Gill rakers
anterior (front) knobby or comb-like projections from the gill arch.
Glide
slow moving water with a smooth continuous movement.
Mike from Canada adds: "Yes, from each gill arch soft gill filaments radiate posteriorly and are used in breathing and osmoregulation and all that, but the anterior face of the gill arch has, to a varying extent, bony gill rakers.
confluent with caudal fin (caudal fin rayless or lost in some); scales usually absent or, if present, cycloid and embedded; body very elongate (eel-like); gill openings usually narrow; gill region elongate and gills displaced posteriorly; gill rakers ...
They are midwater omnivores that feed primarily on benthic algae and aquatic plants, with insects taken from the surface and zooplankton and phytoplankton filtered through their many gill rakers supplementing their diet.
The crosshatch goby is a sand sifter that will take small mouthfuls of substrate and filter it through its gill rakers. It feeds mainly on small crustaceans and some algae.
1) mouth reaching only to anterior of eye
2) mandibular barbel shorter than pelvic fin
3) 12-16 gill rakers on first arch
4) 64-75 anal-fin rays ...
on different substrates, so planktivores have either to pick at it (Cyprichromis spp.), suck it from the substratum (Gnathochromis permaxillaris), or filter it through their suitable pharyngeal teeth (Cyprinodontidae) or their filamentous gill rakers ...
It differs from others of their genus in that it has very large chisel-shaped teeth. It is very similar in appearance to the Blunt-head Cichlid S. gibbiceps except it grows to only about half the size, has longer fins, and fewer gill rakers.
borellii has many unusual features including a lower lateral line without sensory canals and having no gill rakers (This in a geophagine??? Very atypical!)! ...
 See also: Gill, Water, Fish, Species, Gill rakers
  
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