)
The true FW gobies that are really found in the hobby are stiphodons and Rhinogobius species. Other than that there's mainly Schismatogobius and (arguably) knight gobies.
Of course, if you could get a picture of the actual fish, that would help immensely.

 

[shadow999991]

it might be a small sculpin (i don't know how to spell it lol)