Common goby
Encyclopedia
The Common goby is a small coast
al fish of Western Europe
an waters from Norway
to Portugal
it is of a sandy colour and reaches a length of 64mm. In the breeding season coloration the male has a dark blotch at the rear of the first dorsal fin
. There is a fairly distinct row of black dots along its side.
; despite this usual habitat, they can often be found among dense vegetation and in brackish lagoon
s. Their diet is mostly small crustacean
s, skeleton shrimp
and worm
s.
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
al fish of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an waters from Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
to Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
it is of a sandy colour and reaches a length of 64mm. In the breeding season coloration the male has a dark blotch at the rear of the first dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
. There is a fairly distinct row of black dots along its side.
Habits
The common goby breeds from March to June, laying its eggs under a shell, which the male then guards until they hatch 11–14 days later. Common gobies typically live for 12–15 months. They inhabit sandy-bottomed shallow areas, and in summer may enter estuariesEstuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
; despite this usual habitat, they can often be found among dense vegetation and in brackish lagoon
Lagoon
A lagoon is a body of shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the sea by some form of barrier. The EU's habitat directive defines lagoons as "expanses of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity or water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle,...
s. Their diet is mostly small crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s, skeleton shrimp
Skeleton shrimp
Skeleton shrimp are marine crustaceans of the infraorder Caprellida. The name denotes the threadlike slender body which allows them to virtually disappear among the fine filaments of seaweed, hydroids and bryozoans.-Ecology:...
and worm
Worm
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old English word wyrm. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals that typically have a long cylindrical...
s.