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Fish

Rock goby

Gobius paganellus

Gobius paganellus Linnaeus, 1758 · Gobiidae WoRMS 126893

Reference photos

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A moderately large goby of rocky shores and pools, growing to about 12 cm, dark brown or pale brown with dark mottling, with a rounded head and large close-set eyes. The tell is the pale band along the upper margin of the first dorsal fin: creamy or yellowy in females, bright yellow to orange in males.

Depth

0 to 15 m, from the intertidal down to shallow rocky seabed

Size

Up to 12 to 13 cm, mature at about 6 to 7 cm

Habitat

Rocky shores with plenty of seaweed, in pools and under stones, from the intertidal down to about 15 m

Behaviour

Sedentary bottom-dweller; hides under stones and freezes rather than fleeing when threatened. Males guard the eggs until they hatch

Diet

I eat

  • Crustaceans, especially larger amphipods, isopods and small crabs
  • Polychaete worms and other macrobenthos gleaned from hard substrates
  • Juveniles take harpacticoid copepods, amphipods, polychaetes and mites

Where you'd find it

Found around most of Britain and Ireland, though less often in the North Sea and the waters west of Scotland.

ChannelCeltic SeaNorth SeaIrish SeaW of IrelandW of Scotland
Often seenNow and thenWhere PEBL filmsBased on marine survey records (OBIS). Blank seas can mean nobody has looked there, not that the animal is absent.

Sources

Open-access references behind this page. Every statement on this page was read out of one of them; anything that could not be traced to a source was taken off the page rather than left standing. Each link was checked on the date shown, and confirmed then to be about this species.

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