Rhinogobius lanyuensis is a species of freshwater goby endemic to Taiwan and only found on Orchid Island (=Lanyu, the type locality) and Green Island, off the southeastern coast of Taiwan.Chen, I.-S., P.J. Miller and L.-S. Fang, 1998. A new species of freshwater goby from Lanyu (Orchid Island), Taiwan. Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 9(3):255-261. Fishbase also lists it from "China". Wu, H.L., K.-T. Shao and C.F. Lai (eds.), 1999. Latin-Chinese dictionary of fishes names. The Sueichan Press, Taiwan. 1028 p.
Rhinogobius lanyuensis grows to . It has not been evaluated by IUCN but is classified as "near threatened" in the 2012 Redlist of Fresh Water Fishes of Taiwan.
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